About the Book:

Seventeen-year-old self-taught artist Evie heads to Venice on an art exchange. The catch? Her parents think she’s on a science trip.

As if lying wasn’t hard enough, her host family’s son, Leonardo, a fellow art student, looks down his nose at Evie. Her only comfort is online, where she shares her art with an anonymous online crush.

But when she’s assigned a project with Leonardo, she starts to question her feelings – both online and off…

Find on Goodreads. Find on Bookshop.org UK (affiliate link).

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About the Author:

Bruna De Luca grew up in a very Italian household in the Scottish Borders and reluctantly describes herself as a deep-fried pizza. This dual heritage is woven into every aspect of her life – from her studies at the University of Edinburgh, where she completed a dissertation on Italian fairy tales, to the years she spent in Italy teaching students to speak English with a Scottish twang. Bruna’s experiences as the child of immigrants deeply shape her writing. Livia in Rome was Bruna’s first book, followed in 2026 by Evie in Venice. 

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Interview:

Pitch your book in 10 words!

The art of deception meets the fine art of romance.

Why do you think destination or holiday romances capture our imagination so much?

Getting away from your day-to-day life, where nobody knows who you’re supposed to be, gives you so much freedom. You can reinvent yourself, be a little braver, and sometimes see yourself differently too. Holiday romances let characters – and readers – imagine different versions of themselves.

Setting the book during Carnevale let me take that idea one step further, because everyone is literally wearing masks. It felt like the perfect backdrop for a story about hidden identities.

Also . . . it’s Venice. Beautiful destinations can do a fair bit of the heavy lifting!

Both Evie and Leo are from very different backgrounds but both are trying to express themselves under the weight of family expectation. Why did you want them to come from such different life experiences?

I wanted Evie to meet someone whose life looked completely different from hers on the surface, but wasn’t all that different underneath. Evie worries her dreams are too big for the life she comes from, while Leo worries the future has already been decided for him. Different circumstances, same question: How much of my life do I get to choose?

Meeting each other gives them both a fresh perspective. Leo sees Evie’s talent before he knows anything about her background, and Evie sees Leo as more than the future everyone has planned for him. Sometimes it takes someone outside your world to remind you who you could be.

What gave you the inspiration for the restrictions on Art Exchange (the app the characters message on)?  Why did you want an online and offline component to Evie’s romantic adventures?

I’m the parent of a young teen, so I see how much of teenage life now happens online. I didn’t want to write a book that ignored that, but I also wanted the Art Exchange app to feel like a safe space for young people, with proper safeguarding built in.

Those restrictions ended up being really useful for the plot too. Every message became a balancing act. I needed Evie and Leo to build a genuine connection without accidentally revealing who they were, which was surprisingly tricky to write!

What was your favourite art fact you discovered while researching?

That in 1573 the great Venetian painter Veronese was summoned before the Inquisition because he’d filled his painting of the Last Supper with cats, dogs, and drunken soldiers. They demanded he explain himself. His solution? He didn’t repaint a single brushstroke. He simply changed the title to The Feast in the House of Levi and carried on. Four hundred and fifty years later, it’s still the perfect reminder that people have always argued about what counts as “proper” art. (You can still see the painting in the Accademia in Venice . . . dogs and all.)

The sister dynamic between Evie and Grace leaves Evie feeling like she has almost no choice in her future and resents the way Grace behaves like a second mother – even though it’s coming from a good place. How did Evie and “Griselda’s” relationship develop in the draft?

Grace showed up halfway through the first draft and, much like the character, insisted on taking over.

I realised Evie’s parents weren’t really the right people to put that pressure on her. They’d both left school early, so they were happy to let Grace lead the way because she’d gone to university and seemed to know exactly what she was doing.

I ended up really loving their relationship because Grace isn’t trying to control Evie, she’s trying to help. She just doesn’t always realise that the right path for her sister might not be the same as the one that worked for her.

The novel considers what is “real” and “proper” art vs. freedom of expression and taking joy in creation. Regardless of school or style, what do you think makes art?

For me, art is about expressing the way you see something, or the way you feel about it, and helping someone else see or feel it too. I don’t think it even has to look like art in the traditional sense. It could be a painting, a song, a story, a beautifully baked cake or something else entirely. The medium matters much less than the connection it creates.

Venice is an incredible, beautiful city, full of so much history, art, and culture. What’s your favourite place there?

I’m actually a terrible tourist. I’ll happily skip the must-sees in favour of wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. I love imagining where I’d buy my bread, what my walk to work would look like, or which little café I’d end up visiting every morning.

That’s why I love Cannaregio. It’s still unmistakably Venice, but it feels wonderfully lived in. You’ll see washing strung across the canals, neighbours chatting from windows and teenagers hanging out by the water after school. It’s the part of the city that reminds me Venice is somewhere people call home.

Please recommend a UKYA book you think readers will love.

WISH YOU WERE HER* by Elle McNicoll – I loved the hidden identity romance, and any book set around a bookshop is always going to get my attention.

Thank you, Bruna!

*Affiliate link