HE GIRL WITH THE SCARLET RIBBON by SUZANNE GOLDRING is a WW11 story that takes place in Florence in 1943 and 1944 during the German occupation, where we meet Gabriella and Riccardo, children who are forced to grow up fast due to the horrors of war, and then again in 2019 when Riccardo’s widow Isobel and their daughter Sofia travel to Florence and learn more about the tortured but brilliant artist from his sister Gabtiella. Isobel found her husban controlling and complains a lot about him until she learns what went on during the war. He could never talk about the past but his graphic paintings tell the story.
It is heartbreaing to see the atrocities carried out against the Jews, the elderly and the partisans as they are tortured in the Villa Triste and sent off on trains to prison camps or hanged in front of everyone, including children who, are forced to watch.
The author has done a great deal of research and also spent time in Florence.
It is an interesting read with courageous characters, such as Serafina, the girl with the scarlet ribbon, who takes Gabriella under her wing after she has been bullied and betrayed by Franca and Tina, their fascist father and his cohorts.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Bookouture. The opinions in this review are completely my own.

This was a beautiful read that was well written with good character development and a good storyline that had a dual timeline and dual settings both which worked really well. It was an emotive and gripping read, I really enjoyed it.

The girl with the scarlet ribbon was and is quite an extraordinary book in many ways, set in Italy in ww2 and present day, The story unfolds of the most amazing painter Ricardo his sister Gabrielle during ww2,and his daughter Sophie and his wife Isobel present day
What unravels is hurt despair fear what went on during the war years Shaped Ricardo's painting it depicted scenes that were extremely difficult to understand, only through difficult years Ricardo's wife and daughter have a meeting with a long lost family member do they start fitting in to place for all.
This is such a beautiful book and told with such feeling, I can't praise it enough.

Florence, 1943. As the bells toll in the solemn dark streets and enemy soldiers loiter by the city’s beautiful bridges, schoolgirl Gabriella is racked with guilt. She is ashamed of the crush she had on the soldier with raven-black hair, a crush that allowed a secret notebook to fall into the hands of the enemy. As a result, men in uniform have come for her family. Her father is arrested and her younger brother Riccardo devastatingly injured. Faced with her brother’s haunted eyes and the prospect of never seeing her father again, Gabriella is determined to make things right. She seeks out her old schoolfriend Stefanina, an unlikely member of the Italian resistance with her beautiful curls and scarlet ribbon.



Soon Gabriella is riding her rusty black bicycle, criss-crossing the river with deadly information in her basket, and learning everything she can from Stefanina. But one terrible day, Stefanina doesn’t appear at their meeting point and Gabriella, desperate to find her, goes where she shouldn’t, into the shadowed corners of the city…



Years later Sofia, mourning the loss of her famous painter father Riccardo, carries out his last request to find his long-lost sister Gabriella in Florence. When she meets her aunt, an elegant old woman living in a palazzo filled with roses, she is shocked when Gabriella tells her about the dark stories behind her father’s art. And when Sofia learns of a missing painting, a picture that has not surfaced since the war, a shocking and tragic story begins to unfold – the story of an independent, courageous young woman, with a scarlet ribbon in her dark hair, whose youth and beauty was no protection from the enemy. Will Sofia finally understand why her father could never speak about the war, and piece together the shocking events that inspired his missing painting?

A completely compelling and heartbreaking story of a beautiful city, a violent war and the extraordinary bravery of a daring young woman.

Wow what a book. I am still sat thinking about this book even though I finished it a few days ago. I cannot write a review to do this book justice. I was hooked from the first page. The writing is superb and enthralling and overall, I just loved this book.

I received an e-ARC version of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.

“The Girl with the Scarlet Ribbon” is by Suzanne Goldring. This book is set in one of my favorite towns - Florence, Italy. In this book, the reader follows two timelines - one set during WWII (starting in 1943) and the other set in 2019. What ties these two storylines together is an artist, named Riccardo. In the WWII timeline, we mostly follow Riccardo’s sister, Gabriella, through her life and trying to, in general, survive. Gabriella becomes reluctant friends with some sisters, who are not nice people but have food - something Gabriella’s family has in short supply. As the story progresses, Gabriella develops a crush on one of the people in the sisters’ circle - which leads to some issues for Gabriella’s family, all of which affects Riccardo. The second timeline tells the story of Sofia, Riccardo’s daughter, trying to figure out who her father really was. During a trip to Florence with her mother, which Riccardo set up in extreme detail, they meet Gabriella and holes fill in about Riccardo and, belatedly, Sofia and her mother begin to understand why Riccardo was the way he was in life … and in his art.

I found this to be an interesting book. I’m enjoying the fact that more “unknown” stories about WWII are being brought to light and told in fiction. I liked the addition of an artist capturing the horrors of war, but told in the paintings in ways that most people might miss. I also liked that this took place in Florence (as I mentioned above) and enjoyed revisiting places and things I’d seen on my many decades ago trip there. This book was a very slow moving book to read, at least for me. I enjoyed the spirit of Stefania, Gabriella’s school friend, and how she fought for what she believed was just, right, and fair.

WWII fiction set in Italy and a story that hasn't been told before. Even though there is a lot of WWII fiction on the market, author's keep finding new stories to tell. I I think a lot of that comes new information from WWII finally being declassified after almost 80 years. I love that more and more of these fiction novels focus on the roles that women played in winning the war.