In The Light Of The Sun: Music in the time of War

The year is 1941 when the whole world was at war for the second time. Caramina Grassi dreams of leaving the Philippines to train in Italy to become an opera singer like her older sister Rosa. War unfortunately disrupted her plans. Caramina and her family must survive in the jungle & find music; it is a force all its own to get through the tough times. Halfway around the world in Florence, Benito Mussolini has taken over Italy & at a certain point Rosa becomes part of la Resistenza & realizes that performing is not just the stage and becoming apart of the Italian resistance she must perform to save others and herself. 

Research, Story & Pacing

Angela Shupe did an amazing job of research and in the author’s note, she mentioned putting a little bit of her family history into the book. The pacing was on the slower side, and it took awhile for things to happen, but it did get interesting & I enjoyed it overall. I also like that this book covered World War II Italy as well as The Philippines. Italy has fascinating history especially with World War II, and a lot of times when there’s historical fiction books about it, I haven’t been impressed with most of them. Angela Shupe’s debut historical fiction did an excellent job. Thank you Megan Beatie at Megan Beatie Communications for sending me a copy & I look forward to interviewing you Agela Shupe!