"The Italian Ballerina" by Kristy Cambron

Rome, 1943. With the fall of Italy’s Fascist government and the Nazi regime occupying the streets of Rome, British ballerina Julia Bradbury is stranded and forced to take refuge at a hospital on Tiber Island. But when she learns of a deadly sickness that is sweeping through the quarantine wards—a fake disease known only as Syndrome K—she is drawn into one of the greatest cons in history. Alongside hospital staff, friars of the adjoining church, and two Allied medics, Julia risks everything to rescue Italian Jews from the deadly clutches of the Holocaust.

Present Day. With the recent loss of her grandfather—a beloved small-town doctor and WWII veteran—Delaney Coleman returns home to help her parents, even as she struggles to pick up the pieces of her own life. When a mysterious Italian woman claims she owns one of the family’s precious heirlooms, Delaney is compelled to uncover what’s true of her grandfather’s hidden past. Soon, everything Delaney thought she knew about her grandfather comes into question as she wrestles with the possibility that the man she’d revered all her life had unknown ties to Rome and may have taken noble secrets to his grave.

Sometimes book descriptions don't paint an accurate description of the story. This one isn't wrong per se, but I feel like the description neglected the main character: Court Coleman, Delaney's grandfather. Both Julia and Delaney feel like secondary characters next to Court--I'd say about half the novel is from his viewpoint, and only a quarter each for Julia and Delaney. And I'm not positive the title refers to Julia--I'm more inclined to think it's about Calla, the little girl Court rescues, and who has a role in the present-day story.

I did really enjoy the novel. Kristy Cambron knows how to write a captivating story, and she incorporated a piece of history that offered a fresh perspective on WWII. But that said, I think the story would have been stronger if it had only followed Court. The contemporary timeline was fine, but it didn't add much, and I really wanted to delve more into the fascinating history of the Italian hospital and their Syndrome K. I had never heard about it before, and I'd have loved a deeper focus on it, especially through Court's eyes. 

The timelines jump around a bit (Court's present, Court's past, Julia's timeline, and Delaney in the modern day). I didn't find it too difficult to follow, once I caught onto the rhythm, but it's a bit different from the norm. There was a significant plot twist I didn't see coming.

Thank you Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the complimentary e-book. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions are my own.