Florence, 1497. In a city burning with religious zealotry, where beauty is banned and passion punished, one woman dares to love in secret - and to paint the truth.
Francesca Rondini, a quiet wife and gifted painter, lives under the iron rule of her husband, a man devoted to Savonarola's theocratic terror. While the monks burn paintings and books in the streets, Francesca hides her own creative fire behind locked doors and silent obedience.
But when she meets Vittoria, the wife of a wealthy merchant, everything changes. Drawn into an intoxicating world of forbidden love, Francesca finds not only a muse - but a mirror. What begins as quiet admiration blossoms into a love that could cost them everything.
As Bonfires of the Vanities threaten to consume her art, her identity, and her heart, Francesca must choose: continue hiding the flame of her truth - or risk her life to let it burn bright.
For readers of Sarah Waters (Fingersmith), Emma Donoghue (The Wonder, The Sealed Letter), and Jessie Burton (The Miniaturist),
Hiding the Flame is a haunting, lyrical novel of repressed desire, female agency, and the danger of beauty in a world ruled by fear.
🔥 What readers will love:
● A deeply moving sapphic historical romance
● A rare setting in Renaissance Florence during Savonarola's regime
● Themes of forbidden love, artistic resistance, and queer identity
● Lush, literary prose and emotionally rich characters
● A heroine who learns that truth, once ignited, cannot be unburned
