Last Voyage of the Valentina, Santa Montefiore

Review from Good reads

Exotically beautiful but desperately unhappy, Alba lives on a houseboat on the Thames, where she enjoys a life of leisure and entertains an endless and unfulfilling succession of lovers. But then she discovers a portrait of her dead mother, Valentina -- a woman she'd hardly known, whose story has been kept from her by her still grieving father. Determined to learn the truth about Valentina, Alba returns to the olive groves of the Amalfi coast of Italy. There she uncovers a mysterious tale of decadence, deception, murder, and betrayal involving partisans and Nazis, peasants and counts. Alba's journey leads her not only to the truth of her mother's hidden past but to the possibility of happiness in her own future.

" I like lemons and arum lilies, the smell of the dawn and the mystery of the night. I like to dance. I wanted to be a dancer as a little girl. I`m frightened of being alone. I`m frightened of being no one. Of not mattering. The moon fascinates me; I could sit all night just staring up at it and wondeng. She makes me feel safe. I hate this war, but I love it for having brought you to me. I`m afraid of loving too much. Of being hurt. Of living my life in pain and suffering for loving someone I am unable to have. I`m frightened too of death, of nothingness. Of dying, and finding that there isn't a God. Of my soul wandering in a terrible limbo that is neither life nor death. My favorite color is purple. My favorite stone a diamond. I would like to wear a necklace of the finest diamonds just to sparkle for the night, to know what it feels to be a lady. My favorite part of the world is the sea. My favorite man is you."

Santa Montefiore, Last Voyage of the Valentina