When Venus Fell - Tapa dura

A stranger from her family's distant past confronts Venus Arinelli in a smoky Chicago bar, holding out the promise of restoring her broken dreams of becoming a great musician, of reclaiming her family's possessions, and of love

h's hardcover debut, A Place to Call Home, secured her standing as one of the most appealing new voices in Southern and romance fiction. Now, in this provocative and enchanting new novel, she writes of a long journey from tragedy to hope, a story of love, choices, and miracles.

To look at her, you wouldn't think Venus Arinelli was once a child piano prodigy destined for the world's finest concert halls. And you wouldn't think she had gotten her name from a tiny piece of white quartz--"a piece of the evening star"--given to her mother by a small boy in a remote Tennessee valley. Venus's waist-length curtain of platinum braids, pierced navel, and cleavage have paid the bills for herself and her fragile sister in their ten ragtag years playing music on the bar circuit. Ten years since their father died in a jail cell and federal bullies seized all Venus and Ella owned--except their music and a single photograph.

All her life Venus has cherished that pictur