Showing results by author "Michelle Damiani" in All Categories

Chiara has presided over the espresso machine at Bar Birbo for as long as anyone can remember. In Santa Lucia, this is the only place to go for a cappuccino served with a side of gossip. The town's residents rely on each other and feel almost like a family, but their secrets are kept well hidden. While romance is in the air for some, the truth behind the love affairs is far more complicated than anyone can imagine. When everyone has ulterior motives and unspoken desires, it's only a matter of time before things finally come to a head.

Old secrets. New lies. An Italian village on the brink of catastrophe. Things are changing in Santa Lucia, and not necessarily for the better. As the town's residents move through their daily lives, finding love, friendship, and themselves, the past starts to catch up with them...and spill its secrets. Sins thought long-forgotten return with vengeance, threatening the happiness of those who have fought for it so hard. When several children go missing, it sets off a series of events that expose hard truths and painful lies.

When Michelle Damiani dreamed of living in Italy, she imagined her family as it was in Virginia - her husband filling every moment with work, her teenage son experimenting with sarcasm, her daughter smiling at the scent of lilacs, her baby-cheeked son methodically clicking Legos together, and herself hovering over the happiness of them all - only surrounded by ancient cobblestone alleys and the sound of ringing Italian. What she didn't know was how Italy would work to change them all. 

The fire may be out, but smoke and suspicion still linger in Santa Lucia. Though the townspeople still gather for espresso at the town cafe and swap recipes at the butcher shop, their iridescent blue sky is clouded by a veil of uncertainty and mistrust. The statue of the Madonna, set in a wall outside the cafe, watches it all in collected silence. But when New Yorker Alessandro arrives to claim his inheritance - the derelict castle and the charred olive trees that surround it - it unearths secrets thought long buried.

Santa Lucia has seen a lot of changes, and they've made life for the villagers harder than they ever imagined. Creating a working vineyard. Parenting a teenage daughter. Romance with the mayor. Being gay in a quintessential Italian village. None of these are easy, and everyone is feeling the pressure as their annual festival nears.