Tuscany Books In Order

Publication Order of Tuscany Books

Tuscany (Series by Angela Petch)
Author Angela Petch writes the “Tuscany” series of historical fiction novels. She calls on her love of Italy while writing the series, like much of her other work.

Her love affair with Italy was born when she was seven as she moved with her family to live in Rome for six years. Angela’s dad worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he made sure they learned Italian and visited a lot of places during this time.

She studied Italian at the University of Kent at Canterbury and worked in Sicily after that. His Italian mom and British dad met in Urbino in the year 1944 and married after their war time romance.

Angela wanted to write “The Tuscan Secret” not just for Giuseppina, her amazing mother-in-law, however also to make people aware of the bravery of the resistance fighters and the generous hospitality shown by the poorest of families. Which includes the relatives of their Italian neighbors in their corner of war-torn Tuscany.

“The Tuscan Secret” is a revised version of “Never Forget” and “Tuscan Roots”. She was signed by BOOKOUTURE for a two book deal and one of these was a slight re-write of “Tuscan Roots”. The novel now has more intrigue and tension to it. They patiently helped her polish the original story.

“The Tuscan Girl” was inspired by all the many ruins that she glimpses on her walks in the Apennines. Each dilapidated house holds this story for Angela, whether it’s an invented or real one.

Her research for each of these novels has been immensely helped by her kind country, Italian friends that have these vivid memories about the Second World War and the difficult times they endured during their childhoods.

“The Tuscan Secret” is the first novel in the “Tuscany” series and was released in 2016. Il Mulino. An old crumbling mill, located near a winding river, nestled deep in the Tuscan mountains. An empty home which holds some memories of homemade pasta and Nonna’s tales by the fire, and later: the invasion of Nazis, and a family ripped apart by a heartbreaking betrayal.

Anna is distraught by her beloved mom’s death. She inherits this box filled with papers, all handwritten in Italian and yellowed from age, and this tantalizing promise that the truth about what happened during the war is within.

The diaries take Anna to the tiny village of Rofelle, where she begins to slowly heal while exploring sun-kissed olive groves, and pieces together Ines’s past: happy days that were spent herding sheep across Tuscan meadows cruelly interrupted when the Second World War erupted and Nazis turned up; which forced her to flee from her home and join the Resistenza. And risk it all in order to protect some injured British soldier that had captured her heart. However Anna’s no closer to learning the truth about what sent Ines running away from her adored homeland?

She meets this elderly Italian gentleman that lives in a deserted hamlet, who flinches at her mom’s name and refuses to speak English to her, Anna is certain that he knows more about the devastating secret which tore her mom’s family apart. However in this tiny Tuscan community, some wartime secrets weren’t ever meant to be uncovered.

A shocker of a story, that is inspired by true events, all about how the tragic consequences of war can echo through the generations, and how love is able to guide us through the darkest of times.

“Now and Then in Tuscany” is the second novel in the “Tuscany” series and was released in 2017. Giuseppe Starnucci, one young Italian boy, right at the twentieth century’s start, while he journeys on foot with the shepherds from his mountain village in the Tuscan Apennines to the coast. His adventures are tracked by his great-grandson a century later and we learn of some present day issues that mirror those of his ancestors.

A tale of hardship, passion and secrets that brings to light the people and customs of rural Tuscany in a troubled time in history, when Mussolini’s dominance always lurks in the background.

“The Tuscan Girl” is the third novel in the “Tuscany” series and was released in 2020. She ran through the pine trees when the soldiers arrived. Staggering into her hiding spot, she felt this fluttering in her belly, just like a butterfly grazing its wings, and immediately knew that she had something to live for.

In the present day: Alba (age twenty-six) is convinced that she is to blame for the death of her fiance, who died in a tragic accident. She flees, heavy with guilt and grief, back to her childhood home, in the small village of Rofelle, which is nestled in an isolated Tuscan valley. She is out hiking one day in order to fill her lonely and long hours, she finds a mahogany box that is filled with silverware, that was hidden close to the vine-covered ruins of this one isolated house that was abandoned after World War II. Could locating the rightful owner ease her heartache, and somehow make amends for her own wrongs?

While hunting down answers, she meets Massimo, who is this elderly man that wants to spend his last years just pruning his fruit trees, all alone with his agonizing memories. His face gets pale when she brings up the war, however senses that their shared grief links them together. A most unlikely friendship grows while little by little Massimo talks of Lucia: this wild young girl with her sparkling eyes that fell in love with some enemy soldier, and bravely stole some precious Italian treasures back from Nazi occupiers, and whose selfless sacrifice and bravery which altered the war’s course. And Massimo’s life.

Alba, with each visit, gets closer to unraveling the mystery of the silver, and both begin putting their ghosts to bed. However there is one part of Lucia’s tale that he may never be able to share, and he is running short on time. Has Alba churned up some emotions which are much too painful to face? Or, is unearthing a wartime secret which has stayed buried for generations going to bring Massimo peace at last?