I was excited for this book as an Italian American with some family from Sicily. I thought it was going to be either mob boss bad ass woman or vehemently opposed straight-laced, but the protagonist couldn't decide who she was. Sometimes, she was anti-mafia and other times she's threatening cheating husbands. I found this dichotomy jarring rather than interesting.

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

I had high expectations from this book but it failed to grip me. I failed to connect with the lead character, it was slow paced and told in the first point of view but it provided a bit of entertainment and an escape for a few hours. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

This was an interesting book, but it was not really up my alley. No one reads the same book twice, so I think many will truly enjoy this read.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to buy a previously upstanding retired school teacher ordering, totally out of the blue, several murders without any compunction whatsoever. I suppose it would make a somewhat distracting beach read.

The Sicilian Woman's Daughter - Linda Lo Scuro

This is my first novel by Ms Scuro and I wasn't prepared for what I read. Ms Scuro has written this from the heart and I feel as if she is telling us her life story if you like a Mafioso story with a difference as this brings us an insight at the lifestyle from the women's point of view, the loss and sadness that they live with..

Read for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley and Sparkling Books

This is an intriguing book, both disturbing and hilarious in parts.
The main character, Mary/Maria comes over as a chameleon, desperately trying to distance herself from her Sicilian past, having married a rich British banker and living the upper middle-class dream. But, as the story develops, and the plot literally thickens, we realise that it’s impossible to juggle these two cultures. “Sicily flows in our veins.” And the heritage that she is trying to rid herself of is too engrained and inevitably comes back to bite. Violence is in the blood.
Mary has escaped from a cruel childhood. At one stage she says about her own mother: “If she’d left me in a shoe-box on the church steps, she’d have done me a favour.” But she hasn’t really escaped, because revenge is too hard to deny and slowly, she too is drawn into violent acts. “Being Sicilian is dangerous” and she learns more of her past on visits to the inimitable Zia, her aunt, who has a hold on many, keeps secret potions and lotions in her cellar – along with a grisly secret – no spoilers.
Zia is my favourite character – she is a hideous combination – a mixture of homeliness with her knitting of garish socks and plans of assassination and guns. “The knife is mightier than the word.” I love her idialect – I used to live in Sicily and I also know Italian immigrants in England and her speech is hilarious and on the mark. The irony of the picture of a coven of black-dressed widows reciting the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary and hatching murderous plans is so funny – and frightening. As is Cushi, the Mafia leader – “the only man in the Village (back in Sicily) that the Madonna bows down to”.
It’s an outrageous book but truth is stranger than fiction and I feel the story is based on many truths. Linda Lo Scuro (if that is a real name – scuro means dark…) has a voice similar to Elena Ferrante’s– very filmic and character-based. There were times when I felt the story dragged and I kind of guessed the ending, but it was an entertaining and uncomfortable read that on the whole worked well.
I was very happy to receive a copy of this book from the publishers and this is my honest review.

An absorbing read this book..Mary also known as Maria has two separate identities - an Italian one and a British one. She now lives in London but returns to the place known as The Village, in Sicily to unpack the mysteries of her past.

She’s living a troubled but eventful life, not feeling part of the world she’s now in - She’s known not by her name by many but is identified as “the Sicilian woman’s daughter” and this separation of identities and anonymity is horrifying to read about.

A fascinating and very atmospheric look at the mafia stain on a family of women and what they have to do to survive, bring justice and not be a victim. There is four separate generations of women’s stories to immerse yourself in and this is a real treat, never too much nor too long. The author has added Sicilian words into the text to add to the Italian flavour.

It was difficult for me to get into - the story, the characters, the vibe. It's not my cup of tea but I hope the book does well for others.

A very good story and one that I am sure some people can relate to. Mary (Maria) is the focus of the story and after being retired for some time she has decided to spend some time with an Aunt of hers. They live in England having emigrated from Sicily and Marie really only has this Aunt left as a family having married an English banker. While being around her Aunt she is noticing that her Aunt is like some of the older women of the village that she grew up in. The Aunt speaks a lot of what happens in the family stays in the family, what is said in the family stays in the family. For me, this was the way I was raised coming from an Italian and the family from Southern Italy so a lot of what happens in this story reminds me of some of my relatives, male and female. The story really takes off when the family takes a trip back to Sicily and to the village where she grew up. I found this to be a very good read that once I started I wanted to finish and the story grabs you all the way to the end. There is enough twists and turns even in the family to make any story interesting. The characters are all good and the storyline is easy to follow. For me, this was a very good book.

Awesome book!.

I wanted to read this because of the research. The Sicilian mafia, the Italian roots of someone who's grown up in London. Awesome.

The story starts flowing and is easy to follow and you find yourself thinking more than you'd expected.

I mean what do I know about what it feels to grow up surrounded by the mafia. Not like your typical commercial thriller about what most people assume is mafia from the movies.

I would love to read other works by Linda Lo Scuro.

Posted on Zerofiltersaurus.wordpress.com on 11/1/19-

The plot, in a nutshell: Mary/Maria has a pleasant life with a loving husband and children, from whom she has kept secret her mother’s side of her family, who are Sicilian mafia. They are thrust into her life and she becomes involved in some terrible situations, drawn further and further into dangerous territory that puts everyone she loves at risk.

The things I loved about it: Mary’s identity is formed from drastically different parts of her life, leaving her feeling as though she fits nowhere. It’s not hard to feel that way, in this day and age, and makes for a lot of sympathy towards her character. The plot is fast, and makes for a gripping read. Though the tension grows rapidly throughout, the writing is witty and there are moments that are laugh out loud funny. Though life is extremely tough for them, there are an endless amount of strong women in the novel, with our protagonist having a horrendous start in life. A brilliant, thrilling read about real life grit.

The things I didn’t: The child in me had to giggle every single time the name Humps appeared.

The author: Linda Lo Scuro is a pseudonym, due to the sensitive nature of the story. I am so intrigued by mysteriously secret identities!

I rate this: 5 stars.

Worst hobby in the history of hobbies...’big-time serial tarting’

Maria is the daughter of a Sicilian woman and her family is Mafia. She tries to escape and moves to London to make a new life for herself. But she keeps getting drawn back into the family and those ties prove hard to break.

A haunting read with an interesting take on a fascinating topic. It is always great to read a tale like this from a woman's perspective. An original story that the writer makes her own.

I so wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it didn't keep my attention like I thought it would. I just felt like some things could have been left out of the story.

The Sicilian Woman’s Daughter is an engrossing novel with menace accompanying every character, as we weave through a precarious story of lives entwined with the Mafia. There is a simmering threat and unrelenting revelation about abuse and violence, that clings to a people steeped in the DNA of the Sicilian Mafia. “You no know a thing. In England accident happen, in Sicily accident organised.”

Mary (Maria) left Sicily as a young girl with her mother and father, returning only on short trips until she started University. Her early life was marred by physical abuse from her mother and her aunt Peppina, leaving her permanently physically damaged. Today Mary is a wealthy, refined, Englishwoman, happily married to Humps (Humphrey), with 2 daughters and a Grandson, and she has recently retired from teaching. The only connection Mary retained with her Sicilian background was with her facetious cousin Susi, at a similar age and as close as sisters. One day Mary gets a call from Susi asking her to meet with her mother, Zia (Mary’s other aunt). Zia was kind to Maria growing up and had immigrated to England shortly after Mary’s family, however, Mary hasn’t seen her aunt Zia since those early days, and she gives in to the request to meet. One quick meeting and she can go back to her normal life. Yeah Right! When they meet Zia pleads: “Yes, you come back tomorrow. You keep promise for Zia. I have friend. She have problem, she need you help.”
“We’re catapulted into this community, and through no fault of our own, we take the consequences. We try to figure out how to confront the dark side of life from childhood and through our teens when we don’t have the instruments to deal with it. And when you’re an adult, it leaves you with a painful black hole inside; and you’re forever trying not to go to that dark centre, moving around the perimeters and trying not to get swallowed up by it.”

Linda Lo Scuro does a remarkable job of portraying the 'nature vs nurture' dilemma that Mary faces and while she is a cultured English woman when we first meet her, she knows her wider family circle live amongst a relentless, unforgiving and ruthless culture. How much of that 'nature' element will come to the fore when she agrees to return to Sicily with her own family, to resolve a wider family matter? While the writing is excellent, the incidents described, the tension built, and the character interactions, all have a feel of authenticity.

Through the first half of the novel it lacked a bit of pace, but when Mary and her family decide to go to Sicily the pace picks up and the plot is darkly entertaining. I really like the characterisation of Mary, as she has this deeper, calculated and revengeful side that has been hidden, even from her own family. No-one is to be taken for granted in this novel and surprises are sprung at unlikely times keeping the reader fascinated until the end.

I disliked the cover. Not a point I normally make but it didn’t convey the intent or nature of the story. As they say, don’t judge a book by its cover because I would recommend this book.

I would like to thank Sparkling Books and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

I loved the idea of this book, but for me it just didn’t work.
I didn’t feel the heat of Sicily or the menace of the mafia, the characters were more caricatures with no depth.

A thoroughly good read with very interesting characters, particularly the female ones, which gives an excellent insight to the current state of the mafia at ground level in Sicily. It is hard to credit that the mafia still operates in local communities there and can still make people 'disappear' if considered necessary.
In particular the development of the lead character from a fairly normal middle class English woman to a murderess was dealt with such that the transition seemed almost inevitable and acceptable despite being a surprise.
The movement of the main characters between England and Sicily added an interesting dimension to the novel which rendered it not only exciting and relatively fast moving but also very informative.

An intriguing story of how you can try to escape your family roots, but sometimes those ties are too strong. The author introduces us to independent women tied together through brutality, heritage, blood and secrets.
A really interesting read.

The Michael Corleone quote from Godfather III “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”
sums up this book perfectly. An interesting read highlighting how different cultures are, or are they?
Sometimes it’s the person you think you know best you actually know least