Why Is 'From An Umbrian Farmhouse To Como'S Quiet Shores' A Good Read?

She was the daughter of a monster. He was the man who put a bullet in her father’s skull. Now, they're both trapped in a game of obsession, betrayal, and blood. When Mirabella Belluci escapes her brutal Mafia past in Chicago, she doesn't expect to be hunted by the man who freed her. Giovanni Moretti. He is cold, calculating, and a sworn enemy of her family and is meant to watch her from the shadows. Instead, he watches too closely... and wants too much. But in a world where love is weakness and loyalty is lethal, desire comes at a cost. And the closer they draw to each other, the deeper they sink into a war that could destroy them both. "Obsession is just another kind of loyalty.”

One heartbreak. Too much wine. And a one-night stand with one of the most dangerous men in Sicily. Ada’s anniversary vacation was supposed to be a romantic dream. Instead, it’s a living nightmare. When her boyfriend’s "best friend" crashes their trip, Ada trades her heartbreak for a lot of wine and a messy, public breakup. She’s ready to be the "psycho ex." She isn’t ready to stumble into the arms of a man who looks like a god and kisses like a sinner. Dario is dark, tattooed, and—unbeknownst to Ada—part of the Italian Mafia empire. He’s also been drugged, sent into a predatory haze that only Ada’s fiery spirit and curvy silhouette can soothe. Their night is a blur of desperate heat and hungover promises, but by morning, Ada is gone, leaving only a "walk of shame" and a very confused heart behind. But in the Mafia, you don’t just walk away from a Made Man. Dario woke up with a clearer head and a singular obsession: finding the woman who "serviced" him while he was at his most vulnerable. He thinks she was part of the setup. He thinks she’s a spy. But the more he tracks her, the more he realizes she’s just a heartbroken woman drowning her sorrows in the Mediterranean. Now, the "trouble in paradise" is just beginning. Dario doesn't care about her ex-boyfriend, her flight home, or her plans for the future. He’s decided she belongs to him, and in his world, what the Mafia claims, the Mafia keeps. Ada wanted a vacation to remember. Now, she’ll be lucky if he ever lets her leave.

The night before my victory gala, I heard my husband, Matteo Bellandi, promise my credit to his mistress. "Vivian, I'll put Sofia's project credit under your name. Consider it an early second-birthday gift for our son." Vivian laughed softly. "Will Sofia agree to that?" Matteo sounded bored. "She has the title of Mrs. Bellandi. That's enough." I thought I had misheard him. But the next night, my award was given to Vivian, and Matteo personally walked her onto the stage. "Young talent needs room to grow," he told the room. "From now on, Vivian will lead this project." The gala went silent. Everyone tried not to look at me. I sat in the corner Vivian had arranged for me and finally understood. Matteo had kept the title for me, then given the credit, the money, and his future to his mistress and their son. Fine. I left the ballroom without looking back. I was done being Mrs. Bellandi. From now on, I was Sofia Valenti again, the princess of Chicago’s most feared family.

On the day I signed the divorce papers, I was ordered to leave with nothing. When I walked out of the Crane estate, I had twenty-six dollars in my wallet and nowhere safe to go. My phone was nearly dead when a message from an old classmate appeared on the screen, linking to a discreet placement notice. 【Seeking a live-in maternal figure for three children. Room, board, salary, and protection provided.】 I stopped at the word protection. A roof, a meal, and a place the Cranes could not reach me were already more than I had that night. The address led me to the iron gates of an old mansion on Chicago’s Gold Coast. Only after the butler opened the door did I learn who had placed the notice. Dante Bellandi. The Don of Chicago’s oldest Italian crime family. I had only wanted a place to stay. Somehow, I became the legal mother of the three Bellandi children and the contract wife of Dante Bellandi himself. Later, my ex-husband, Sebastian Crane, stood before me with the same careless arrogance and asked, “Do you realize you were wrong now?” Before I could answer, the triplets stepped in front of me. Little Livia clung to my leg, her eyes red. “My mom wasn’t wrong!” Her two brothers stood on either side of her, staring Sebastian down. Dante placed one hand at my waist, his voice calm enough to make the air turn cold. “Mr. Crane, my wife owes no explanation to a man who lost the right to speak to her.”

Two days before Lotus’s wedding with Dylan, Lotus caught Dylan in bed with Aubree, Lotus’s childhood best friend. Filled with fury, Lotus canceled her wedding and angrily released the cheating duo’s s*x video in the wedding hall, shocking everyone Who knew that Dylan would be shameless and go on with marrying Aubree instead of apologizing? As if that wasn't enough, Dylan demanded to cancel his investment in the Meyer company unless Lotus became his mistress In a bid to seek escape from her selfish father and Dylan, Lotus ended up running into a high-end club where she ended up with a spiked dream. The next morning, Lotus woke up to a fierce kick that sent her tumbling down the bed. It turns out she had slept with the richest billionaire genius in the country. What will Lotus do when she finds out that the billionaire is averse to female touch? And he's hellbent on kicking her out?

“What happens if I don’t give you what you want” “Then we’ll make you worship us on your knees, piccola.” Rafael muttered with certainty. Leone’s lips brushed my ear. “You’ll fight, you’ll curse…but in the end, amore mio, you’ll beg.” “…And you’ll beg for all of us.” Enzo added, as he crouched between my legs. Aurelia Reed has spent her life trying to outrun her family’s shadow. Being the daughter of a traitor, and a rising model means she has to work twice as hard to make a name for herself outside the Outfit. She is stubborn, opinionated, and the last woman who would ever submit quietly to a mafia marriage. But when her cousin refuses to wed, Aurelia is forced into her place, and handed to the infamous Moretti twins, two brothers who despise each other but are now bound to her. Different in every way, neither brother is particularly eager for her presence, and Aurelia quickly learns that her marriage is less about love than it is about survival. And then there’s Enzo, the youngest. He was never supposed to be hers, yet every stolen moment with him crosses another forbidden line. Caught between two husbands locked in rivalry and the brother she was never meant to touch, Aurelia soon realizes that in the Morretti's world, nothing is safe—not her heart, not her body, and certainly not the line she’s about to cross.