fyreflybooks.wordpress.com summary
"In Renaissance Italy, there were only three things a woman could be: wife, whore, or nun, and the condition in which a girl found herself was almost entirely dependent on her family’s fortunes. In many noble families, only one dowry could be afforded, so any younger daughters were shuttled off to live lives of piety and deprivation in the convents, regardless of their wishes or aptitudes. When the convent of Santa Caterina in Ferrarra accepts one such girl, Serafina, she is rebellious and desperate to escape – the young musician she loves has promised to follow her and wait for her to be freed. The abbess assigns the dispensary mistress, Zuana, to calm the girl’s rages, and as Zuana recognizes something of herself in the spirited young woman, a tentative friendship between the two begins to develop. But all is not settled, for it is a time of upheaval – forces both inside and outside the convent walls are seeking reform in the form of further restrictions, and a re-dedication of the lives of the nuns to God – and Serafina’s arrival will set off a chain of events that will wind up shaking Santa Caterina to its foundations."

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

On the seat at the top of White Hart Fold