Master's Protégé Trilogy

Celeste Gabriele's life has gone from wealth and privilege in the highest echelons of Venetian aristocracy to dismal poverty in the slums. With her drunk of a father missing and her mother dead, it falls upon Celeste to protect her younger brothers and sister from starvation. When the burden becomes overwhelming, and Celeste makes plans to escape her wretched life, her wealthy aunt appears and whisks her off to work as a nanny to young Federigo Benetto. One day, as Celeste escorts Federigo to his art lesson with Maestro Luciano Vicente, the maestro discovers a sketch drawn by Celeste. He immediately recognizes her raw artistic talent and begs her to become his secret protÃ

Fans of The Poison Keeper,The Night Portrait, and The Tidelands will find much to love in this heartwarming second installment of the Master's Protege Trilogy by award-winning author Eleanor Chance. Join Celeste Gabriele in this second book of the Master's Protege Trilogy as she finds herself torn between desire for fame and fortune in the turbulent Renaissance art world and the call of home and family. Will she have the strength and courage to resist the lure of the siren song and brave churning waters to make her way home?

In one tragic moment, Celeste Gabriele loses all it has taken a lifetime to create. Surrounded by political upheaval and personal turmoil in 1497 Florence, she feels betrayed and utterly alone. Can she summon the courage and strength to conquer her demons and find the love she so desperately craves? Political tensions are high in Florence under the fanatical rule of Prior Girolamo Savonarola, but Celeste is content. She and her husband, Luciano, share a loving marriage, thriving art careers, and five wonderful children. Her life is happier than she could have imagined, until the day a letter arrives from her brother, Marco, that she never expected to receive. He begs her to hurry to Venice and help him remove their sister, Veronica, from the convent where she's been sequestered for the past ten years. When Celeste agrees, the decision sets off a chain of events that end in tragedy. Celeste is left to gather the shattered pieces of her life for the sake of her children and forge a path back to the happiness she once possessed.