This historical fictional story is told seamlessly in dual time line and from multiple view points. Jessica is shocked when a stranger shows up to deliver a diary written by her grandfather. He and the diary went missing during the his time serving in the military and When a stranger shows Jessica is given a diary and it is amazing. It’s written by her grandfather, who promised to write in every day whole at war. He truly loved his wife (Jessica’s grandmother). She is shocked about both the diary and Alessandro and all that the diary reveals. She packs a bag to visit the places her grandfather experienced and it changes her life in so many ways. I enjoyed reading about her journey which brought up so many questions, surprises and makes her questions…everything she has known. It was beautifully written and beautiful, emotional and enlightening. I was drawn in from chapter 1.

Just last year Anita Chapman had her debut novel The Venice Secret. published. In July of this year The Florence Letter was published and now just a few months later her third 'The Tuscan Diary'

A dual timeline story starting in 1942 and 1993, with the settings in Italy and Yorkshire. The narrative follows the main female protagonists Eleanor and her granddaughter Jessica as they wrestle with love and loss. It is the discovery of a wartime diary that sets Jessica's search for the truth about the past in motion.

In short period of time Anita Chapman has established herself place on my favourite authors list with her delightful stories in Italian settings. Very atmospheric and obviously well researched, this is perfect for Italophiles that enjoy contemporary blended with historical and a story to get immersed in.

It is with thanks to Bookouture, NetGalley and Anita Chapman that this title was made available for me to read and review.

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A decent read but it seemed like the book had a little too detailed and just dragged the story a bit. Overall a one night stand and quick decisions lead to hurt and betrayal for Jess' mother Mary. An old diary discovered, a story unfolds and Jess sets out to Italy to get to the bottom of the matter while finding herself. There was some romance, details of Tuscany were enchanting, but again this somehow did not really keep my attention.

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The Tuscan Diary by Anita Chapman is a beautifully written dual timeline novel that sees the past colliding with the present in a sweeping saga of family secrets that once started you will not want to put down.

I always love a book with a dual narrative and this one did not disappoint. Jessica, in the present, has just been handed the diary her grandfather kept during his time in Italy in World War 2 by mysterious and handsome Italian man Alessandro.

Immediately enchanted by both her grandfather’s accounts of Italy and the captivating brown eyes of Alessandro, Jess decides to spend a summer in Tuscany, hoping to uncover the mysterious circumstances behind her grandfather’s death.

Together, Jess and Alessandro visit her grandfather’s final resting place. But the more she finds out about her grandfather’s time in Italy, the more she is confronted with the fact that everything she thought she knew about her family has been shrouded in secrets and lies.

Jess came to Italy in search of answers, but will the truth about her family finally give her the peace she was hoping for? Or will it turn her whole life on its head and lead her to a destiny she hadn’t even known that she wanted?

The story moves seamlessly between the two timelines, both holding my attention equally as the author weaves a gorgeous tale of romance and shocking family secrets.

Beautifully written by Anita Chapman, The Tuscan Diary is a captivating historical saga that’s filled to the brim with interesting characters, romance and family secrets. I loved it!

Highly recommended.

What a wonderful story set in Italy, bit biased as I just love the country and these settings sound so gorgeous that I cannot wait to visit them. Spanning the generations of a family and their love stories that all come to light in a lovely story. Well recommended so get it on your to-buy list.

This book didn't really work for me. It's not my genre of book as I was thinking it was a historical fiction, but I found it was more a romance story. I was expecting the book to be the entire diary of this soldier during WWII in Italy and that I will learn about the wartime period in this country. And while the diary as an importance in the book, we only get to read a small fraction of entries of this diary and the story is more about this young girl getting the diary. Thank you Bookouture for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

A lovely historical story with a dual time line in Italy. This is definitely has not helped my wish to travel back to Italy. That country has my heart!

Beautifully written and a moving story about a young woman trying to discover her family’s secrets and past.

Thank you to NetGalley for the gifted ebook. I definitely will read this one again!

Spellbinding book! When a handsome American stranger, Al, turns up at her family's farm, bearing an old leather bound diary, Jessica had no idea it would be her passport to another world and another life. Al explains his Italian grandfather tasked him with returning it to Eleanor, Jessica's grandmother. It had belonged to his English soldier friend, killed while fighting beside him in the war against Germany. Jessica persuades her grandmother to go on a trip to Siena to view her list love's grave and in doing so opens up a whole new world. Nothing is quite as it seems and as Jessica works her way through the diary she uncovers her family 's secrets and changes the direction of all their lives. Brilliantly narrated and crafted exquisitely with a dual time narrative. Refreshingly different

A cute story of how a soldier’s lost diary brings renewed life to a young journalist. The diary was lost during WWII and the grandson of the man who had the diary returns it to a woman in a small English town. Her granddaughter is tasked with reading the diary. The reading begins a journey for her of discovery and love.
I would rate it higher but there is too much rambling and filler than I considered necessary.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Tuscan Diary begins during WWII, with Eleanor selling a pricey leather diary to Peter, who is leaving soon to enter the military. On the day before he leaves, they sleep together and Eleanor gets pregnant with their daughter. She sends him a few letters explaining what is going on and telling him that she will probably be forced to give the baby up for adoption. Flash forward to the UK in the 1990s and we meet Jessica, granddaughter of Eleanor, who is struggling to escape from the life that her mother has planned for her - to marry the boy next door and combine the family farms. Enter Alessandro, who visits Eleanor with Peter's diary, which had been given to his grandfather prior to Peter's death decades ago. The diary sets in motion a lot of changes with Eleanor, her daughter (Peter's daughter) Mary, and Mary's daughter Jessica - good changes that help the women grow and become more independent. I enjoyed this story which took place in the UK and Italy - and its surprise ending.

A dual timeline story, set in both Yorkshire and Tuscany, it begins in 1943 with the intriguing prologue of an Italian woman tending an injured British soldier in the face of danger from the occupying enemy. My interest was immediately piqued, who were these people and what was their part in the story.

In 1993, the arrival of a young man bringing a battered old journal into the home of elderly widow Eleanor forces the disclosure of long held secrets. He quickly returns to Italy, leaving heartache and devastation in his wake.

I enjoyed the historical aspects featuring Eleanor and her time as a land girl before events resulted in her life taking an unexpected new direction and I would have liked her part to feature a little more. Eleanor’s story is bound together with that of her grand-daughter. Jessica, a rather naive and unworldly 24 year old with ambitions to be a journalist, is keen to improve not only her career prospects but hopefully her love life too. Feeling pressurised by her parents into marrying her long term boyfriend to secure the future of their farm, she wants more from life than to be a business deal and follow her mother into being a farmer’s wife. The existence of the diary gives her the opportunity to travel to Siena, not only to find out more about its writer and maybe further her career in the travel field but there is also the hope of meeting up with the handsome Italian Allesandro again.

With the story primarily set in Siena, the evocative descriptions and sense of place are glorious, Anita’s personal knowledge of the location shines through and although I haven’t experienced the famous Palio horse race, which forms a small part of the story, I have been to Siena and could easily visualise the old walled town and enjoy vicariously soaking up the Italian atmosphere.

Betrayal, deception and romance are plentiful in this warm and engaging story of lost love and a young girl trying to find her path in life whilst also wanting to understand the past. Tuscany is a belated coming of age experience for Jessica and her eyes are opened to new experiences from friendships of all ages – from her new flatmate, fun loving Harriet to working as an au pair/companion for the elderly Sofia. Anita’s stories of life and love with their Italian settings feature such well drawn characters whilst the prospect of romance with all its complications adds an element of intrigue and anticipation. I have to admit if I had been Jessica, I would have read that diary in one go but then patience isn’t my strong point.

The Tuscan Diary was another enjoyable and captivating read from an author who doesn’t disappoint.

I have loved this author's work since reading The Florence Letter, so I jumped at the chance to read The Tuscan Diary & it did not disappoint. This story captivated and drew me in from the very first page. This was a truly beautiful story set across dual timelines & centered around three generations of women from one family. When stranger Alessandro turns up with a diary written in WWII from a man named Peter, life changes for Jessica, her mother Mary and grandmother Eleanor. What follows is a journey of discovery, delving into the past & discovering secrets & lies, but this is also a story of love, loss & the impact that one person's history can have on not just them but others.

This was a beautifully written story, the authors writing is so descriptive I felt like I was on a journey through Italy with Jessica. I loved the dual POV's & particularly loved the chapters from Eleanor's point of view, I just loved her. I enjoyed following Jessica's journey to Italy & while she went to discover more about her grandfather & the contents of the diary, it was also a tale about her finding herself & following her dreams and her heart, I did want to giver herself & Alessandro a serious nudge at times though.....

A beautiful, heartwarming story I would absolutely recommend.

I received a copy of this book from Bookouture via NetGalley. The cover is beautiful and encourages you to pick it up and to dive in and read it, and the relatively short chapters help it to be a page turner. The novel is dual time and location, beginning in Tuscany in 1942 and Yorkshire in 1993, revolving around Peter and his relationship to 3 women, Jessica, her mother Mary and grandmother Eleanor and the various truths that are kept hidden from each of them and a wider circle of characters. If Eleanor had confided and told the truth to her friend and Peters sister Mabel, it would have been a completely different story, and the emotional impact and devastation on Mary wouldn't have happened!
I liked Jessica. She was a strong character who wanted to escape from the farm life that it is presumed she will have, like her mother and grandmother.
I'm not sure if Peter was a very likeable character, he seemed very self centred, and his attitude to Eleanor was not very chivalrous, at a period of time that you equate with men being gentlemanly, as well as there being rogues. The meeting between him and Jessica, I felt, was a bit flat, perhaps me wanting a more romantic, feel-good vibe with more rapport between the. Although in my eyes he does redeem himself with the line, "until now my life has been a novel without an ending." The novel ends well, not being wrapped up with a wedding ,ut in the positive vibes you get with Alessandro and Jessica's relationship and her breaking out of the path she was treading

This is the second book which I have read written by this author and I loved it. I enjoyed that we have both a dual location and dual timeline cantering about a central cast of characters - within 3 generations and what happens when a certain decision is made by one of them. We follow Eleanor and Jessica (grandmother and grand-daughter) as they both go through love, loss and the ways in which this can have effects on the families involved. This is a story which has been well research in both locations, social norms of the times and as well as the characters.

The Tuscan Diary is the second book that I have read by Anita Chapman and once again it has a stunning cover which evokes the setting of the book. Initially, I had thought that this would be historical fiction but once I settled into the story I found it to be a more modern read with threads of the past specifically events in World War Two running through it at intervals. I will say for me I don’t think it was quite as good as the previous book, The Florence Letter, but I still enjoyed it. Anita Chapman writes wonderfully descriptive passages of Italy, specifically Siena, and you feel as if you are there with the main character Jess as she experiences the sights, smells and sounds of a country new to her. Jess undergoes a journey throughout the book which leads to a transformation in her life path but along the way plenty of secrets are revealed which affect her family.

An intriguing prologue set in Italy gives us a brief flavour of what is to come. To be honest when the scenes in the prologue popped up again further on in the book I had completely forgotten about the opening and it was pleasantly surprising but it meant I understood more about certain things. The first chapter takes us to 1942 and we meet Eleanor who works in a stationary shop. One day, Peter, the brother of her friend Mabel, appears in the shop. He is about to be shipped out to fight who knows where. They had shared a kiss many years ago and there is a small flicker of affection still present. Peter purchases a leather-bound notebook in which he promises to write all his experiences down. Eleanor spends the night with Peter and soon after she leaves for Yorkshire to go to Birch Farm where she will work as a Land Girl. She soon realises Peter left her with a gift and her dreams are quashed as she has no other option to but to marry Jack the son of the family who reside at Birch Farm.

Fast forward to 1993 and Jess and her mother Mary and grandmother Eleanor are at Birch Farm when an visitor arrives at the door. American/Italian Alessandro comes bearing the diary of Peter whom Eleanor knew to have gone missing in action during the war. Alessandro reveals some surprising information but Eleanor is glad to have the diary but she insists Jess be the one to read it. I felt that there were a lot of reveals in the first quarter of the book. That too much was been given away and that there was no element of surprise or shock. I questioned why was the reader given so much information without a little bit of uncovering a mystery and in turn where could the story possibly go from here? But I needn’t have worried as the author had things fairly plotted out and this is the point where I realised this was more about Jess’ journey in the present and in fact a more modern story was unfolding than I had initially presumed would. Elements of the past would come into play but they only fuelled Jess’ story in the present.

Jess was similar to both her mother and grandmother in that they gave up their dreams for the men they married and this was potentially the case for her as her parents were putting pressure on her to marry Tom. Tom was a neighbouring farmer whom she had been in a relationship with for several years but he is completely different to her and their relationship had been floundering even if Tom didn’t think so. Jess couldn’t see herself marrying a farmer and being tied down to the land for so many years. She has her own dreams and aspirations and with the discovery of the diary and a new friend in Alessandro whose family has ties to her grandfather Peter maybe now is the time for Jess to stretch her wings. To venture out into the big bad world and pursue her aspirations to become a travel writer. You could see that Jess was stilted by the life she was living in Yorkshire and although she has a close relationship with both her mother and grandmother she didn’t want the same life that they had had. Eleanor urges Jess to seize the moment and instead of continuing to be bored with her life and be the people pleaser that she is known for Jess enrols on a three month Italian language course in Siena.

The chapters from this point on were good just detailing Jess’ life in Italy. The people she meets, the food she eats etc but they weren’t earth shattering or overly exciting. I wanted a bit more of rooting through the past to bring the two timelines together for surely the diary as she read through it had her intrigued? Her stay is extended when she becomes an au pair/companion for Alessandro’s grandmother and here a connection with Peter is established but still there wasn’t anything deeply engrossing occurring. Yes there was some developments between Jess and Alessandro but they felt fleeting and there was potential for much more. I was dying for them to come together and research/explore more about Peter as there were plenty of unanswered questions but this didn’t come until much later in the book and in turn it was brief and glossed over.

Jess falls in love with Italy and she is inspired by the diary and especially the famous Palio horse race in Siena. Her writing flows and she hopes to sell her work to a magazine. She becomes determined to find the answers her grandmother needs and the point where the clues dotted together for me was very good. But the last quarter or so of the book was dragged out except for what I mentioned previously regarding Peter which I felt was too rushed. The chapters just passed months in time and yes it showed Jess living her new life back in England but it didn’t really add anything to the story. As a reader I wanted a certain thing to happen but there were too many chapters near the end that seemed like filler in until I got to the point I had longed for. Which was a shame as this aspect of the story had such great potential but could have been more tightly written.

All in all The Tuscan Diary was a bit of mixed bag for me. It was very good in parts but I longed for more historical elements to the story and a bit more mystery. The descriptions of Siena and surrounding Tuscan countryside were fantastic and so evocative but the diary and that aspect of the story should have taken more precedence over Jess’. This is worth a read but would not be my favourite out of the two books that I have read by this author.

The tuscan diary by Anita Chapman.
This was a good read. I liked the cover. There was a lot of characters but I did like Eleanor and Jessica. The multiple timelines I had to get used to. I had to get used the writing style as well. This did keep me reading as I wanted to know what happened. I did love the romance bit between Jessica and Alessandro. This was a lovely read.

Blurb.
As she gazes at the lights of Siena glowing in the dusk, Jessica flips through the yellowing pages of the diary that led her here. Written by her grandfather during the war, it holds the answers to a family secret that might just change everything…

When Jessica’s grandfather left for war, he promised to keep a record of each day he was apart from her grandmother. The diary was lost along with him – until now, when a mysterious, handsome Italian man named Alessandro shows up at Jessica’s door with the diary in hand.

Immediately enchanted by her grandfather’s accounts of Italy’s glittering golden hours, Jess decides to spend a summer in Tuscany before she’s due to take over at her family’s farm. She hopes she can visit the places her grandfather once did – and finally find out what really happened the night he died…

In the historic city of Siena, she finds a job as companion to the glamorous Sofia – Alessandro’s grandmother – whose stories of Italy during the war are captivating. And as Jess spends more time with Alessandro, she begins to fall for him with each lingering look into his deep-brown eyes.

Together, Jess and Alessandro visit her grandfather’s resting place. But the more Jess learns about her grandfather’s time in Italy, the more she’s forced to question whether everything about her family’s past is a lie…

Jess came to Italy in search of answers, but time is running out. She can’t shake the feeling that the diary that has stolen her imagination is merely a work of fiction. And if it is, will the truth about her family inspire her to turn away from the path she thought she was destined for, and towards the life she truly wants?


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The Tuscan Diary is my second book by Anita Chapman. Both books involve beautiful descriptions of Italian towns and countrysides.

The premise of this story was immediately engaging - A unknown American shows up with a diary written during WWII. The diary will bring family secrets to light.

The book is readable and I did want to see what transpired. However, the story fell flat for me in several places. The reading of the diary was slow and the diary itself did not play as prominent a role in the story as I had been expecting. I feel as though the love story that was being told did not need the diary and that it ended up feeling forced.

The main character was quite immature and I found myself checking several times how old she was supposed to be.

Overall, the story was ok but it did not blow me away. However, if you are a fan of women's fiction and especially those told in multiple points of view and in multiple timelines then you should give this one a try.

This was a book that really captured my imagination from its opening pages – a prologue set in Tuscany in 1943, with an unknown woman caring for a seriously injured foreign soldier. And I was equally drawn in by the wartime life of Eleanor, working in a stationery shop in Leeds, enjoying her time with Peter, the brother of a friend, before he departs for the front. He promises to record his experiences in a leather-bound notebook she sells him – but when, having volunteered to be a land girl, she finds herself in need of his help and support, her letters remain unanswered.

In 1993, at the North Yorkshire farm where she lives with her family, Eleanor’s granddaughter Jessica has an unexpected visitor – Italian-American Alessandro, finally delivering the notebook that had been left with his family. Long hidden secrets are uncovered, and – setting aside the notebook for further exploration – she sets out to find out more about the final days of the man who was her grandfather. Her experiences in Italy rather change her life. Her horizons have been expanded, and she decides to return to Siena – taking leave from her job on the local paper, hoping to gain experience of travel writing, taking an Italian course, caring for Alessandro’s elderly grandmother, and hoping to get rather closer to the man who’s intrigued her so much and made her heart beat rather faster. And as she does so, she examines the notebook’s words more closely – and slowly gains a far greater understanding of her complicated family history.

While I very much enjoyed the historical thread, reading about Eleanor’s experiences during wartime and thereafter – very moving, with some unexpected twists and turns, the whole era so well captured – the majority of the story is contemporary, focused on Jessica’s life in Tuscany. Siena is beautifully drawn, and obviously really well researched, the richness of the descriptions entirely transporting you to its streets and cafes. And, of course, to the approach to the world-famous Palio – with lots of lovely detail about the different contrades and their followers, their flags and colours, and the different elements of the ceremony (it’s always been an experience on my bucket list too).

There’s a strong romantic element, Jessica’s hoped for relationship with Alessandro a little stop-start, but entirely satisfying and convincing. I liked her a lot – she’s delightfully naive, learning about life from the considerably more worldly-wise friend she shares an apartment with. While Alessandro himself is sometimes so laid-back it’s sometimes really difficult to tell whether he’s interested or not – although he always made my heart beat a little faster too, and I always rather hoped he wouldn’t disappoint. And through it all, there’s her slow reading of the notebook, and the secrets it reveals – I think I might have read to its end rather faster than Jessica did, but the pace is just right to allow the full story to emerge and its emotional impact to be fully developed.

I’ll admit there was perhaps a little less historical content than I was expecting – but that was more than made up for by the very real experience of getting to know beautiful Siena. It was such an enjoyable read, a gently told but compelling story with a real emotional punch – and a wholly unexpected outcome to its wider story. Nicely done – and most definitely recommended.

(Review also copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

Reading this one had me traveling to Italy. It’s considered WWII historical fiction, but there isn’t much about the war. There are multiple POVs. We get both parallel stories of Jessica’s grandparents, Eleanor and Peter, during the war. And we get Jessica’s ‘present day’ POV. Reading this made me wonder how many women suffered the same fate as Eleanor, who had to make a life altering decision when she thinks Peter isn’t going to return. Peter’s POV made me angry, but I have a feeling he wasn’t alone in his thought process for that time either.

I love that Jessica was so determined to get the answers about her family and how, in doing so, she turns her whole life upside down. And I love her interactions with Alessandro. They give themselves the chance of letting their feelings develop while they’re both in Italy. I love a little romance in my historical fiction.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC of this book..

The Tuscan Diary is a story of three women, whose paths are changed forever by one man and his diary. Secrets long forgotten are revealed. Hearts are torn & bridges are created. I loved reading this beautiful book. It took me through several time periods and glorious locations and through so many emotions alongside the characters as they experience fear, loss, longing, anxiety and learn to trust, love and be loved. It is a book about the power of love, it isn’t just romantic love that keeps the women in the book going though. It explores the love of family, tradition and friendships love that is powerful and can encourage or protect as well as coddle or consume them. Tradition and expectations have forged the path of the older generations and in this book, North Yorkshire in the 1990’s modern day, Jessica is challenged by secrets of the past and her longing to spread her wings to find her own path. Through her adventures the older generation start to see some things differently.