Lost in the City of Flowers

Viola has always felt like she doesn’t belong. With her mother working as an archaeologist halfway around the world, her sister away at college, and her father as her only friend, she keeps mostly to herself and her sketchbook. On the morning of her fifteenth birthday, Viola’s life changes forever when her father takes her to visit the mansion of a cryptic old woman she’s never met before. Viola walks down a dark corridor full of art in Long Island, New York, and ends up traveling over 500 years back in time to Florence, Italy. Armed with Idan, a mysterious pocket watch that offers guidance along her journey, Viola must navigate the perilous city to find a way home–before she falls victim to the threats of Lorenzo the Magnificent. She takes a job in an artist’s workshop, where she encounters incredible work by some of the most talented artists from the Renaissance. Along the way, the shy teenager befriends the infamous artist Leonardo da Vinci and gains the affections of the charming nobleman Giuliano de’ Medici. Will Viola be able to overcome her fears and harness her artistic abilities to return home as the foreboding sound of Idan ticks in her ear? Lost in the City of Flowers brings a relatable contemporary protagonist into an intricately woven historical landscape to tell an enduring story about power, creativity, feuds, friendships, and a young woman finding her voice.