In her latest novel, THE MERMAID GARDEN, author Santa
Montefiore brings the past and the present together to
weave a spellbinding tale of regrets, resolve and
resolution, and how all is tied together by love.
The past presents the story of Floriana in Tuscany, a
lovely little girl whose mother has run off with another
man, leaving her daughter with her drunken father. Floriana
is a wild child, and has unlimited freedom to explore.
While on one of her adventures, she is caught looking over
the wall of a villa that she likes to visit by a boy named
Dante, whose family owns the villa. He invites her in to
explore the gorgeous Mermaid garden, and they become fast
friends. Floriana even falls in love with Dante, despite
the fact that she is only 10 and he is a teenager going off
to school at the end of the summer -- she somehow knows
their lives were meant to be connected.
Rushing forward to the present, the story turns to Marina
and Grey Turner, who own and run the beautiful Polzanze
Hotel. One of Marina's great sorrows is that she has no
children of her own, and considers her two stepchildren,
Jake and Clementine, to be like her own. But Clementine is
resentful of Marina's influence on her father and only
tolerates her existence, even though she has been in their
lives since they were very small children.
When the hotel becomes in danger of closing, Marina fights
as hard as she can to save her dreams. She advertises for
an artist to stay the summer and teach the guests how to
paint. The man she hires, Rafa Santoro, is charismatic and
wise and soon begins to pacify the discord in her family
and transform the fortunes of the hotel. He also seems
quite interested in Clementine, sweeping her off her feet
with his charm and surprising gentleness. However, Rafa has
his own agenda for being at the Polzanze. Is it to destroy,
to seduce, or to heal? Whatever his intentions, his
presence is certain to change the lives of the Turner
family forever.
A consummate storyteller, Santa Montefiore has a magical
way of pulling her readers into her beautiful and
fantastical worlds where love is triumphant and where a
little heart-ache is necessary to making dreams come
true. THE MERMAID GARDEN is a fine example of the talent
of this brilliant writer, showcasing her ability to weave
two distinct storylines into one intriguing and uplifting
tale that will resonate with readers long after the last
page is turned.
The internationally bestselling author of The French
Gardener presents a complex and irresistibly compelling
novel that confirms the remarkable power of love to heal and
transform.
Ten-year-old Floriana is captivated by the beauty of the
magnificent Tuscan villa that overlooks the sea just outside
her small village. She likes to spy from the crumbling wall
into the gardens and imagine that one day she'll escape her
meager existence and live there surrounded by its
otherworldly splendor. Then one day Dante, the son of the
villa's powerful industrialist owner, invites her inside and
shows her the enchanting Mermaid Garden. From that moment,
Floriana knows that the only destiny for her is there, in
that garden, with Dante. But as they grow up and fall in
love, their romance causes a crisis, jeopardizing the very
thing they hold most dear.
Decades later and hundreds of miles away, a beautiful old
country house hotel on England's Devon coast has fallen on
hard times after the financial crash of 2008. Its owner,
Marina, advertises for an artist to stay the summer and
teach the guests how to paint. The man she hires is
charismatic and wise and soon begins to pacify the discord
in her family and transform the fortunes of the hotel.
However, he has his own agenda. Is it to destroy, to seduce,
or to heal? Whatever his intentions, he is certain to change
Marina's life forever.
Spanning four decades and sweeping from the Italian
countryside to the English coast, this new story by Santa
Montefiore is a moving and mysterious tale of love,
forgiveness, and the past revealed.
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