Review - The Cypress Maze by Fiona Valpy
I received a free review copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
The Cypress Maze is a wonderful book for fans of the genre. It is structured similarly to Valpy's other books with a modern POV and a historical POV. We begin with Tess, who is grieving her recently deceased husband and needs to get away from her everyday life. She heads to Italy to stay with her grandmother’s friend Beatrice. The two bond as Beatrice shares her story with Tess.
One thing I especially liked about this book is its different take on WWII fiction. The historical narrative follows Beatrice when she was a young woman who was stranded in Italy when war broke out. She was forced into hiding and protected by a sympathetic couple in a rural villa.
The politics and fighting of the war are not front-and-center here.
As Beatrice relates her story to Tess, we see the courage of good men and women during the worst times of their lives, we see the redeeming power of love, and the resilience of the human spirit.
The historical portion of the book was my favorite.
In the modern day, we follow Tess as she settled at the villa, helps Beatrice, and gets to know the villa’s new owner Marco. Although Tess is the protagonist of the story, I felt she was a rather passive character who spends much of her time observing others.
I appreciated the parallels between Beatrice's love story and Tess's--both of which ended in tragedy and loss. Having Tess hear Beatrice's history and the story of her love and grief helped Tess heal from her own grief. I love that Valpy highlighted this important component of grieving and healing.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I felt I couldn't give it five stars because I really didn't care for Marco and didn't feel his character was developed quite deeply enough to make his character arc feel substantial and sustainable.
The Cypress Maze is available now!
