In Florence, Jennifer is buffeted between the past and the present. She feels David’s presence, always, 23 years after he died. Her love for him has kept her distant from all other men in her life. Still, there’s something about James Donovan, the handsome billionaire whose building she is designing. Much as she wants to love him, to believe he truly loves her, she isn’t quite ready to give up David. She senses secrets in James that he doesn’t talk about, and wonders. Amilya’s outspoken enthusiasm for James and the closeness those two grow into further complicates matters.

Playing her cello – for David, under the willow tree where they had first made love – Jennifer discovers that her music calls James to her as strongly as it had pulled David. She gives her heart, and yet holds a part of herself back.

In an unusual twist, James has a cast of supporting characters – people who work for him and are as close as most families, but Jennifer has only Amilya. These two strong people push and pull until, in the end, each tells the other their deepest secrets, freeing them to love, and just in time, for disaster threatens the child they both hold dear.

Erin Aislinn has woven the flavor of a city with threads of business, personalities, love and letting go into the thoroughly satisfying tale, It Happened in Florence. Readers can only hope she has plans to tell us of more cities and their lovers soon.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Very Sensual

Reviewer: Chas Ridley
May 22, 2003