Description:
Musical prodigy Venus Arinelli's life shattered at the age of 19 when her father was arrested for anti-government activity. When he died of a heart attack a week later while in custody, Venus took her younger sister and ran from accusations and harassment. Ten years later, she's still running from the government agencies that are eager to place the blame on her every time a subversive group explodes a bomb in the United States. Gib Cameron was a child of 5 when Venus's parents were married at Cameron Hall. Steeped in tradition, Gib's family is well respected and firmly rooted in American history, while Venus's is notorious and barely a generation away from immigration. But tragedy has come knocking on the venerable door of the Cameron stronghold high in the Tennessee hills, and the matriarchal great-aunt of the clan orders Gib to find the Arinelli sisters and bring them to the Hall. Shari Kirk and Max Arinelli were the first guests to stay there, and the great-aunt believes that their daughters hold the key to the survival of the Hall and the healing of her family. Gib and Venus are worlds apart on the surface--she with her pierced navel, wild clothing, and career as a lounge musician, and he with his conservative clothing, schooling at the Citadel, and career as a Secret Service agent. But they are soul mates under their skins, for each is deeply honorable, wary of love, and fiercely protective of their families. The two share in an arduous journey of the heart, searching the past to heal the present and find a future. They take with them a collection of fascinating, well-developed secondary characters in a story that mixes pathos with humor and is rich with human emotion, lush landscapes, and a plot so well conceived that it resonates like a finely tuned Steinway. --Lois Faye Dyer
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