The invitation

`The perfect summer read... Gorgeously compelling' Good Housekeeping `Full of mystery and long-reaching shadows of the past . . . richly drawn and compelling' Rosanna Ley Rome, 1950s.

One fateful night, Hal Jacobs meets Stella, a beautiful society darling from New York.

To Hal, flailing in the post-war darkness, she's a point of light.

They're from different worlds, but both trying and failing to carve out a new life. Stella vanishes all too quickly, until a curious invitation from an Italian Contessa reels her back into Hal's world.

They join the Contessa's collection of luminaries on a yacht headed for Cannes film festival. The scene on board is a fiction - scars from the war can be hidden yet not healed.

Everyone is hiding a dark history, but Stella's secrets run the deepest.

Compelled by her fragile beauty, Hal is determined to bring back the girl she once was, the girl who's been confined to history. The Invitation is an epic love story that will transport you from the glamour of the Italian Riviera, to the darkness of war-torn Spain, and to a golden - if rather haunted - time.

Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Victoria Hislop.