Cat Gardiner

Villa Fortuna - Pride, Prejudice, & a Haircut Cat Gardiner

A laugh-out-loud contemporary romance novel. Discover the prideful misunderstandings and holiday magic of Villa Fortuna where three sisters from Little Italy collide with the country club set ... at a hair salon. Dr. Elizabeth Fairchild lived an orderly and focused life in Los Angeles until ...an unexpected death, a questionable inheritance, and an eighty-year-old Mafia vendetta required a trip home to New York City's Little Italy neighborhood in the Bronx. After thirteen years of running from her Italian-American upbringing, Elizabeth dreaded returning to the ethnic world of colorful hand gestures, passionate arguments, and living with her two stereotypical sisters in their rundown apartment above a bakery. Her plan: get in, take care of business, celebrate Christmas, and then escape as quickly as possible. However, returning to the Bronx assailed the senses like her mother's lasagna. She didn't count on Italian pastry, homemade wine, a beauty parlor, and the enticement of a dashing plastic surgeon known as Michelangelo. Will Elizabeth flee her childhood home where the foundation of faith and famiglia is so strong? Or will she stay and embrace all the traditions that once embarrassed her? Should she succumb or resist her elder sister's admonishment, "Your home is where your heart is, and we are your heart-marinara, cannolis, the church, and the family! The whole shebang!"