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Blog Tour/Giveaway: More Than A Soldier by D. M. Annechino

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I’m delighted to be today’s host on the blog tour for More Than A Soldier by D. M. Annechino. Subtitled One Army Ranger’s Daring Escape From the Nazis, it’s an exciting, vivid account of the true story of Angelo DiMarco’s exploits during World War 2. Read my review of this inspiring story below.

There’s also a giveaway with a chance for one lucky person to win a $25 Amazon gift card (US/Canada only). To enter, follow the link below. The giveaway runs until 24 June 2017.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/defcd44e284/

You can catch up with the other great bloggers taking part in the tour here

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MoreThanASoldierAbout the Book

Feeling a patriotic duty to defend his country after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, seventeen year old, Angelo J. DiMarco, enlists in the U.S. Army. Severely short of frontline fighters, the Army rushes Angelo through Ranger training and sends him to Italy as part of the 1st Ranger Battalion. Their objective: stop the German invasion.  Fighting on the front lines in Italy, the Germans teach Angelo a sobering lesson on life when they capture him during the bloody battle of Cisterna. The poor living conditions and ill-treatment in the German prison camps quickly convince Angelo he has to find a way out. Against insurmountable odds, Angelo miraculously escapes in a way that stretches the imagination. He survives behind enemy lines for over five months, hiding from the Germans and trying to outmanoeuvre them. He begs for food, sleeps in barns and suffers from many ailments, including dehydration, malnutrition, malaria and exposure to the elements.  More Than a Soldier is Angelo DiMarco’s powerful story of survival, resilience and courage.

Book Facts

  • Format: ebook
  • Publisher: CreateSpace
  • No. of pages: 316
  • Publication date: 10th April 2017
  • Genre: Historical Biography

To purchase More Than A Soldier from Amazon.com, click here (link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme)

Find More Than A Soldier on Goodreads

My Review

As is often the case with war heroes, Angelo DiMarco kept his story to himself until close to the end of his life when he finally revealed it to his son.   The author, D. M. Annechino, has taken the facts of Angelo’s remarkable wartime experiences and crafted them into a compelling book, with Angelo as our engaging and credible narrator.

Posted to Sicily following his ranger training, Angelo experiences both the boredom and hardships of army camp life and the chaos and confusion of battle. The book depicts in vivid detail the true nature of frontline battle where fear is an ever present additional enemy.

‘The kind of fear that reaches inside your chest and squeezes your heart. The kind that lines the inside of your lungs with concrete so you can barely draw a breath. It steals every drop of saliva from your mouth so your throat is dry and on fire.’

Angelo knows it’s a case of kill or be killed but even knowing that, the enormity of the act weighs heavy on him as, for the first time, he lines up a shot on another human being – not a practice target – and places his finger on the trigger.

‘Any soldier who has yet to kill a man in combat tries to imagine what it will be like when the moment arises. There are no words to accurately explain how it feels to know than in a millisecond you will end a life; make his wife a widow; make his children fatherless; paralyze his family.’

The book does not seek to hide the horror of war or the conflicting emotions that arise following the death of comrades.

‘I felt great anger welling up inside me. Hatred actually. I wanted to kill every German soldier in the world. I wanted to even the score. I didn’t recognize the man thinking these dark thoughts and could only conclude that the war had finally transformed me from someone I once was to someone I might never recognize again….War is much more than a word that defines a conflict between nations. It’s a living, breathing predator, and its only goal is to devour your mind, body, and spirit.’

Nor does it pull any punches when it comes to describing the callous treatment of Angelo and his comrades at the hands of the Germans.   Providing a counterpoint to this is the sense of comradeship amongst the soldiers; they truly do become a ‘band of brothers’.

‘Fighting side by side and struggling to survive every minute of every day seals an unbreakable bond between men. One of the only benefits of war.’

This close bond makes it even more traumatic when comrades are killed or suffer life-changing injuries and we see the effect on Angelo of the death of close comrades.   And, on many occasions during his adventures, he himself is in imminent risk of death. However, along the way there are also lucky escapes, near misses and chance encounters with friendly locals. At times, the story read like a movie script and I had to remind myself that it was a true story. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the book got snapped up by a film studio. (They’d probably add a romantic Hollywood ending – you’ll no doubt guess what I’m thinking about when you read it.)

This is an inspiring story of heroism, comradeship and resilience in the face of the horrors of war.

I received a review copy courtesy of Italy Book Tours and the author in return for an honest review.

In three words: Thrilling, inspiring, action-packed

DMAnnechinoAbout the Author

Daniel M. Annechino, a former book editor, wrote his first book, How to Buy the Most Car for the Least Money, while working as a General Manager in the automobile business. But his passion had always been fiction, particularly thrillers. He spent two years researching serial killers before finally penning his gripping and memorable debut novel They Never Die Quietly. He has written and published five novels – all thrillers. But his latest work, More Than a Soldier, is a historical biography set in Italy during WWII. A native of New York, Annechino now lives in San Diego with his wife, Jennifer. He loves to cook, enjoys a glass of vintage wine, and spends lots of leisure time on the warm beaches of Southern California.

Connect with Daniel

Website https://dmannechino.wordpress.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/DMHemingway
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/daniel.m.annechino
Goodreads https://www.facebook.com/daniel.m.annechino

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Book Review: The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway

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In a nation divided by prejudice, everyone must take a side.

TheFloatingTheatreAbout the Book

Publisher’s description: When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river.  Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles in to life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more… But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the ‘free’ North is fraught with danger. For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad.  But as May’s secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her. And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own…

Book Facts

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre
  • No. of pages: 352
  • Publication date: 15th June 2017
  • Genre: Historical Fiction

To purchase The Floating Theatre from Amazon.co.uk, click here (link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme)

Find The Floating Theatre on Goodreads

My Review

I was drawn to this book by the description and, I have to admit, the gorgeous cover but for me the content did not live up to my expectation. What I did enjoy was the story of May and the colourful characters who make up the members of the floating theatre as they travel down the Ohio River stopping at small towns to give performances to the local people. However, I found the aspect of the book detailing May’s involvement with the ‘underground railway’ unconvincing and a rather lightweight treatment of the issues.

The author has chosen to make her protagonist, May, rather naive, uncomfortable in social situations and someone who takes everything very literally.   I was unsure if this was to help explain why May responds as she does to certain events in the narrative or to introduce into the novel a character on the autistic spectrum.  However, I did like when May finally learned to suspend her disbelief and become immersed in what she was seeing on the stage in the way Hugo, the theatre owner, hoped she would.

‘But then, rather quickly if the actors are any good, something happens and somehow you drop into the fiction of the Italian countryside, and there you are. You forget all about the people around you because the only people that exist are the actors on stage, and the only world is the world they are playing out for you. You’ve lost yourself in the fiction.’

Clearly, the same thing should happen with a book but I’m afraid, for me, it did not on this occasion because I was frequently coming across things I found implausible or issues I felt were treated too lightly. If you want an entertaining story set on a floating theatre in 19th century America then this is a book to enjoy. The story is well told and there is a lot to like about it.  However, if you want to understand the realities of slavery, the abolition movement and the underground railway, then I think you need to look elsewhere.  To be fair to the author, maybe this was not the intention of this book.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Bonnier Zaffre, in return for an honest review. [The book is published under the title The Underground River in the US.]

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In three words: Enjoyable, light, unconvincing

Try something similar…The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

MarthaConwayAbout the Author

Martha Conway is the author of Thieving Forest, Sugarland, and 12 Bliss Street, which was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. She’s received several awards for historical fiction, including the North American Book Award. Her short fiction has been published in the Iowa Review, the Carolina Quarterly, The Quarterly, Folio, and other journals.  Martha teaches creative writing for Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program and UC Berkeley Extension.  Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Martha is one of seven sisters. She currently lives in San Francisco.

Connect with Martha

Website http://www.marthaconway.com
Twitter marthamconway
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23092.Martha_Conway