Who Is The Author Of 'An Italian Affair: A True Story Of Life, Love And Travel'?

My life turned upside down when I crossed paths with the playboy heir of the most powerful Italian family, Cosimo di Maggio. Against my objections, he pulled me into his world of luxury and extravaganza, but I soon realized it wasn’t going to be a fairytale experience.

Elizabeth Adams has never made room for love. At twenty-nine, she believes success comes first and feelings only complicate the future she’s worked so hard to build. But in Paris—after a failed blind date and a moment of unexpected vulnerability—Elizabeth meets a woman who makes her forget every rule she’s ever lived by. Their connection is instant, electric, and deeply intimate. One night. Two women. A memory that refuses to fade. When a small lie shatters the illusion, Elizabeth leaves Paris convinced it was a beautiful mistake she’ll never repeat. Back in South Africa, she tries to move on—until the woman she left behind shows up, carrying the same longing Elizabeth can no longer deny. As their bond deepens, a devastating truth is revealed: the woman Elizabeth loves is her mother’s long-lost first love. Caught between desire and loyalty, Elizabeth must decide whether love is worth breaking her own heart—or her mother’s.  

His gun-roughened hands burned against my waist, every breath laced with the cold, unyielding possession that had made him the most feared Cosa Nostra Don in all of Sicily. A shrill ring sliced through the haze. He answered in guttural Sicilian. It was the dialect I’d learned years ago to fit into his world, so I caught every word. His consigliere was screaming down the line at him for filing a valid, legally binding marriage license with Sofia Lombardi, the woman who’d abandoned him when a bomb left him mute for seven years. Luca’s order was cold as a trigger pull. “Secure the original license in the family vault. Draw up a forged, null-and-void marriage license for Isa to keep her compliant.” In the eyes of the law, of his entire crew, I was nothing but his mistress. After seven years of laying down my life for him, I’d been reduced to nothing but his mistress. Another call flashed. Luca turned to me, the lie already shaping his mouth. “Family matters. The guards will see you home.” Without a word, I stepped out into the Palermo night, my hands shaking as I dialed his mother, Anna Vitali. “I’ll take your fifty million euros. I’ll leave Luca. For good.” Anna once said Luca and I were worlds apart. I had to admit she was right. This time, I want to leave with dignity.

Three days to Yvonne's birthday, she received unsettling news: her father had agreed to marry her to the most powerful Mafia leader in the Country. She has no choice in the matter, there was no escape. That was her new reality. But her new husband, Enzo Davide is angry, heartbroken and seems to hate her guts. The cold, elusive Mafia lord has never quite struck Yvonne as the kind of man she'd want to spend the rest of her life with. She was more content with her sweet, thoughtful boyfriend, Henry , but when circumstances force them together. Yvonne and Enzo's hearts get entangled in a way they never saw coming, but when a chance leads to a terrible mistake, Yvonne fears she will lose the love of her life.

On the third anniversary of our engagement, my fiancé—Dominic Corleone, heir to one of the most powerful Mafia dynasties in New York—told me he was not ready to form a new family so that our wedding would have to postpone. I told myself to wait for some time, the bond between the Corleones and the Valentinos—our families’ sacred alliance—would hold us together. But what followed were his endless betrayals and tortures. I walked into a bridal boutique and saw him laughing with Liliane, the childhood friend who always lingered too close. I watched him destroy the wedding gown I had spent months designing—then crush my hand beneath his heel until it bled. And when I thought I had hit rock bottom, he proved I was wrong—by getting behind the wheel and running me down. He thought I’d beg and cling to him, terrified of losing the Corleone name and privilege that came with it. But instead, I made one phone call and insisted firmly on canceling the engagement. However, that call didn’t just end a marriage arrangement. It unearthed a secret that had been buried for over a decade…and turned a marriage born of duty into a story of dark devotion.

Everyone in Palermo knew Alessandro De Luca had a reputation. He was the Boss of the De Luca family, one of the oldest bloodlines in Sicily — a name tied to the port, the courts, and half the construction contracts in Palermo. Wealth, power, discipline—those things were expected. Romance was not. He didn’t chase women, and he never went back to the same one twice. Until me. When we broke up after a brutal argument, he did something no De Luca had done in generations—he stood outside the gates of the Moretti estate, my family home, for an entire day and night. I watched from behind the curtains and never opened the door. The next day, he came inside the estate kitchen himself. Alessandro De Luca, who grew up surrounded by servants, tried to cook my favorite seafood pasta with his own hands. He burned the sauce. I threw it away without tasting it. On the third day, he found the necklace my grandmother had left me—something my uncle had sold years ago—and bought it back, paying far more than it was worth, just to return it to me. At a formal family dinner, in front of elders and allies, he made it clear: No more women. Only me. It took him a year to win me back. That summer, fireworks lit up the Palermo coastline as he announced our engagement. I believed he had chosen me. Until the night of a private gathering at an old harbor estate. A young woman was being pulled forward in the middle of the courtyard, her dress torn at the shoulder, tears running down her face. Alessandro went still. Then he stood up. He didn’t look at me. He didn’t explain. He just walked toward her. And something inside me went cold. I rested my hand over my abdomen. There was something I hadn’t told him yet. He broke his word that night. So I broke mine.