A01=Jill Francis
Adult contemporary
Author_Jill Francis
autism representation
Beach reads
Category=FQ
Category=FRD
Emotional
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_romance
European summer
Family life
Friends to lovers
Genre fiction
Heartfelt
Heartwarming
Italy
Love stories
neurodivergent character
Second chance
Second chance romance
Small town
Summer
Summer reads
Weddings
Women's fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781250322296
- Weight: 305g
- Dimensions: 139 x 213mm
- Publication Date: 18 Aug 2025
- Publisher: St Martin's Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Ellie Beltrami and Cristiano Conte have known each other their entire lives. Both families hail from Chiavari, a small city on Italy’s northwestern coast. Their parents are friends. Their grandparents are friends. They were friends. And for one brief moment, fourteen summers ago, they were more than that. After years apart, Ellie and Cris are headed back to Chiavari, as generations of Beltramis and Contes gather to celebrate the unlikely second marriage between her grandmother and his grandfather.
Ellie arrives in Italy mere hours after her career as the host of a multimedia sports talk show implodes thanks to a hot mic incident. With no work to distract her, she spends her free time re-examining her early years and all her perceived flaws in light of her recent autism diagnosis. Cris, a newly retired Olympic swimmer, also arrives adrift in the wake of accusations of a doping scandal and is searching for something that gives him real meaning.
Reunited in a place where summer dreams come true, Cris and Ellie make a deal: an exclusive interview with Cris will fix Ellie’s career, and an appearance on her show will clear his name, letting him retire in peace. Soon they’re picking up where their teen romance left off, but if this second chance can last, they’ll need to finally confront what drove them apart all those summers ago.
JILL FRANCIS is a researcher in the Department of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Bern, a freelance writer, and a voice over artist. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Jill now lives on the coast of Liguria, Italy, with her husband and their greyhound, Tulip.
