I have loved all of Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway mystery books and was excited to receive this review copy of a novel which predates her mystery series and appears to be written in her own name.
The Secret Of Villa Serena is more of a romantic suspense novel but I can see aspects of the Ruth Galloway series within its pages; I even felt Emily, the main protagonist, had aspects of Ruth’s personality. It was obvious to me how the author moved onto mystery books with some romance involved following on from this novel.
Domenica De Rosa is a talented writer of both genres of book and I will be looking out for these more romantic ones as well as the Ruth mysteries.
Emily, her 2 teenage girls, Siena and Paris as well as Charlie, her 3 year old are living in Villa Serena in Tuscany. Indeed she has been living the dream for 2 years.Her husband Paul is away a lot on business so Emily keeps busy writing a Life in Tuscany column for an English newspaper and looking after the kids.
However all is not wonderful despite the cheerful articles she writes . Paris hates Italy and barely eats whereas Paul is absent so much Emily is virtually alone. Siena has an unsuitable boyfriend and Emily herself is not integrating with the local community as her Italian is so basic.
One day shockingly, Paul texts he is leaving her. Emily is upset at first but really not overly so considering the length of their marriage.
She then starts to pine over her lost university boy friend Michael who had ignited her love of Italy and subsequently dumped her after 3 years. She never got over him! Seemingly Paul was not her first choice!!
One night she meets Raffaello a dashing archeologist who is excavating for Etruscans on her land. Through Raffaello she discovers a further mystery about WW2 Italy in the Tuscan hills and suddenly she starts to feel she belongs but can she forget Michael and truly embrace her new life in more ways than one?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and reading it on holiday added to its appeal. The Tuscan landscape, sunshine and people were well described. I loved Emily as she seemed so normal, worrying about everything and yet managing to get things done despite her difficulties. Her struggle to adapt to her new life really was compelling.
This is a great Summer read and will appeal to those of you who enjoy romantic mysteries set in beautiful locations.
If you enjoy books by Maeve Binchy, Santa Montefiore or indeed Victoria Hislop this will appeal to you.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

I abosolutely loved this book. I've read all of Domenica's / Elly Griffiths novels too so was a fan before I began this one but enjoyed it evenmore than I was expecting. It reminded me of Maeve Binchy, a story of a woman that could be packaged as 'romance' but contains real depth and character development. Loved the touch of mystery too and you can see why she moved on to crime afterwards. I'm delighted this is being reissued as it deserves a wide audience.