This book was an emotional rollercoaster. It follows Annalisa Aiello and her family's fight for survival and hope during World War II.
I read this in a day! I absolutely devoured it. The story and the characters are written with such emotional depth. It will have your heart racing from chapter one. I highly recommend this book!
5🌟

📚I was able to read an advanced copy of title thanks to NetGalley, Lindsay Marie Morris and Storm Publishing📚
📚All reviews and opinions are entirely my own📚

I love learning as I read, perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to historical fiction.

This new-to-me author spotlights two families, one on each side of the Pacific Ocean, to show how wartime affected each differently. I read about the Aiellos in California and the Cardinales in Sicily and their struggle for identity, their sacrifice, their patriotism, and the secret promise that they made ‘under the Sicilian stars.’

I read in awe of the plight of the Sicilians and the injustices that resulted from the signing of Executive Order 9066. Many immigrants came seeking a new life, a better life and poured their heart and soul into making it happen. How sad to be treated so inhumanely by their adoptive country, that it resulted in Italian Americans remaining silent for generations.

You’ll see the power of love, the strength of family, the struggle for identity and the building of resistance as you power through this compelling read. I won’t forget Annalisa and Alberto’s story any time soon.

This is a must-read for historical fiction lovers!

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

oh anyone and everyone should read this book. it took me away to live amongst both our characters. i was pulled in to the settings, the locations the scenarios each of them faced. i cared about these characters pretty quickly and was turning pages to find out their story and if they would be ok.
there was so much depth in Marie's storytelling. she built this world around us and showed us all the points we need to be utterly absorbed in it.
it was hard, it was tough and it was raw at time but it was also brave, touching and tender all a the same time. it was a book that took your hand one minute and pulled at your arm the next. one minute making your heart bold and the next ache.
this book was one of my favourites of its kind for a while. and will sit amongst them for a while to come i feel.
i love how we can be told the tale of the two characters but they never felt separate and they never once wavered or made us wish for one over the other. they were one. all one glorious success of a story and a honour to read such a book.