A Harvest of Secrets

A Novel

By: Roland Merullo

Narrated by: Will Damron

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

From the bestselling author of From These Broken Streets comes a sweeping novel of love, resistance, and courage set against the backdrop of WWII Italy.

Italy, 1943. The seeds of terror planted by Hitler have brought Allied forces to Italian soil. Young lovers separated by war—one near a Tuscan hill town, the other a soldier on the Sicilian front—will meet any challenge to reunite.

Vittoria SanAntonio, the daughter of a prosperous vineyard owner, is caught in a web of family secrets. Defying her domineering father, she has fallen for humble vineyard keeper Carlo Conte. When Carlo is conscripted into Mussolini’s army, it sets a fire in Vittoria, and she joins the resistance. As the Nazi war machine encroaches, Vittoria is drawn into dangers as unknowable as those faced by the man she loves.

Badly wounded on the first day of the invasion, Carlo regains consciousness on a farm in Sicily. Nursed back to health by a kind family there, he embarks on an arduous journey north through his ravaged homeland. For Carlo and Vittoria, as wartime threats mount and their paths diverge, what lies ahead will test their courage as never before.

©2022 Roland A. Merullo Jr. (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A well-recommended read.”—Historical Novels Review

Good WWII story

I really enjoyed this story. I had a bit of a hard time occasionally following who was who, but all in all, I really liked it. It was a good peak into what it was like for Italians during the war.

narration were amazing

The best part of this book was the narration by Will Damron, I am a huge fan of his work and he always makes the stories even more interesting and even deep. I enjoy so much his work and this was no exception.

A harvest of secrets is the story of two young lovers separated by the war these young couples will have to fight to survive many things even secrets and lies from their own families.

A Harvest of secrets is another great book by Roland Merullo, his books are always very heart-wrenching in a good way and always make us feel what the characters are going through as if we were living during those sad times.

without giving too much away this is a story that will keep you immersed at all times, intriguing and wondering what will happen next with each character but especially for Vittoria SanAntonio, the daughter of the vineyard owner, A domineering man who was not kind and had many agendas. Vittoria is in love with Carlo Conte the vineyard keeper, making her situation even more endangered and difficult.

Vittoria is a great character I feel like the more we read the story we see how she starts to grow and become even more bold and fearless to fight for what she wants in life.

it wasn't an easy story as many of the ww2 books are hard to read and see what they went through but at the same time, it was a very good story and very enjoyable.

Walk to read

I was very captured my the historical fiction that brought the feeling of believing all sides have supporters and non believers. The last few chapters just lost the theme and turned into soap opera. I would still read additional books by this author.

Loved it !

Great historical tale. Felt like I knew all the characters. I hated to see this book end. Well done.

Italy during World War II

Italian wine country, a wealthy family that owns a prosperous vineyard but keeps it by collaborating with the German Nazi occupiers. The daughter of the family is disgusted by their duplicity and assists the local resistance, all the while waiting for her working class lover to return from war with the Italian fascist army. American bombers fly overhead as Allied forces arrive to liberate the country. I couldn't put down this compelling story and listened to it on audiobook for three days straight until the ending. I'm a member of Kindle Unlimited and you get to stream both ebook and audio book for no extra charge. The male reader of the audio book was very good.

Harvest of Perseverance, more likely

I was deeply affected by the depth and breadth of emotions these characters experienced. The author shows us much of the ugliness of war and the human emotions associated with that. But we also accompany Carlo, Vittoria, and Paulo as they find hope in the depths of despair and fear. It was a profound journey to read this book.

Not my favorite

I have read many historical novels but I wasn’t a big fan of this one. My father left Italy at age 7 in 1928 and my mother at 10 in 1935 — long to find out what the relatives left behind had to deal with. I thought this story dragged on too long in parts and I found my mind wandering. I always appreciate the authors work in researching the historical facts and enjoy learning more about what real people must have experienced through these personalized fiction. But this one seemed to go on with not enough ‘history’.

Seven chapters in and I'm giving up

There are no likeable characters or anything about the story so far that is compelling, so there is no motivation to continue.