Fine, Julia - Maddalena and the Dark

Luisa, a talented violinist, yearns to be the best. When Maddalena arrives at the Pieta, a school for young women, their fates become intertwined. Maddalena's dark allure and promises of power lead Luisa down a dangerous path, forcing her to confront her own desires and the price of ambition.

"A sweeping gothic fairytale about a dark magic that rumbles beneath the waters of Venice" 

A novel set in 18th-century Venice at a prestigious music school, about two girls drawn together by a dangerous wager

Venice, 1717. Fifteen-year-old Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. As a student at the Ospedale della Pietà, she hopes to join the highest ranks of its illustrious girls’ orchestra and become a protégé of the great Antonio Vivaldi. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena.

After a scandal threatens her noble family’s reputation, Maddalena is sent to the Pietà to preserve her marriage prospects. When she meets Luisa, Maddalena feels the stirrings of a friendship unlike anything she has known. But Maddalena has a secret: she has hatched a dangerous plot to rescue her future her own way. When she invites Luisa into her plans, promising to make her dreams come true, Luisa doesn’t hesitate. But every wager has its price, and as the girls are drawn into the decadent world outside the Pietà’s walls, they must decide what it is they truly want—and what they will do to pay for it.

Lush and heady, swirling with music and magic, Maddalena and the Dark is a Venetian fairytale about the friendship between two girls and the boundless desire that will set them free, if it doesn’t consume them first.

LGBT Themes:

• Sapphic, Lesbian, wlw

Relevant Tags:

• Gothic fiction, historical fiction (Venice setting), dark academia, ambition, friendship, coming-of-age

Book Details:

• Title: Maddalena and the Dark
• Author: Julia Fine
• Genre: Fantasy 
• Pages: 304
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Release Date: March 28, 2024