Two women, two centuries. A unique twist to a dual timeline historical mystery.

To the citizens of the Florentine republic, Gabriela di Domenico is merely the seamstress working in her father's tailoring studio but, in reality, she dares to create in ways unacceptable for women at the time. Today, we might label her a designer but in Renaissance Florence, women were wives, mothers, courtesans, or nuns. This woman is talented and irrepressible but viewed with suspicion by all except the artists she meets through her father's association with the powerful Medici family. Botticelli calls her "the seamstress to the goddesses," which would be shocking enough.

When her gifts attract the attention of patron and statesman Lorenzo de' Medici himself, Gabriela's life takes an abrupt turn. The great Medici offers her patronage as well as an education and she is encouraged to explore her talents as an interesting addition to Magnifico's collection of artists. But Gabriela treads a dangerous line: as long as she is under Medici protection, she is safe, but as soon as the Medici power wanes, she is exposed as an insult to God and man.

Just as Florence falls into the spell of the friar Savonarola, who preaches against the sins of luxury and a liberal education, Gabriella begins experiencing visions-speaking a strange version of Italian, hearing voices that can't possibly exist. The priests claim that she is possessed and move in to purge her demons. Meanwhile, another woman in another century is grappling with hallucinations while being labeled by various psychologists with mental illness. Her life is also fractured by strange aberrations of the mind but neither woman is mad. Both are tangled in the memory of the other and neither can move forward without finding resolution. For one, the threat of public humiliation or worse, for the other, institutionalization. Either they resolve their fracture together or perish.

But the key to their escape is locked into a sleeve of one of Gabriela's designs. Even she doesn't fully understand the symbols Lorenzo de' Medici has instructed she hide among the silks and velvets. Medici's love of puzzles sets the stage as he locks Gabriela's life in a complex secret to protect his beloved art collection as well as the woman who has become like a daughter to him. When Florence burns, Gabriela must run, but escape is not so easy when she is kept under lock and key by both the priests and her husband, presumably to protect her soul. But the soul will liberate itself.

This begins a dual timeline mystery of two women struggling to claim their identity against the backdrop of the most fascinating and fractious periods of world history. Lorenzo de' Medici, Botticelli, and Savonarola are only some of the key players in this thrilling tale of religion and identity, creativity and self. In the end, a surprising conclusion awaits these dual protagonists as they reassess what it means to be free.

A companion read to The Florentine's Secret and book two of the Time Shadows dual timeline series, this book is like a Renaissance puzzle-a story within a story.