First published 2025
Jess Capodimonte Baratta sits in her parents' basement in Lake Como, New Jersey, nursing wounds from her divorce and wondering how her life went so wrong. She works as a draftswoman in her uncle Louie's marble business while playing caretaker to her family, always putting everyone else first. When tragedy strikes both the Capodimonte and Baratta families, buried secrets emerge that shatter everything Jess believed about the people she trusted most. Fed up with being overlooked and determined to reclaim her dreams, she buys a one-way ticket to Italy and heads for her ancestral home in Carrara. Among the marble mountains of Tuscany, through the streets of Milan, and along the shores of the real Lake Como, Jess begins building a new life. She meets Angelo Strazza, an artist who works in gold, and discovers her own talents have value she never recognized. As she uncovers the truth about her family's past, Jess must decide whether to remain loyal to those who failed her or forge ahead on her own terms.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Carrara, Italy, Lake Como, Lake Como, Milan, New Jersey, Tuscany
Period: 21st-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Dutton