Spotlight and Giveaway: Lizzie and Dante

Today we're celebrating the publication of Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly. Thanks to Random House, we have TWO copies to give away!

Celebrated as “the thinking woman’s romance writer” (Huffington Post) for her New York Times bestselling novels published under the penname Eloisa James, Mary Bly’s LIZZIE & DANTE (A Dial Press Hardcover; On Sale: June 1, 2021) is the perfect escapist love story for summer.

On the heels of a difficult break-up and a devastating diagnosis, Shakespearian scholar Lizzie Delford decides to take one last lavish vacation on Elba, the sun-kissed island off the Italian coast, with her best friend and his movie-star boyfriend. Once settled into a luxurious seaside resort, Lizzie has to make big decisions about her future, and she needs the one thing she may be running out of: time.

She leaves the yacht-owners and celebrities behind and sneaks off to the public beach, where she meets a sardonic chef named Dante, his battered dog Lily, and his wry daughter Etta, a twelve-year-old desperate for a mother. While Dante shows Lizzie the island's secrets, and Etta dazzles with her irreverent humor, Lizzie is confronted with a dilemma. Is it right to fall in love if time is short? Is it better to find a mother briefly, or to have no mother at all? And most pressingly, are the delicacies of life worth tasting even if you will only get to savor them for a short while?

A luscious story of love, courage, and Italian wine, Lizzie & Dante demands to know how far we should travel to find a future worth fighting for. 

“Lizzie and Dante is a feast of a novel: for the senses, the mind and the emotions. The story unfolds in a whirl of Italian landscape, food, passion and philosophy. No subject is too big for this book; no detail too small. It is a joyful, escapist, wise and satisfying story which answers the questions we didn’t even know we wanted to ask.” 

—Sophie Kinsella, author of Love Your Life

"Prepare to be swept away on an Italian holiday—one that sizzles with romance, intrigue, and mouth-watering cuisine. A smart, complex, highly affecting novel that swept me away from the very first image of Elba Island.”

—Lori Nelson Spielman, author of One Italian Summer

“I fell in love with Lizzie and Dante—and the whole cast of characters. And Elba. Such a heartbreakingly beautiful story, full of smiles and tears. I could see and smell Napoleon’s little island, taste Dante’s food, and hear Lizzie sing. Wow.” 

—Karen White, author of Dreams of Falling

Photo by Sara Azoulay

Mary Bly is a New York Times bestselling author under the name Eloisa James and professor of English literature who lives with her family in New York, but can sometimes be found in Paris or Italy. She is the mother of two and, in a particularly delicious irony for a romance writer, is married to a genuine Italian knight.

Visit Mary online:

Website * Facebook * Instagram

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

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Giveaway ends June 6th at midnight EST.