2024 the best of youth italian film review

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(as of Nov 16, 2024 08:46:09 UTC - Details)

The sun hung low in the sky, casting pink light all over the city. A faint breeze blew over the rooftops, as flocks of starlings swirled above her, swooping and diving in unison. It seemed unimaginable that, even now, German soldiers were marching along the streets below. It was time, she decided, for direct action. It was time to fight back.

Each morning Livia Moretti makes her way from an apartment overlooking Florence’s famous Duomo to a nearby café, where she drinks espresso and reads the newspaper. To the crowds of tourists who pass by, snapping selfies, nothing about Livia will be memorable. She is simply an old lady. They walk on without knowing the part she played in ensuring the future of this beautiful city. And to Livia now, those dark days feel very far away too.

But today, when she opens the paper, she sees a name she has not heard for a long time. A name that will bring memories flooding back of Nazi troops marching through the city and the dangers she faced as a young woman, carrying out secret missions for the resistance.

Isabella Bellucci.

A siren of the silver screen, Isabella cultivated all the right connections to ensure her rise to stardom. But when Rome falls to the Nazis, Isabella is suddenly faced with the choice between protecting herself and all she has worked for or sacrificing everything to save the man she loves.

As the war rages across Europe, a terrible misunderstanding causes the fates of Isabella and Livia to become forever intertwined. And each woman must decide what she's willing to risk, to protect the ones she holds dear from a brutal enemy.

Inspired by the incredible true stories of two women in wartime Italy, this is a heart-wrenching and unforgettable tale of love, resistance, betrayal and hope. Fans of Kate Furnivall, Fiona Valpy and My Name Is Eva will be absolutely gripped.

Reviewer: jmm in PA
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Impactful
Review: I like reading historical fiction especially about World War II. I felt that I learned a lot about the resiliency of the Italian people after Mussolini sided with Hitler. How they did whatever necessary to fight against being controlled and executed by the German military and Fascists. So many lives were changed and so many lives were lost. It was a great book of you like historical fiction.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting book
Review: I like reading about the war and how it effective the lives of people in different parts of europe. The women were so brave and really helped the successful ending to the war in Europe..

Reviewer: RANDALL ROBERTS
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent work
Review: The details is woven through and through in the characters of the book and makes the story seem true. This would make a great movie.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book!
Review: I love this author & all of her books so far. Can't wait till next book comes out!

Reviewer: Rain
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Pacing was off, slow to start
Review: An interesting story, I have never read about WWII from the standpoint of Italy. However, I feel like the two storylines were unnecessary and made the story drag. It was very slow to start and the overall pacing was off the entire story. The last 3/4 of the book are really good, but those last chapters didn’t save the cumbersome beginning.

Reviewer: C.K.Designer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Duel Heroine WWII Story
Review: I honestly had a hard time getting into this book...I have read several of this author's books and loved them. I was not engaged in the beginning with the introduction of the many characters. As the story went on and the two heroines' lives intersected, the pace rapidly picked up and I couldn't put the book down. Debbie Rix did a wonderful job giving the readers a snapshot into this history of Italy during that tumultuous and dangerous era. I researched the persons this was based on and was further amazed by her talent.

Reviewer: P. Blevins
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: beautiful book
Review: The Italian Girls: absolutely gripping and heartbreaking World War II historical fiction is by Debbie Rix. Although the book is historical fiction, Debbie did take parts of the stories of two of other ladies’ stories expanded upon them. The story of Isabella was actually based on the life of the film star Maria Denis and the story of Livia came from two different university students who worked for the Resistance. She deftly wove their stories together with great imagination. She created a very complex story.Livia lived with her parents as she was going to the university. When her Mother chose to stay in the country with her father-in-law, Nonno, Livia lived in the city of Florence with her Father, a lawyer. Livia has a boyfriend, Cosimo, who was drafted into the army. He returned having lost a foot and joined the resistance. Livia began working for the Resistance too by handling the radio broadcasts.Isabella was a renowned actress in Rome. Although she was a good actress, she wasn’t particularly exceptional. She fell in love with the film director, Vincenzo Lucchese. She would do almost anything to get him to love her. When things get tense during the German occupation, her love for him will be greatly tested as will his feelings for her.The lives of Livia and Isabella will become entwined in an unexpected way and yet they do not really know each other. The German Occupation throws all of the Italians into a spin and they do not know who can be trusted and who cannot.The book is really good and gives a glimpse into what life might have been in Italy during Mussolini and then Hitler. Many of the actions by the Germans and later the Americans did actually occur.

Reviewer: pt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Captivating from the beginning
Review: I bought this book as somewhat of a gamble, worried it might be (for lack of a better term) Chic Lit. It is not. This story is not genre specific to me. It is simply a well written story based on real people. It opened up a new area of historical fiction for me; that of women who played crucial roles in WWII. I'll not go into detail because I wouldn't want to give away any of the plot(s). One should discover the book on their own. I recommended the book to two friends and have received thanks after they read it, with comments much like mine in this review. By the way, the audio book, narrated by Katie Villa, is superb. I listened to it while on a road trip and it was as captivating as the book. Congratulations to Debbie Rix (and Katie Villa for the narration of the audio book)

Reviewer: Terry
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The Author of this book is extraordinarily talented! Such a beautiful story with truth and so emotional. I could not stop reading. I had to reach the end and reminding me of the second world war, even though I was born in 1944 in Italy, it gave me goosepimples.Thank you. ♥️♥️

Reviewer: Enrico
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Good read

Reviewer: Toscana
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Really good war story. I felt I was in Italy and that is praise for someone who lives here for half the year. The history has been well researched. The Italian Campaign is complex, the conflict in Italy more like a civil war, but Debbie Rix was spot on with the background details.I loved the contrast between the two young girls, the main protagonists of the story. One, level headed and "seria", as Italians say. The other, frivolous and vacuous. She has to go through a painful coming-of-age - very cleverly done. And it was a great way of leading the reader into the two very different worlds of fascism and resistance. There were horrific massacres during this period and the author didn't spare us these. Rightly so.The beginning and ending neatly tied up through one of the characters, now in old age. The opening is charming, with the image of an old lady sitting in a cafe in Florence. Only the other day I took a sneaky photo of such an old lady and wondered about her story.Thank you to the author for transporting me back in time to war-torn Italy.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I just could not dislike anything about this book. I loved it from start to finish. The characters both good and evil were so realistic you could feel their presence jump off the pages.I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys history and intrigue and the feel of reality and of course anything Italian.Definitely deserves five stars.

Reviewer: Beatrice Wise
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Easy read