Welcome to the Rock & the Rose Saga
Life, Love, Passion, Resilience, Resistance & Recovery in Northern Italy.
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The Rock & the Rose Novels
| Life | Love | Passion |
|---|---|---|
| Book I The Infinite Passion of Life | Book II Within Me, an Invincible Summer | Book III Knowing She Hath Wings |
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| November 2020 | April 2021 | February 2022 |
| Resilience | Resistance | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Book IV Strong at the Broken Places | Book V Now and Forever Resistance | Book VI A Time for All Things |
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| July 2023 | Spring 2024 | Winter 2025 |
The Rock & the Rose Novellas
| eBook only | eBook only | eBook only | eBook & Paperback |
|---|---|---|---|
| The story of Ogier’s parents, Aisha and Marco | The story of Valentina’s Aunt Silvia | The story of Valentina’s grandmother, Loredana | The Novellas: Volume 1 Compilation of the three novellas |
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| December 2022 | March 2023 | June 2023 | September 2023 |
The Rock & the Rose Saga
The Rock & the Rose saga unfolds in Northern Italy from World War II through current day events. While most of the story is anchored in Rimini, on the northern Adriatic coast, events also take place in other Italian cities such as Milano, Bologna, Firenze, and Como. The characters in the series are influenced by real-world events: the rise of Fascism in Italy, World War II and its aftermath, the social justice protests of the 1960s, the rise of Italian feminism, and the impact of the Catholic Church on 21st Century Italians. There are connections to the Italian American communities in northern and central New Jersey.
The saga foundation is built upon two families. The Marvellis are neo-aristocrats well-known in Rimini and the region. They are distant relations of the Blessed Albert Marvelli, a WWII-era civic icon. The Marcheses are working-class sardine fishers who are devastated by the indiscriminate violence of WWII. The two families intersect when Isabella Marvelli and Valentina Marchese fall in love in the early 1980s. When the romance is forbidden by Isabella’s father, Valentina begins a career in law enforcement and then the intelligence service that ultimately takes her throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region. Along the way, she encounters terrorists, murderers, petty criminals, misogynists, and bureaucrats—at times undecided about which is worse. Her most important role—godmother to Isabella’s daughter Angelina—has evolved over time, as has Valentina… reluctantly.
The books are Italian culture-centric, especially traditions and events from the Emilia-Romagna region. There are Italian phrases, terms, and idioms embedded to capture the communications challenges of people with different primary languages, and—just as importantly—to provide the flavor of another culture.
Angelina
Angelina Regina Roselli Fabrizzi is a widowed Italian woman insecure about her appearance and herself after decades of emotional abuse in a male-dominated society. The unsolved murder of her husband has left her with financial complications, with only her godfather in Como and her ever-present godmother to provide support and guidance.
Angelina has convinced herself that the world will need to find its romance somewhere else. The last thing she needs is an obnoxiously self-centered American taking her seat on the train, even if he wasn’t. But for once in her life, she is going to speak up for herself.
The resulting conversation—if one could call it that—launches her careening down a mountain road of emotion towards an unknown destination. When she finally arrives, no one is more surprised than she.
Valentina
Valentina Marchese is the common thread woven into all books in the series. She has retired from a career that included service in the Polizia di Stato, the Carabinieri, and the Italian central intelligence service. She speaks several languages fluently, adores Cervantes, knows multiple ways to kill someone, and loves and protects her goddaughter as if she was her own daughter. Valentina adores Cervantes and has learned to appreciate Voltaire. But she will never abide Camus.
Unbeknownst to her goddaughter until recently, Valentina was her mother’s lover. Valentina has spent her adult life being comfortably alone and detached from others—even her loved ones. She doesn’t want to be over-protective; she cannot help it. She is used to getting her way—and always being right. But then, two men enter her comfortable life… and her world changes despite her best efforts to resist.
Benjamin
Ben LaRocca is a middle-aged American who relocated to Europe after divorce to pursue a career as a writer. He is moving to Rimini from Milano because he fell in love with the town. While responsible and altruistic, he makes decisions based on his desires. He has lacked empathy for the feelings of others—notably the women in his life. He has thought about love but hasn’t really experienced it. While romantic, he isn’t looking for romance, especially from a woman he met when she began scolding him in Italian on a train.
Ogier
Ogier Malouf-Bracco, the son of an Italian father and Lebanese mother, is a walking contradiction. Raised Catholic, he converted to Islam as an adult. Short in stature, long in strength, courage, and character, he admires those traits in Valentina, even though she is almost a head taller. He was first her mentor, then her partner, after Valentina joined the foreign intelligence service. What he had not counted on was falling in love with Valentina. A fan of Camus, he follows Voltaire and tolerates Cervantes.
Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Rimini is a central character in the saga. As Fellini said, it is a town divided by the seasons. It is steeped in three millennia of history and a century of going its own way, recovering from the tremendous destruction of WWII and dealing with enormous pressures: economic, cultural, religious, and political.
Strong at the Broken Places
THE ROCK & THE ROSE BOOK III
D. J. P A O L I N I
Published July 2023
About Strong at the Broken Places
When you follow your own path, you lead the way.
Valentina Marchese, a former police officer, carabiniere, and intelligence operative, now finds herself in her most challenging role: grandmother to Isabella Valentina Rose, her goddaughter Angelina’s new daughter. As Angelina settles into domestic life with husband Benjamin and their daughter, new nonna Valentina embraces grand motherhood but also struggles with what it means to be family, to be loved, to love, and the most important question of all:
What does it mean to be Valentina?
Follow Valentina’s exploration of self as you travel from Rimini to Milano, Firenze, Venezia, Croatia, and Lebanon. Experience her ongoing evolution in a world within which she has never quite felt comfortable—not that she cares.
Knowing She Hath Wings
THE ROCK & THE ROSE BOOK III
D. J. P A O L I N I
Published February 2022
About Knowing She Hath Wings
Learn To Cry in Italian.
Angelina and Benjamin find the perfect house, and Valentina worries that her children are trying to distance themselves from her. But then they lose the deal. Dealing with the house drama, Angelina is at first unaware she is pregnant. Now expecting their second child, Angelina learns more than she wanted about Benjamin’s past.
Has Benjamin tired of Angelina already?
Review
Christian Fernandez, The Book Commentary
“Knowing She Hath Wings by D.J. Paolini is a slow-burning romance with a fascinating setting in Italy’s Rimini Marina district. The story follows an array of fully drawn and compelling characters…The beautiful descriptions, the captivating dialogues, and the finely written streams of consciousness are among the qualities that help bring to life the characters…a gorgeous offering for fans of romance.”
Within Me, an Invincible Summer
THE ROCK & THE ROSE BOOK II
D. J. P A O L I N I
Published April 2021
About Within Me, an Invincible Summer
Italians don’t follow their hearts—they lead with them.
Within Me, an Invincible Summer is the second book in The Rock & the Rose series, following The Infinite Passion of Life. It continues the story of the native Angelina and the transplanted American Benjamin in Rimini, Italy as they plan for their earlier than expected wedding. Angelina is assisted in the wedding planning—as with almost all things in her life—by her godmother, Valentina.
Angelina is expecting unexpectedly, and as Valentina becomes comfortable with Angelina’s growing independence, she also begins to embrace the idea of becoming a grandmother. But first, she must get through the wedding. Just as life is settling down, people from Valentina’s past surface, and she is arrested for the murder of Angelina’s first husband.
Has Valentina been lying to Angelina?
Review
Anne Frandi-Coory
author of Whatever Happened to Ishtar?
In Rimini, Northern Italy, Angelina Fabrizzi and her godmother, Valentina Marchese, are in the midst of preparations for Angelina’s forthcoming marriage to Benjamin LaRocca. Weddings are notorious for dredging up a family’s history, including long-buried secrets best left undisturbed. Especially an Italian family history intertwined with murder, fascists, the Catholic Church, and with connections to criminal gangs and global intrigues. Will the revelations that ensue, including the circumstances surrounding the unsolved murder of her former husband, Giovanni Fabrizzi, threaten Angelina’s and Benjamin’s future marital bliss?
An Italian family without a multitude of sons, and a few priests, could be viewed as a less than perfect family in patriarchal Italy. Then there are those unmentionable sins committed by unwed mothers in the past with the all too inevitable consequences. Is Angelina’s fervent wish to be married in the parish Catholic Church to be denied because she is pregnant with Benjamin’s child?
In comparison to Angelina’s family history, the LaRocca family seemingly have few secrets to reveal. Despite all the familial mayhem and the misunderstandings on Benjamin’s part, his Italian language is improving, and Valentina is becoming more fond of him, despite his annoying, albeit innocent, gaffes. Valentina’s personal history as a former spy and police officer adds mystery to romance, while at times places her in imminent danger. Will Valentina ever find love again now that her beloved god daughter is about to start a new life of her own? But then, there is the pledge she gave to Angelina’s deceased mother, Isabella, the passionate love of her life.
Italian phrases throughout the book, along with pertinent quotes by François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) introducing each Intermezzo chapter, add a delightful romanticism to the stories.
Finally, the following quote pretty much encapsulates Book ll in The Rock and The Rose series for me:
“Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.”
François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
Anne Frandi-Coory, author of Whatever Happened to Ishtar?
The Infinite Passion of Life
THE ROCK & THE ROSE BOOK I
D. J. P A O L I N I
Published November 2020
About The Infinite Passion of Life
Finding yourself is worth the search.
Despite the trauma and drama in her life, Angelina has persevered, relying on the support of her multi-talented and over-protective godmother, Valentina—best friend of her late mother. After the murder of her abusive husband, Angelina has resigned herself to spending her life alone in her hometown of Rimini, on the Adriatic coast of Italy, just like her godmother.
Then Angelina meets Benjamin, a divorced American man relocating to Rimini. Through a series of coincidences, Angelina begins to believe she might experience love and happiness with Benjamin. Her godmother is not so sure. Benjamin finds himself navigating the strong personalities of the two women as he struggles to put down roots in his new hometown.
But did Valentina really mean it when she said she would kill him?
Review
“The Infinite Passion Of Life is a compelling story, set in real locations in Northern Italy, where life is accurately portrayed in language, idioms, places and historical events. The author, D.J. Paolini, lays bare the passions, theatrics and dramas that members of Italian families experience on a near daily basis…” – Anne Frandi-Coory, author of Whatever Happened to Ishtar? Read her full review here.
The Rock & the Rose Novellas: Volume 1
THE ROCK & THE ROSE NOVELLAS, VOLUME 1
D. J. P A O L I N I
Published September 2023
About the Rock & the Rose Novellas
Experience the lives of three women—two Italian and one Lebanese—who each in their own way influence the life of Valentina Marchese, the chief protagonist of the Rock & the Rose Saga.
This volume aggregates the three novellas originally published as separate eBooks.
Know Your Own Happiness
A timeless story of an Italian woman before her time.
Loredana, a young mother coming of age in Bologna, Italy, at the outbreak of World War II, soon found herself both a widow and a neighborhood saint. She couldn’t imagine a world outside of Bologna, nor could she imagine she and her young daughter, Mariangela, living anywhere else. At least, until Loredana met Carlo.
Carlo De Marco, a U.S. Army Captain, swept Loredana off her feet in Bologna, then swept his new bride and stepdaughter away to America, as Loredana joined thousands of other Italian war brides moving to the United States. Loredana and Mariangela found a new hometown, a new family, and a new world different in all the ways expected. But it was the unexpected ways that proved the biggest challenge. Still, Loredana believed that Trenton, New Jersey, would be their forever home.
So why was Loredana back in Bologna?
Not Within the Stars
In a world where everyone was a survivor—some survived more.
Silvia Marchese, daughter of a Rimini fishing family, forced to grow up before her time, found herself before the age of sixteen responsible for a house and her younger brother, after their parents and two older brothers died when their fishing boat was bombed—collateral damage of WWII. After the death of grandmother, Silvia finds herself ostracized by her remaining family, only able to count on only her brother Donni and their boarder, Gregorio, for companionship and friendship.
Silvia marries Gregorio and they build a life in Rimini, Italy. Silvia appreciates the maturing influence the vivacious Mariangela, a young woman he met at a Rimini beach, exerts on Donni. Silvia is all too happy to witness her brother’s marriage to Mariangela, happier still at the birth of their first child, Valentina. Yet tragedy is never far from Silvia’s side, causing her to wonder if she might ever know true happiness. At least, until the track & field championships in Torino.
Is Torino where Silvia finally finds lasting happiness?
The Lovely Face of Light
Lose your heart—and find your soul—in Lebanon.
Aisha, born a Shia Muslim in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, moved with her parents to the mountain town of Harissa as a teenager. There, she discovered the world was not just far bigger but far different than anything she’d imagined. Aisha finally found Allah but on a different path… a path that also led her to Marco.
Marco Bracco, a native of the Puglia region of Italy, had come to Harissa on behalf of his Italian construction firm to manage a significant project for his company. Marco had expected to be in Lebanon for a year or so—and he hadn’t expected to meet anyone like Aisha. And just as unexpectedly, Marco soon found himself wondering if Lebanon was meant to be his home.
But how was Marco supposed to convince a Lebanese Shia Muslim father that a Roman Catholic man—an Italian foreigner, no less—was a worthy suitor for his daughter Aisha?
Perhaps Basi could help.
The Infinite Passion of Life is the first book in the The Rock & the Rose series. It is a contemporary meta-historical adventure romance. It is set in Northern Italy in 2017, but its characters are connected to real world events in Italy from just before World War II until the present. Each of the three main characters confronts changes in their respective lives and worldviews, and they evolve because of and in spite of events as they intersect and interact with each other.
The majority of the story takes place in Rimini, a city on the Adriatic coast of Italy. There are scenes in other northern Italian cities such as Como and Milano, as well as northern New Jersey. The story is Italian culture-centric, especially traditions and events from the Emilia-Romagna region. There are Italian phrases, terms, and idioms embedded to capture the communications challenges of people with different primary languages, and—just as importantly—to provide the flavor of another culture. Or, as Fellini has said…
A different language is a different vision of life.
Federico Fellini
About the author, D.J. Paolini 
D.J. Paolini is the author of The Infinite Passion of Life, his first novel, and the first book in the planned six-book series: The Rock & the Rose.
His non-fiction work includes technical editor of three award-winning database programming books. He was the contributing editor with a monthly column for a database industry magazine. He was selected to co-author a database programming book in the popular “Teach Yourself…” series. Paolini was on the team that won an award for best technical documentation for a software program. He has delivered several dozen technical papers in more than one hundred sessions at conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Paolini has had three poems published. He also writes music and has had several pieces performed in the United States and France. He wrote a column for his college newspaper and he received a creative writing award in high school. He has traveled extensively and infuses that experience into his writing. Within Me, an Invincible Summer is the second book in the series set in Northern Italy.
In his spare time, he has played in weekend rock bands and served as a volunteer firefighter and emergency squad member, including six years as fire chief. He is a licensed soccer referee and has served as the administrator for youth soccer referees in his home state of New Jersey.
The Rock & the Rose Series
Stories of Love, Life, Passion, Resilience, Resistance & Recovery in Northern Italy.
Contact the author at d.j.paolini at comcast.net.
Image of Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ – 1778011 – Pixabay.com