The Lost Gift to the Italian Island by Barbara Josselsohn

Publication December 4, 2023-Bookouture-Historical Fiction-

Book Summary

Italy, 1943. With tears in her eyes, Giulia listens out for the sound of bombers flying overhead and thinks of the baby growing inside of her. Through the fabric of her lace dress her fingers touch the cold bullets carefully sewn into the seams. Luca might never forgive her, but she has to do this…

New York, present day. When Tori Coleman discovers that her mother was adopted, her whole world shatters. Jeremy, her boyfriend, wants to get married, but how can Tori commit when she doesn’t know who she truly is? The only clue to the identity of her biological family is a mysterious postcard with a photograph of an ornate wedding dress her grandmother Giulia made, which she’s told was gifted to a museum on an Italian island…

Tori arrives on Parissi Island, surrounded by turquoise Mediterranean waters, with the sweet smell of orange blossom filling the air. She soon finds the museum and learns that Giulia was Jewish, and secretly lived there during World War Two. She thought her grandmother abandoned her mother, but was she forced to leave and give up her child?

Just as she’s getting closer to answers, an unexpected call from Jeremy stops Tori in her tracks. As he passionately urges her to find out the truth, suddenly Tori wishes he were in Italy by her side, ready to propose again.

But then Tori is shocked to find bullets sewn into the lining of one of Giulia’s dresses and a notebook claiming she did something terrible during World War Two. Will the secrets in her family help her follow her own heart, or send her home from Italy with it finally broken forever?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab-(Link to Review of Book 1 Below Author Bio)

The Lost Gift to the Italian Island, Book #2 in the Sisters of War, follows the plight of Giulia, as she escapes Parissi Island during the Nazi invasion and becomes entangled in the Italian Resistance. Barbara Josselsohn’s dual timeline alternates between 1943, Italy, and present-day New York City with several threads of mystery, betrayal, and secrecy. Josselsohn explores themes of following one’s passion and understanding identity through main character, Tori, a seamstress with goals of opening her own studio. A client sends Tori a postcard from a museum in Italy with a picture of the perfect wedding dress; some would believe this a coincidence, others God’s plan. As the designer and seamstress of my own wedding gown, this was the hook for me. Tori decides a trip to Italy to discover her past is manageable if she treats it as a dress pattern, one step at a time- the perfect analogy. Sensory descriptions of the castle, Parissi Island, and the Mediterranean are the ultimate setting as Tori discovers that mistakes and misunderstandings are the pieces to her past.

While life lessons like choose life-give the future a chance, and the antidote to mistrust is connection, are important, I believe the key to The Lost Gift of the Italian Island is that “love transcends everything.” Tori’s promise from her mother is one that connects us all.  “Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”  

Memorable historical details of situations with uplifting outcomes. Highly recommended.