What makes you decide to try a new author? Sometimes it will be the blurb, sometimes it might be the cover and other times it might be the title. In the case of this book, it was all three!
Since her mother died, book restorer Emilia Rinaldi has been a bit lost, but she is now getting herself back together, thanks in part to her engagement to dashing Englishman Oliver after a whirlwind romance. While cleaning out her mother's house, she finds an antique music box which includes a page from a diary and an old photo. When she gets a phone call from Rome telling her that she is the sole recipient of her grandmother's estate, which includes a villa, she knows that she must go to Rome immediately, much to her fiancé's annoyance.
Emilia's mother and grandmother had had a falling out years before, and so Emilia never met her. Once in Rome, she is given a diary (the same one that the torn-out page had come from). It turns out that the diary was by Lizzy Siddal, wife and muse to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In her own right, Lizzy was a model and an artist herself, but her relationship with Rossetti and his family was volatile, so she was often in low spirits.
As we progress through the story, Emilia begins to understand her mother's story and what drove her to move to America, and then as she does some restoration of the diary, she learns about Lizzy's life, her love with Rossetti, her concerns about dubious characters who take advantage and more. She also finds out about the other parts of her inheritance which include some paintings, as well as a priceless collection of antique books.
I do love a book about art history, and I have to admit I didn't really know much about Rossetti's art. I had heard both his and Lizzie's names before but I learnt a lot through this book, and have since found myself going down the rabbit hole of pre-Raphaelite art.
The majority of the book is set in 1960s Rome but there were quite a few references to events that happened during the WWII, given that it was only 15 years previous. Via the diary, we are taken back to the 1860s where we watched Lizzy in her triumphs but also in her despairs
Now I am keen to pick up the author's previous book which also has a connection to the famous Rossetti family.
I am sharing this review with New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog, the Bookish Books challenge hosted at Bloggin'Bout Books and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge which I host here. Thanks to the publisher and Zooloo's Book Tours for the review copy. Be sure to check out other stops on the blog tour below.
Rating 4/5
About the book
A hidden diary. A story thatʼs waited a hundred years to be told . . .
1960, New York.
Emilia Rinaldi restores broken books for a living. She knows how to bring lost stories back to life.
The one story she cannot repair is her own.
Then an unexpected gift from her late mother arrives — an antique music box containing a faded photograph and a torn page from the diary of Lizzie Siddal, the tragic Pre-Raphaelite muse and wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Emilia follows the clues to Rome. To an abandoned villa left by a grandmother she never knew. To a collection of rare and beautiful books, hidden in a church crypt through the war . . .
And a secret buried for generations.
As Emilia pieces together her own past, Lizzieʼs diary reveals another story. Two Rossetti paintings. One genuine. One a flawless forgery.
Separated by a century, the two mysteries are bound together.
And when Emilia finally discovers the truth, she must decide whether some stories are meant to be preserved . . . or buried forever.
About the author
Marty Ambrose-McLaughlin is an award-winning, multi-published author of four historical
mysteries set mostly in Italy, drawing on her background in nineteenth-century literature.
Marty completed her M.Phil. at the University of York, England) and teaches creative writing
at Florida Southwestern State College. She has also given numerous workshops in the U.S.
and abroad on all aspects of creating/publishing a novel; her new novel, The Secret Diary of
Rome will be published by Joffe Books in 2026.
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