Willow Vale (2012) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

• FRANCESCA SITTONI: Francesca Sittoni's life is changed forever by the Great War. With the stroke of a pen in 1919, maps are redrawn and the nationalities of over twenty-four million Austrian citizens of the defeated Austro-Hungarian empire are switched to Italian. Her first husband killed in the war, when the new husband she has never met comes to claim her, Francesca says goodbye to her poverty-stricken parents and the emerald valleys of her homeland in the Tyrolean Alps. Though the ancient feudal system of land ownership is in its death throes, the local farmers will wait years more for it to die. Meanwhile, medieval castles still dominate the green valleys, and the yearning for land is an empty promise. And America proves an empty promise for Francesca. When her husband Cesare is killed, she must find a way to survive. By the time she meets Willow Valley rancher Kent Reed she is too shattered and defeated to even think of letting a relationship between them develop.
• KENT REED: When Kent Reed emerges from the market in tiny Rock Creek, Wyoming, he's struck speechless. The housekeeper he had envisioned as middle-aged and matronly is in reality an obviously fecund dark-haired beauty. Marooned with all her worldly possessions in the middle of a dusty Western street, she can barely speak English. A quiet lunch results in Kent reluctantly hiring Francesca. But before they reach his ranch two days later, he s already kicking himself for his soft heart. How are they to get through the winter together cooped up in the same small house? Who will deliver her baby? Who will care for Elena and the ranch while Francesca and the new baby recuperate?
• ELENA SITTONI: Francesca's four-year-old daughter, who instantly wraps Kent Reed around her little finger.
• CESARE SITTONI: Francesca's father marries her off to Cesare after the war. Cesare brings Francesca and Elena to Hawk Point, Wyoming, where he works in a coal mine. Cesare dies in a mine collapse, leaving Francesca and Elena with no way to survive in America.
• AGNES BROADBENT: This old Willow Valley ranchwoman becomes Francesca's friend and mentor.
• JESSIE REED: Although never developed as a character in the book, Jessie's desertion of Kent while he was serving in Europe during the war hangs over him years later, coloring his initial impressions of Francesca.

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Val di Non: The green valley of Francesca and Elena's birth. Ravaged by the Great War, the beautiful valley cannot support the people who need to survive there, leading to mass emigration to America.
• Hawk Point, Wyoming: The fictional coal mining town where Francesca and Elena come to live with immigrant coal miner, Cesare.
• Rock Creek, Wyoming: The fictional town where Francesca meets Wyoming rancher and former doughboy, Kent Reed.
• Willow Valley, Wyoming: Fictional verdant Wyoming valley where Francesca comes to be cook and housekeeper to American rancher, Kent Reed.

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alethea Williams (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• WYOMING STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS AWARD (2012: Fiction)
• WESTERN HORIZON AWARD (2012)

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Westerns
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Romance › Western

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