($39.99, HarperCollins)
What, me? Book of the Week? oh really, you shouldn’t have. Sorry, who shouldn’t have? What? Can’t hear – going through a tunnel, thank you!
In other words, here I am again with my new novel, Dolci di Love. This time I am taking you to the fairytale hilltop towns of Tuscany in Italy, but it’s not for the usual romantic reasons: Lily Turner has just found out that her husband Daniel has a secret family there.
Unable to have children of her own, she doesn’t give a tinker’s cuss about the rolling green hills and fat golden haystacks and steaming bowls of orecchiette.
She just wants to find the man who broke her heart and – yes, well, you can use your own imagination there.
What Lily doesn’t know is that she has captured the attention of the Secret League of Widowed Darners, an underground network of ancient, black-clad Italian women intent on conjuring up happy endings for the lovelorn. They have plans of their own, not the least of which involves getting Lily to help bake their famous cantucci.
Dolci di Love was inspired, in part, by discovering this part of Tuscany where tiny walled towns sit perched on hilltops peppering the lush green valleys below.
It is ridiculously beautiful.
on visiting these towns though, I couldn’t help noticing how many little old ladies were sitting in their separate doorways watching the world go by. “What if they’re not so separate?” I asked myself one day. “What if they’re actually texting or emailing or calling each other to say, ‘Tall, dark New Zealander on approach. Release smell of chocolate.'”
And so the Secret League of Widowed Darners was born.
I’m touring New Zealand to talk about Dolci di Love, starting in Auckland on 2 March then going to Christchurch, oxford, Wanaka, Cromwell, Arrowtown, Wellington, Masterton, Palmerston North, Wanganui and New Plymouth.
If you want to come along, check out the details on the Dolci di Love Facebook page or visit www.harpercollins.co.nz It would be nice to see you!
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