Melanie Rivers has a plan for her second year of fashion design: keep her head down, finish her collection, and never let another man close enough to hurt her again. She is good at this. She has had practice.
Then a transfer student from Florence sits across from her in the library, notices the weight problem in her sleeve pattern before she does, and tells her, with complete composure, that he came to America to find the person he is supposed to marry - and that she should know he is paying attention to her, so she can decide what to do about it.
What follows is a slow burn built from coffee cart rituals, old photographs, lantern-lit gardens, a fashion show that changes everything, and a year neither of them will forget.
A gorgeous, warm-hearted debut about armour, and the courage it takes to finally take it off.
