Lucianna — Bertrice Small

In this sweeping new series of Renaissance Italy, Bertrice Small does it again with all the passion and historical splendor that has captured the imagination of her legion of fans....

After her two elder sisters become the scandals of Florence, Lucianna Pietro d'Angelo is in the difficult position of finding a wealthy man who will have her for his wife. She has little choice but to accept the proposal of an aging bookseller -- a not entirely disagreeable union in which Lucianna comforts the dear man in his final years. When he passes away, she inherits his shop and, with it, a sizable fortune.

Lucianna is content with comfortable widowhood -- until Robert Minton, Earl of Lisle, visits her bookshop. The Englishman is not only dashing and handsome -- he's a trusted courtier of Henry VII.

The Pietro d'Angelos cannot deny the spark of attraction between their daughter and the earl, so they scheme to send her to London. There, Lucianna steps out of the shadow of her quiet Florentine life, pursuing a love of which she never dreamed and rising in London society all the way to court of the new Tudor king.