Return to Lerici

 

 

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A suspenseful, uplifting story of second chances, family bonds, and redemption.

Sisters Elinor and Saffron rarely see eye-to-eye, but they agree that an unknown half-brother appearing in their lives can only spell trouble. The Greene sisters want to support their ailing mother, Betsy, as they gather in their cottage in Lerici, Italy. But they don’t want Betsy to keep searching for Baby Boy, the only name they have on faded adoption papers.

While the Greenes debate, Baby Boy finds them. A rough childhood has led Daniel to a life as a thief. When he learns of his connection to the wealthy Greenes, he decides to scam them. He goes to Italy and using a fake identity observes them at close range. Watching these people makes him ache for what he never had—a loving family.

Betsy is touched by the young man’s story and guesses their hidden connection. Discovering his true identity, she asks the family to help him. But Daniel’s shady past is catching up and putting the Greenes at risk. Should they bring their lost lamb into the fold—and can he claim his heritage if it endangers his family?

Read an Excerpt:

Robert sang a few words. “How about this?”

“I don’t know it, but it sounds good.”

“It’s my own. I wrote it.”

He began to strum, accompanying his soft voice, and Betsy had another jolt of recognition. It was the voice. There was so much of a similarity in the timbre that it made her ache. She wondered what Elinor would think if she came in while he was singing and heard Nathan’s singing voice coming out of this young man.

The song soothed her every aching muscle and bone. It did her body good and her nerves too. Like a fond memory, it wrapped her in the sensation that life was good and harmonious, that there was honey in every breeze and heaven just around the corner. He had a gift, this fellow. He definitely had talent. So how had he wound up tinkering with plumbing in Lerici? Maybe her intuition was true, and he had come for them.

Betsy lay back as he sang, her arm across her eyes, and thought of days past when musicians sang just for her, and she went home with one of them. Days long before Nathan and his stuffy circle of academics. The music was pulling her back to a time when she could relax and be herself, and her stuffy daughter didn’t criticize her every impulse and comment. She understood that Elinor felt criticized by her; what Elinor didn’t realize is that she’d adopted Betsy’s habit of sharp comments. And somewhere—God knew where—she’d picked up that skepticism that was going to burn her sweetheart down, if she didn’t marry the wonderful Tonio soon.

Robert strummed a last chord, his voice fading into the silence.

She sat up and looked at him. They stared at each other for a moment.

“You remind me of someone,” she murmured. “My ex-husband, Nathan.”

Why didn’t Robert look surprised?

About the Author

Rachel Dacus is the author of six novels, four time travel books in the Timegathering Series and two books of women’s fiction. She has also published four poetry collections. Rachel’s work has appeared widely in print and online, in journal that include Boulevard, Gargoyle, and Prairie Schooner. Her poetry is in the anthologies Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Radiant DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Website: http://www.racheldacus.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelDacusAuthor
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/racheldacusauthor

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Return-Lerici-heartwarming-siblings-Invisibles-ebook/dp/B0CBY5PQSH/ref=sr_1_1

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