It's the year 1690, and Antonia Crivelli's father has arranged for her to be married to one of the wealthiest, most handsome men in Venice. Although her fiancé seems strangely uninterested in her, 19-year-old Antonia naively hopes things will be better after the wedding. Everything changes the day Antonia meets Tavros, the mysterious shipyard blacksmith whose smoldering glances leave no doubt as to where his desires lie. In the Greek blacksmith, Antonia sees the chance for true love and soon finds it impossible to banish him from her thoughts. But Tavros harbors a deep, dark secret he can't share with anyone—a secret so terrifying it threatens to tear both of their lives apart. This historical paranormal romance retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story is set in post-Renaissance Italy, when even the slightest glance or gesture could convey more pent-up desire than a month's worth of texts and emojis do nowadays. Antonia is a strong female protagonist unafraid to buck the system in search of true love, and Tavros is a tortured soul on the verge of losing all hope.