Dreaming of Tuscany

THREE GOLD COINS

To escape a difficult situation at home, young Australian woman Lara Foxleigh heads to Rome. But barely has she arrived when she encounters an elderly man, Samuel, at the Trevi Fountain and finds herself taking on the role of his badante, caring for him in his villa in Tuscany. Despite her employer’s surly character and mysterious lack of family connection, Lara finds a peaceful escape from her past in his rural existence, where she learns to milk goats and make ricotta… and meets the handsome goat shepherd and cheesemaker, Matteo. But for all the delights Tuscany offers, Lara still misses her mother, sister Sunny and twin niece and nephew back in Brisbane, and through alternate chapters we discover what drove her to leave them. As Lara embraces the Italian lifestyle and learns more about Samuel’s own difficulties, tensions mount back in Australia, forcing Sunny to take drastic measures. In this entertaining story, Josephine Moon deftly combines lightweight psychological drama with the dreamy escapism of an Italian idyll.