I received this ARC copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. So thank you netgalley and publishers.
So this is my first book by this author and I'm unsure how I feel, it was VERY SLOW. But finally started to pick up some. It's about the life of Giovanna.  Her mother dies, and ends up traveling to America and becoming the wife of a Italian boy who wants to become like his hero Henry Ford. They end up in Detroit, and build a life there. We get to see the world change through the eyes of the immigrants in this community. Prohibition begins, WWI comes and goes, antisemitism starts to become more prevalent, the great depression hits hard, and WWII begins. Most of the story focuses on the married life of Giovanna, she ends up renaming herself Jane to be more American and her husband John. ( which was common back in these days, I've been researching my family history for years now and have came across this many times ) The marriage started as a convenience, but that changed over the years turned into a marriage built on love. 
This is a nice story that shows us what it was like living as an immigrant in America. 3.5 stars

The cover doesn't appeal to me, and it doesn't look like a romance I'd normally read. I know that's bad to judge a book by its cover, but it happens. so I looked at the blurb and I wanted to read it immediately. This was a beautiful story and one that kept me hooked from start to finish. It took me on an emotional journey, and I was surprised by how much more contemporary romance than women's fiction it felt,

My grandfather was a union organizer at the Ford Motor Company in the 1930s. And it is not often that one reads Such an excellent and accurate story about Detroit and Dearborn (Michigan) in the early years of the 20th century when it was a high honor to work for Mr. Ford. Hiis new Highland Park assembly plant (now on the National Register of Historic Places) truly revolutionized the manufacture of automobiles.
Maria Riva captures so perfectly a moment in time and the immigrant community who proudly worked at Ford. The focus is on an Italian couple--newly from the Old Country--and the warm, homey German-Jewish boarding house where they live until they can afford a home of their own. My grandmother also took in boarders. She was an excellent cook and this was a way to make a little money.
The story takes us back to Europe on the eve of WWII--when loyalties are divided and families broken up.
Brava Maria Riva. What an excellent, well-researched and beautifully written book.