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Venice, 1943. How much will she risk to save the ones she loves?

Evelina is trying to ride out the rest of WWII when she receives a note from her dearest friend, Talia, a Jewish school teacher. Evelina goes into a panic because she already secured her friend and her father’s passage out of the country the previous year. Why did Talia stay in the city? Evelina tries her best to find her friend and a young student of hers out of the city while being under watch from the Nazis.

WWII is my favorite historical fiction topic to read and this book did not disappoint. The book was so devastating as Evelina navigates her family and friendships and an old friend from the past. Her aristocratic parents live comfortably while her sons are off at war; one on the Nazi’s side and the other on the Allies. She fights hard to make sure her friend Talia is safe and tries to get her out of the city. The ending brought tears to my eyes. My only complaint is that the book wasn’t longer.

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Thank you to Bookouture & NetGalley for a free digital copy on exchange for an honest review. This book will be published 1 AUG 2024.

The Venetian Daughter by Ella Carey is a very interesting story. Unlike most WWII books, this takes place in the middle of the war in Tuscany and Venice Italy. Evelina, the main character, sets out on a daring mission to save and rescue her friend Talia, before the Nazi’s get to Talia. Before Evelina knows it, her life is uprooted as she moves mountains and is willing to go to the end of the earth to try and save Talia from her the evil clutch of the Nazi’s. But, as fate would have it, one day Evelina finds a young boy abandoned in a laundry chute, and Evelina realize she must not only save Talia, but this precious young child too.

Ella Carey has a wonderful and prestigious way with words. She draws the reader in and vividly paints a picture for our imagination to bring the story to life. What I liked most was how Ella described the story, the characters, and so vividly brought each part of the book to life.

Evelina - Contessa Messina - had lived at the Villa Rosa in Tuscany since her marriage, but now her husband, Arturo, had died and her two sons were away, fighting in the war. It was 1943 when Evelina received a telegram from her best friend, Talia, begging her to help. Evelina was shocked as she'd understood Talia had fled to America with her father when the Jewish population of Italy were told they'd be sent to camps; now she needed to go quickly to Venice and get Talia away from the Nazis and everything that threatened her. Evelina's arrival at the home Talia lived in was met with a swastika on the door, and silence inside - until she heard a child crying. Rescuing him was the beginning of a battle of wills with the Nazis, one she was determined to win.

Searching on a daily basis, while the child, Mario, stayed hidden in her parents home, Evelina was beginning to despair. Would she find Talia? And if she did, how would she get Talia and Mario out of Venice? The Germans were relentless and brutal; but Evelina wouldn't let them beat her down...

The Venetian Daughter is the 2nd in the Daughters of Italy series by Aussie author Ella Carey and I enjoyed it very much. Evelina is a strong, resilient character and what she went through was heartbreaking. Jack and his grandmother, eighty year old Elisabetta, were excellent characters, as well as Evelina's papa. I'm looking forward to #3 already. Highly recommended.

With thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my digital ARC to read.

The setting is Venice.
The year is 1943.
The story is heartbreaking, sad and emotional.
Main character, Evelina, is trying to rescue/save her childhood best friend, Talia, from the Nazis. How frightening it is to be trying to save someone and not knowing if you can do it. The story is about Evelina trying to get Talia to safety and ultimately out of the city.
I do have to say the ending seemed a bit rushed. Up to then, the story was moving along at a pretty good pace.

Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I liked that the character was more middle-aged and a parent of young adults rather than a young adult herself as most ww2 books have YA main characters.

I really wanted to love this book. A WWII era historical fiction set mostly in Venice? Yes please! Unfortunately, this book was hard to get through. Not because of the subject matter or because I cared about the characters, but because it felt so thrown together and poorly edited, it was beyond distracting.

From the beginning, the main character jumps from what's happening currently to some time in the past. No transition, no nothing. This lead to several instances of me being confused and having to read back a few paragraphs to see that I didn't miss something, it was just a massive leap.

And the continuity errors. In one instance, Talia sneaks a note in a church to Evelina, which Evelina reads and burns when she gets home. That night, she sneaks out to the church again and runs into the nuns protecting Talia, to whom she gives the magically un-burned note for them to read. Another case, it had been established earlier that Evelina's mother knew Talia did not get out of Venice with her father. Yet later in the book she seems to believe that both Talia and her father got out of Venice.

And then there are the parts that just don't make sense. I'm still confused how the Germans searched Talia's house, missed Mario and yet knew Evelina had Mario? She never questions how they found out?

And the ending. While I'm glad it ended abruptly to put me out of my misery, after years of not seeing her, a young child is going to tell a virtual stranger that he spent a couple of weeks with that he's got two mothers?

Much of the time, the characters thoughts and actions just didn't make a whole lot of sense. There was no backstory, there was no explanation. The reader is just shown completely opposing thoughts and feelings from certain characters, with no reason as to why. I was left not really caring about any of the characters because I had no idea what to expect from them, which led me to just not care about them.

I'm seriously confused by the so many good reviews, but as much as I wanted to like this one, I just couldn't convince myself that it was good. With a lot of editing, it absolutely could have been better, and even with all the negatives, I was, up until the last chapter, going to give it a second star. That last Evelina/Talia exchange, however, sealed the deal and unfortunately put this into 1 star territory.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Ella Carey for the advanced reader copy of the book. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

This is the second book in author Ella Carey's Daughters of Italy series. I haven't read the first one, but apparently, this is a backstory for one of the characters who appeared in the first book. I don't think it's necessary to read that first book to pick up this one. I visited Venice a few years ago and really want to go back, which is what drew me to this book.

Evelina is a fairly young widow in Tuscany, Italy. Originally from Venice, she married a Count with a large estate. She loved Arturo a great deal but managed to pick herself up after his death and is managing their large estate and farm. Set in the middle of World War II, she is managing to keep things going and take care of the many women and children who live on the estate while their husbands are off to war, or already dead.

It's 1943, and Italy is divided. The Allies are making a push through the country, trying to drive the Germans back north. The Italian government post-Mussolini signed an agreement with the Allies, but the Fascist Party was still in control in the North and was aligned with the Nazis. At the Congress of Verona in 1943, Jews were declared "enemy nationality."

This is when Evelina receives a telegram from her closest friend, Talia, a Jew. Evelina and her father conspired to get Talia and her father, a doctor, out of the country earlier, and as far as she knew they had left. However, the telegram states that Talia didn't leave and now needs Evelina's help. The bonds of friendship speak to her, and she immediately leaves the estate in the care of her staff and heads to Venice.

In Venice, she confronts her parents' political views, which have softened a bit since the last time they talked, and searches earnestly for Talia. A visit to her house finds it empty, except for a little boy hidden in the laundry chute. Evelina brings him back to her parent's house and hides him, unaware that she's already being followed by Nazis. She must find Talia and get her out of Venice before the Nazis do.

Early in the book, the only issue I had was time-jumps that seemed to happen without notice, and I wasn't sure whether I was reading about Evelina now (1943) or back in the 1920s prior to her marriage. The book doesn't section these apart which sometimes makes it difficult to follow. However, the story was suspenseful and I loved reading about Evelina's escapades in war-torn Venice. There is a love interest, as well as other peripheral characters that enrich the story and are well-written.

The last part of the book let me down, though. I can't write much about it without spoiling the book, but the ending left me unsatisfied. One of Evelina's sons, Nico, is profiteering off the war by selling ammunition to the Nazis. He's not particularly aligned with them, but he sees the opportunity to make money off of them so he goes along. Although Evelina blames herself for their estrangement after her husband's death, Nico is not entirely trustworthy. Still, he is her son and she believes in him. This leads to a disaster at the end, which is seemingly glossed over.

Perhaps it would have been better with the knowledge of whatever was in the first book, but the ending totally lost me. Like in a disaster movie where the ending is supposed to be happy because millions have died, but the main characters survive, this seems to be the same. We're supposed to ignore the toll on lives here because certain people survive. I can't. It really let me down.

There are also a number of plotholes. Evelina has two sons, Nico and Raf. Raf is off fighting with the Allies and although he's mentioned enough times during the story, we are left to assume he must have died in the war because nothing is said about him other than that. A secret stash of gasoline is mentioned for Evelina's car when she drives from Tuscany to Venice, but her boat seems to have a never-ending supply. At one point, the boat is clearly left in one place and then somehow ends up back at her home.

The Venetian Daughter is not a bad book. I enjoyed most of it, and I think fans of historical fiction, particularly World War II fiction, will enjoy it. There's also a lot about Venice and its history that I very much enjoyed. Although I was only there for a day, I could picture what it was like in many of the locations Evelina visits, and I have a few other places I'd like to check out on another trip. The ending let me down quite a bit, but I still enjoyed the book overall.

May contain a few spoilers, please read with caution:





I went into "The Venetian Daughter" by Ella Carey expecting it to pick right up where the first one left off. I was eager to know what ended up happening with Annie and the Villa Rosa. However, I was disappointed to find that, while these books are interconnected, they are very much standalone stories.

One aspect I did enjoy was learning about Evelina's backstory. The exploration of her character added depth to the narrative, although the pacing felt inconsistent. At times, the story dragged, while at other moments, it felt rushed. I would have preferred if the story focused more on Evelina and Talia without any love angle.

Another issue I had was with the narrative structure. Evelina often drifted into her thoughts about the past without clear transitions, creating confusion. One moment I was following the present storyline, and the next, I was plunged into a different timeline without warning. This lack of clarity disrupted the flow and made it challenging to stay engaged.

Additionally, the story had several plot holes that left me unsatisfied. What ended up happening with Evelina and Nico? Jack's storyline after his arrest could have been better summarized. These unresolved elements detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Despite these issues, "The Venetian Daughter" is a decent read. I would recommend it to lovers of historical fiction, especially those interested in WWII fiction. The book offers insightful glimpses into Italy's stance during the war and what transpired there.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ella Carey, and Bookotour for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Historical drama set mostly in Venice during he war. Interesting characters and an intriguing storyline.

Superb writing from this author, a very eye catching cover, this book will go far, 5 stars. Blindingly excellent ... This book should come with a disclaimer as once you start reading you aren’t going to want to walk away.

I don’t read many historical novels about WWII that are set in Italy.
My heart was in my throat most of the time because I just had an intense sense of dread.
When a romance was rekindled I held my breath but was crestfallen.
I despised Nico and the worst kind of betrayal he committed.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this exceptional book

italy during the war was overrun with nazis... and when the news came out that all the jews in italy were being rounded up and taken to poland thats when evaline knew it was time for her to return home and see if she could find her friends and help them escape to safety

she had received a telegram from talia her oldest friend one she thought had managed to escape to america but now she needed help so back to her childhood home she returned...

but it was on that return when she went to talias home that she found a little boy waiting for talia and his parents to return for him. the germans had already been there and had taken all the jews away...it was only good fortune that the boy mario had hidden well but now evaline had to keep him safe and still find talia

and with the nazis following evaline things were getting more and more difficult... and when the betrayal happens its hits very deep for evaline

what a story ...it keeps you on tenterhooks right to the end...and the tension you can feel it leaping from the pages at you

wow just wow i look forward to reading more books from this author

An emotional novel of friendship and commitment set in the roiling atmosphere of 1943 Venice. Evelina and Talia come from different backgrounds but they're friends- and Evelina uses everything she's got to help Talia, a Jewish woman hiding from the Nazis. Those who read the first novel and know their backstories (and where, for example, Jack fits in) might enjoy this more than those picking it up without that info but it's still a good read because Carey is a good storyteller. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of WWII fiction..

I requested this book not knowing that it was the second in a series. I ordered the first book through Amazon and read that first. I enjoyed it, and so I decided to read this book as well. It's a great story of WWI Italian, specifically focusing on occupied Venice. It avoids the trap of a happily-ever-after ending, which wouldn't be believable, but still manages to be overall uplifting. The character development was excellent. The author created great tension over the conflicts between loyalty to family, to friends, and to oneself. I only wish that it was longer, which is not something I think often since most books are slower that I would like.

This is the eighth book I’ve read by this author and she continues to amaze me!

The Venetian Daughter is book two in Ella Carey’s ‘Daughters of Italy’ series and asks what we’d be willing to risk to save someone we loved.

Carey whisks readers back to November 1943 where Italy has recently switched alliances and instead of being an ally of Nazi Germany, it’s now an occupied country. As the book opens, the Congress of Verona has declared all Jews as ‘enemy aliens’ and a systematic hunt is taking place in the 118 islands that comprise Venice. Talia, a dedicated schoolteacher, is one targeted in this search. When her request for help reaches her widowed friend, Evelina (Contessa Messina) drops everything and leaves The Villa Rosa in Tuscany, rushing to Venice. When she arrives, Talia is nowhere to be found. Instead, she finds a little boy in the laundry chute. Will he help her find Talia? Has Evelina risked it all for nothing?

This story was the perfect balance of history, mystery and romance. Jack’s entry into the story brings new emotions and pulls the heartstrings in a different direction. I can’t imagine being hunted down for my religious beliefs nor can I imagine the depth of courage needed to offer support knowing it would put my own life at risk. Carey’s examination of these very real experiences is exceptional.

I was gifted this copy by Bookouture and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

A wonderful story about one Italian woman determined to save her Jewish friend during the Nazi occupation.

Ella Carey is an amazing story teller. The Venetian Daughter is full of love, friendship, family drama, and heartbreak. The characters are well developed and their complicated relationships are described beautifully.

A must read for fans of historical fiction.

My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Evelina and her father have helped her Evelina’s best friend, Talia and her dad escape from Venice. It’s 1943, and the Jewish people are being removed from Venice and taken to concentration camps.

Evelina gets word that Talia is still in Venice and didn’t make it out of the country. Evelina starts off on a journey to help her best friend, but she has the Gestapo following her every move.

With Talia’s life in danger, Evelina must do all she can to find her.

Oh my goodness! What a fantastic story this is. I didn’t realise how affected I was by the story until I noticed I had tears coming down my face.

It was emotional, and at times, heartbreaking. The story was nerve wracking, and a difficult read, but told beautifully.

I liked Evelina, and I felt sorry for her at times. There were some wonderful characters, and in stories like this, you see the friendship and help from locals who weren’t happy with being occupied by Germany.

My thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have always enjoyed stories set in Venice and this one did not disappoint. Evalina a strong woman has to sacrifice herself and her family to save others close to her. This is a suspenseful story with some great twists and turns. I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend.

I really enjoyed THE VENETIAN DAUGHTER by ELLA CAREY, which,tells the story of the Contessa Evalina who,leaves her home in Tuscany to find her best friend, Talia, who is Jewish and is hiding from the Nazis. It is a story about love and friendship that takes place in the beautiful city of Venice that is overrun by Nazis. and the brave people who lay down their lives to save the Jews. There is betrayal, there are secrets and there are difficult family situations which make it diffiult to know who to trust………
The story is well told and exciting. It is sad to see the depths to which Hitler’s regime will stoop to annihilate God’s Chosen People and the lies and deceit of those who choose to profit from others’ misfortune. …….
We should never forget the horrors of WW11 and of the Holocaust, and it is good to look at the dilemma faced by the Italians at that dreadful time in history.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Bookouture. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

This story is enchanting - a woman trying to save her best friend from the Nazis. But it was also very confusing because none of the backstory between Talia, Evelina, Jack, and their families that makes the story hard to follow.