Book Review: The Italian Ballerina by Kristy Cambron



The Italian Ballerina - Kristy Cambron - 4 Stars - An Emotional WW2 Story

What an ending 😭❤️ my heart. Very slow start and hard for me to keep up at first with what was going on but loved the last 50%. Such a great story and beautiful characters who had a common goal to keep this precious young girl safe. 4 stars. 

This is a dual timeline, christian historical WW2 fiction novel set in Rome, 1943 and Present Day. We follow 3 different people - British Ballerina Julia Bradbury who is stranded and forced to take refuge on Tiber Island as she risks everything to rescue Italian Jewish people from the Holocaust. She is working at the hospital posing as a nurse as they make the Germans believe in the fake "Syndrome K" disease - a disease used to save Jewish people from the Germans. When one day, a young little girl who dreams of being a ballerina one day shows up at her door and Julia, plus several others are determined to reunite the young dancer with her family.

Then we follow Private Courtney Coleman - a medic during the war and his journey in 1943 and 1941. It starts off with him trying to escape German Soldiers with a young girl - jumping back and forth in the timeline we see this little Jewish girl being kept safe by Court and his friend AJ - when they meet up with Julia along the way. The timeline back and forth can be a bit confusing but once everything comes back together, it all made sense. These people have a common goal to keep this little girl safe and get her back to her family. 

In the present day timeline, we follow Matteo and Delaney as Matteo contacts Delaney to let her know that her late grandfather has some items that belonged to his grandmother and she would like to see them again so he offers to fly her out to Italy with the items. Delaney isn't too sure what to think or make of this but she agrees as she finds letters written in Italian in her grandfather's things and believes Matteo in his story....when she gets there, Matteo and Delaney start piecing everything together as his grandmother's story unravels from her past.....

I really liked this story overall - the only reason this wasn't a 5 star read for me was I was fairly confused at the beginning and some parts were a bit long for me, but overall, what an powerful story. I cried! If you like WW2 stories with emotional endings and good faith element throughout the story, pick this up.


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