From debut author Caitlin Alice Gilbert comes a bold and emotionally resonant romance that flips the script on scandal, and shows the power of self-discovery, redemption, and a summer of love in a small Italian town.

When steamy text messages between tenacious US Congresswoman Isabella Rhodes and her opposing candidate, Levi Cross, go public just before the election, Izzy’s reputation takes a nose dive and her political career comes to a crashing end.

Desperate to have some time out she returns to the gorgeous Italian village of La Musa, which she last visited when she was nineteen, to lick her wounds and recover. Welcomed with open arms at the Villa Farentino by matriarch Anita, she doesn’t get the same reception from her grumpy son Benito who’s just returned from England to take over as mayor after his father, Rafaello, left town...and his wife.

But Izzy can’t escape politics or matters of the heart and she quickly becomes embroiled in the village’s mission to stop Rafaello’s greedy development company from building a 5-star hotel, and along the way discovers that there’s a lot more to Benito than she thought.

When Izzy unwittingly becomes the face of the proposed development her cover is blown and she has to decide - can she save the town, mend her broken heart, and have the life she’s worked so hard for or does she want to stay out of the limelight and risk it all?