Last Voyage of the Valentina - Tapa blanda

Written with finesse and page-turning energy. Kirkus Reviews Santa Montefiore brilliantly captures the intrigue and skulduggery of a country at war in a very absorbing romance. Red The novel is a triumph ... Santa allows us to hear all her characters speak, ensuring we form immediate bonds with them Writing Magazine A thrilling dark romance Italy If you're a fan of the old-fashioned blockbuster and are fond of a little Rosamunde Pilcher-style nostalgia, this is just the ticket. Glamour Oh the exotic, dramatic romance of it all. Santa Montefiore writes with true style and passion, her characters overflowing with emotion, her plots thick with intrigue and betrayal. Ladies, take the phone off the hook and settle down with 400 pages of blissful escapism. Shari Low, Scottish Daily Record Enough bedroom bangs to keep the pulse racing. New Woman Santa Montefiore's world of Italian peasants and partisans, Nazis and aristocrats is flamboyant and suspenseful. Anyone who likes Joanna Harris or Mary Wesley will love Montefiore's atmospheric sixth romance. Mail on Sunday 'Santa Montefiore is a superb storyteller of love and death in romantic places in fascinating times ... Last Voyage of the Valentina is a passionate, page-turning life journey and a dark mystery that sweeps from war-torn, Mafia-infested Italy to aristocratic 1960s London' Plum Sykes (author of Bergdorf Blondes)

Alba always feels like an outsider. She hardly knew her Italian mother and her English father acts as if Valentina never existed. She despises country life almost as much as she despises her stepmother and stepsisters. On board the houseboat named after her dead mother, Alba's life is little more than a selfish search for fun and pleasure. But the discovery of her mother's portrait sends the girl back to Italy to find her family - and the truth about Valentina. Amid the olive groves of the Amalfi coast, its balmy air rich with the scent of figs, a tale of deception and betrayal is waiting to be discovered. It is a tale that takes Alba into the past - but also gives her a new future.