Rome\u2014once the heart of an empire, now the heart of the Catholic Church\u2014has witnessed many love stories. When the Eternal City draws together a Swiss Guard and an American expat, a modern-day romance blooms in the shadow of Saint Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n
Haunted by a broken engagement and betrayed by her best friend, Elena Gattino travels to Rome for a new job and the hope of a new life. Fueled by pasta and bolstered by prayer, she becomes brave enough to forge new friendships with the Rechsteiner siblings as she explores Rome and finds her footing at work.<\/p>\n
Benedikt Rechsteiner is comfortable serving in the Swiss Guard, even if he recognizes his life lacks a special something\u2026or someone. Simmering family tensions and uncertainty about his future have left Beni wary of relationships, but his unexpected feelings for Elena challenge him to face his fears.<\/p>\n
Soon, Beni and Elena\u2019s friendship turns into more, thanks to the matchmaking meddling of a Vatican spymaster, a Swiss Guard comrade-in-arms, and Beni\u2019s overenthusiastic yet lovable sister. But then Elena\u2019s past follows her to Rome, putting her in danger that even Beni may not be able to save her from. And if Beni wants to be with Elena, he\u2019ll need to discern where his own future lies\u2014and reconcile with his father after years of bitterness. Can the two forge a relationship strong enough to withstand the suffering that comes their way? Or will the tensions of their own lives pull them apart?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Rebecca W. Martin Rome\u2014once the heart of an empire, now the heart of the Catholic Church\u2014has witnessed many love stories. When the Eternal City draws together a Swiss Guard and an American expat, a modern-day romance blooms in the shadow of Saint Peter\u2019s Basilica. Haunted by a broken engagement and betrayed by her best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[2566,59,222,273],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8557","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-chrism-press","7":"product_cat-contemporary-fiction","8":"product_cat-new-releases","9":"product_cat-romance","11":"first","12":"onbackorder","13":"taxable","14":"shipping-taxable","15":"purchasable","16":"product-type-variable"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/8557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=8557"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=8557"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=8557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}