Empowering re-imaging of history -- a strong woman -- a life of hardships -- fighting for her cause, motherhood, and love. Left me with deep feels.

A stunning story. Getting to meet Anita within these pages is a true gift to the reader. There is so much to say about this narrative, but all I can think of is that it was such a well-crafted story with a powerful female guiding the way.

The Woman In Red by Diana Giovinazzo gave me exactly what I expected. For real though, I just love sinking my teeth into a good historical fiction book and being whisked away to another time and place. Giovinazzo's debut is a sweeping story of love and passion that crosses continents. For the most part, I was quite riveted while reading.

Anita Garibaldi, a real life historical figure, is the protagonist of The Woman In Red. This book is a fictionalized account of her life. It begins with her childhood where she adores her father and becomes a gaucho. Unfortunately, her father dies and so her mother moves them to be closer to family in another town 18 miles aware. There, Anita is forced into a loveless marriage at a young age. However, everything changes for her when freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi crosses her path. They fall madly in love and Anita begins to turn her attentions to the fight for freedom in Brazil and later in Italy.

Okay, so, this book took me longer to get through than I had anticipated -- even though yes I was riveted during the times I had picked it up. I think it is because of the whole having a newborn thing. Anyways, the plot does move along logically. I never had a moment where I was confused or lost about what was happening. Additionally, Brazilian and Italian history are subjects I have no expertise in. So, I thought reading about those subjects was fascinating and like I got additional knowledge. I did end up reading Anita Garibaldi's wikipedia entry and learning that the book had changed one event.

The thing is that I didn't feel super connected to Anita --- which I guess makes sense. She's in a totally different time than me, I get that. However, in her shoes I would prioritize staying alive to be able to parent my kids rather than the things she chooses. I also would have liked more time with some of the side characters. My thought process is that more time would have had more of an impact when they go on to die.

Still, The Woman In Red was an interesting book about an interesting subject. Although it was not my favorite book of all time in the historical fiction category, I would still feel fully confident recommending it.

I love this story and the cover, but then again I am a bit biased. Thank you for including me for getting the Ebook

I gave this book 100 pages before I put it down. I picked it up a few weeks later thinking maybe it was bad timing, but this one just didn't work for me. I was very curious about Anita Garibaldi but honestly, I learned more about her from googling her than I did from what I read. I thought the storytelling was very amateur and it just did not work for me.

Wow! Just Wow! This book has easily made it to the top of my favorites this year.

I absolutely recommend this fantastic, amazing, emotional, heart wrenching story.
There is not enough good things to say about this book.

I love the fact that it has a strong female role. And you get easily attached to the characters.
It’s also a nice to be able to read a historical fiction book every once in awhile that is not based during WWll.

Also as I was reading this book I felt like it gave off a Mulan and Outlander vibe.
(Outlander vide without the time travel)

Set during the 19th Century in Brazil, Uruguay and Italy. This book is about Anna/Anita. A young girl who wants to live a life that makes her happy. Not a life of being forced to marry a man who she does not love.

After meeting Giuseppe Garibaldi the leader of the Brazilian resistance. Her life changes. Let’s just say she becomes a feminist icon.

Before I go on describing the whole book. You really need to go get it and read it. It is fabulous.

Anita Garibaldi was a woman trying to break the mold of what women were supposed to do in 1839. Born in a time and place where women's worth was wrapped in their husbands, Anita wanted more. In walks Giuseppe Garibaldi who is on a mission and doesn't mind if Anita is along for the ride and ends up so thankful that she is the woman beside him in battle.

What I loved about this book was it took me to a different time and place than what I typically read. With so many historical fiction books taking place during World War II, I could appreciate a read that took me somewhere else.

While I appreciated the time and place for the story. The writing for me fell short. The writing felt stunted and staccato. I couldn't get connected to the character due to the writing and it made the reading hard and I felt as though it slowed down my reading and not in a good way.

After finishing the book, I found out this was a debut, so I could try another from the author in hopes that I could get draw into her next one.

When she was born it was said she was born in an unlucky month, under an unlucky moon. It was also said that Anita Garibaldi would have a hard life. Certainly, from the very beginning what was said was true.

Living in a small trading settlement in Brazil and going to a one-room schoolhouse, Anita couldn't settle down or conform to society's rules. After being thrown out of school for disobedience, her father, a gaucho, decided she would work with him as an apprentice. Working alongside with him, she learned how to handle horses and cattle, she was perhaps the only woman gaucho in the area of Santa Catarina. However, as her destiny took hold, her father met with an accident and she was left without him. Headstrong and letting no one intimidate her, Anita's mother, after an unfortunate incident, moved the family 18 miles away to Laguna. She hated it. At 14 she married against her will...3 years later she packed her bag and left, never looking back.

It was in 1839 when she met Giuseppe (José ) Garibaldi, a revolutionary, that her own revolutionary and strong personality emerged. For both the attraction was strong; yet she was a married woman. Disowned by her family, sick of being talked about, she made her decision. Throwing caution to the wind, ignoring the gossip in town, she went to him where he was staying at the army camp. His life became her life. Traveling from Brazil, Uruguay and Italy she was at his side, his struggles were her struggles. Throughout the book it is fascinating to watch her true self come through, with her fierce personality thwarting the conventions of that time...nothing standing in her way neither gossip or the restrictions of women's role in society. She followed her own rules and found peace within herself.

This book gives us insight into the life of a woman we know little about. In her short-lived life she was courageous, strong, a heroine in a world of men.

My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Being of Italian descent, I had heard the name Garibaldi as I was growing up, but I knew little of Italy's history of unification, and even less of Anita Garibaldi. Reading this book was enlightening and prompted me to do research on this formidable Brazilian woman who won the hearts of Italians by being the first wife and comrade-in-arms of revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi.

We meet Anita as a headstrong child who was close to her father and learned the life of a gaucho from him. She was a fearless child and loved working with her father rather than being in school or in the house with her mother. However, after he father's death, her mother had other plans for her and had her married off at 14, making Anita miserable. After her husband leaves her to go to war, Anita meets Garibaldi while he was exiled in Brazil and the rest is history, as they say.

Throughout the story, we see Anita and Garibaldi as a close couple who shared a passionate love and the same vision for her country and his. In the ten years they were together, Anita was Garibaldi's partner, fighting alongside him, tending to the injured men in the battlefield, and campaigning with him for the revolution. Throughout their arduous travels in Brazil, Uruguay and Italy, she also bore him four children. Her physical and emotional strength were exceptional and she is remembered as a heroine alongside Garibaldi, with statues of her in Brazil and Italy.

The author aptly titled this novel The Woman in Red because Garibaldi's volunteer soldiers wore red shirts that became famous in all of Europe. I enjoyed this introduction to Anita Garibaldi and I'm curious to learn more about her. I wish the author would have included how she researched for the writing of her novel and how closely she followed Anita's life and timeline.

A stunning novel about a woman whose impact spanned continents and countries. Anita began her life as a revolutionary when she met Giuseppi Garibaldi, who was then the leader of the Brazilian resistance. She would then follow him, not to the ends of the earth, but to Italy, his native land, where he paved the way for Italy's unification. It's a story of love and romance, family and friends, and town and country--and what one will do to protect those things at all costs. A brilliant debut, and I can't wait to read what Giovinazzo will dream up next.

Thanks, Net Galley and Grand Central Publishing for the early read.