The House in the Tuscan Hills - Anita Chapman | Book Review | Dual Timeline | @neetschapman @bookouture #AnitaChapmanBookTour #BooksOnTour

At her charming house in the Tuscan hills, Jen pictures the beautiful opal ring that brought her here. Will this inherited jewel finally unravel the secrets her family has been holding so close?

Italy, 1944. Despite the war raging across Europe, Liliana is overjoyed when her childhood love Salvatore proposes – ignoring the superstition that her opal ring will bring bad luck. But when Salvatore is injured fighting for the Italian resistance, Liliana’s heart fractures when he looks into her eyes and no longer recognises her. Distraught, she blames the ring and flees to England – hiding a secret she vows to protect until her dying day…

England, present day. Heartbroken after her fiancé leaves her, Jen is desperate to hide away and heal. But then a handsome Italian stranger called Matteo tells her that her great-aunt has left Jen an opal ring and a house in the Tuscan hills… She can’t resist the chance to find out why her secretive grandmother, Liliana, turned so pale at the sight of the glittering ring. As she and Matteo arrive at the charmingly rustic house with its pink walls and green shutters, Jen dreams of the life she could build here – and the answers the little opal ring might bring…

But just as Jen starts to believe in a fresh start, a mysterious woman arrives, laying claim to her inheritance. Will the story she tells heal Jen’s broken heart – or tear her family apart forever?

Immerse yourself in beautiful Tuscany in this gorgeous, sweeping story of long-buried family secrets. Readers of Lucinda Riley and Fiona Valpy will be swept away by this escapist, emotive and romantic page-turner.

Publisher: Bookouture
Format: Ebook (including Kindle Unlimited) & Paperback (13 April 2026)
320 pages

MY THOUGHTS

I’ve read most of Anita’s books The Venice Secret (2023), The Florence Letter (2024) and The Tuscan Diary (2024) and they are always a lovely way to spend a few hours in one of my favourite places, Italy. The latest, The House in the Tuscan Hills is again a dual time story, partly set during WW2 and mainly in the present time (or to be accurate 2019) featuring two generations of the same family – grandmother Liliana and granddaughter Jen. Both women have had their share of heartbreak but how does an Opal ring connect them and does the tradition around it shape the owner’s destiny?

Besides Liliana’s heartrending story, it was the Italian setting that stood out for me. ‘Casa Stella’ the pink walled house and the olive trees and gardens of Liliana’s young life and now unexpectedly inherited by Jen was vividly described and so evocative. I could imagine sitting on the terrace with a glass of wine and eating one of Jen’s fabulous creations. Did I mention that food features a lot in this book? Well it does and it sounds delicious, whether its at the family restaurant ‘Da Nonna’ in Cambridge or from Jen, who, following her own romantic heartache and demise of her own cake business, is inspired and fired up by her time at Casa Stella to produce authentic Italian cooking videos which she hopes will inspire others. Her new home in Tuscany gave Jen’s heart the chance to heal and showed her to be no pushover when she was faced with ghosts from the past.

As well as a touch of mystery, there is romance here aplenty provided by Liliana’s love affair with Salvatore and Jen’s crush on her handsome and considerate Tuscan neighbour, Matteo. I loved the slow burn between them and the will they/won’t they move on from friendship to something deeper.

Love, loss, betrayal and family secrets are the background themes here – but there is also forgiveness and hope in looking to the future. Another captivating story from an author who never disappoints and one that I very much enjoyed.

My thanks to Sarah of Bookouture for the tour invite and the Netgalley ecopy for review.

Anita Chapman’s debut novel, THE VENICE SECRET was published in March 2023 and spent six weeks in the overall Amazon UK Kindle Top 100, reaching number thirty-eight. THE VENICE SECRET has had over seven million Kindle Unlimited pages read and received more than 6000 Amazon reviews since publication. THE FLORENCE LETTER was published by digital first division of Hachette, Bookouture in June 2024 and THE TUSCAN DIARY came out in October 2024. THE ITALIAN VINEYARD was published on 14 July 2025. THE HOUSE IN THE TUSCAN HILLS will be published on 13 April 2026.

Anita enjoyed writing stories from a young age, and won a local writing competition when she was nine years old. Encouraged by this, she typed up a series of stories about a mouse on her mum’s typewriter and sent them to Ladybird. She received a polite rejection letter, her first.

Many of Anita’s summers growing up were spent with her family driving to Italy, and she went on to study French and Italian at university. As part of her degree, Anita lived in Siena for several months where she studied and au paired, and she spent a lot of time travelling around Italy in her twenties.

Anita likes to read journals and diaries from the past, and one of her favourite pastimes is visiting art galleries and country houses. Her first published novel, THE VENICE SECRET is inspired by her mother taking her to see the Canalettos at The National Gallery in London as a child.

Since 2015, Anita has worked as a social media manager, training authors on social media, and helping to promote their books. She’s run several courses in London and York, and has worked as a tutor at Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College.