The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany follows Emilia Fontana, a baker at her grandfather's Brooklyn deli, and her cousin Lucy, both "second-born" daughters in a family that believes a two-century-old curse has kept every second daughter from finding lasting love. When their great-aunt Poppy announces she intends to break the curse by meeting the love of her life on the steps of Ravello Cathedral on her eightieth birthday, she asks Emilia and Lucy to join her in Italy.
The trip carries them from Venice's canals through the Tuscan countryside to the Amalfi Coast, and as the three women travel together, old assumptions about love, family, and their own futures start to shift. Along the way, a set of family secrets surfaces that has more bearing on the Fontana women's lives than the curse itself.
Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List, writes character-driven women's fiction with a strong sense of place; this one leans into Italian travel and multi-generational family dynamics as much as romance.
A second-born daughter and baker at her grandfather's Brooklyn deli.
Emilia's cousin, also second-born, eager to find love.
The women's great-aunt, determined to break the family curse on her 80th birthday in Italy.
The ancestor who cast the original curse on her sister over two centuries earlier.
The narrative employs a dual-timeline structure that alternates between the present-day journey of the three women and flashbacks to the younger years of Great-Aunt Poppy.
The author developed the premise of the curse while working as a high school guidance counselor, where she often encountered students heartbroken over doomed romances and wondered how their lives might differ if they believed love was fundamentally impossible for them.