La Civetta is a small Tuscan estate bequeathed to the college for a summer residency program where Rose spent time as a graduate student and met Bruno Brunelli, the great love of her life. They became lovers but she fled when he revealed that his wife was pregnant. She left many issues unresolved. It is twenty years later and Bruno’s son has come to her college hinting of strange events back in Italy. Rose meets him when she attends the screening of a film by one of the most promising of her students, Robin Weiss. At the after film celebration Robin plunges off a balcony. Did he jump or was he pushed?

When Rose discovers a note from Robin mentioning a folio he found during his summer at La Civetta she agrees to return even though her former lover is now head of the program there and his wife is the housekeeper. Robin thought the folio was the key to identifying Shakespeare’s Dark Lady. Was she the mistress of the Tuscan nobleman? Who fathered her child? Rose’s discoveries place her in peril from those she once trusted and rekindles old feelings while exposing many secrets long hidden.

This is a great synthesis of literary musings, romance and mystery. A hint of the tale lies in the enigmatic title- is there someone who loves sonnets or is there the lover of the sonnets? Paralleling Shakespeare with its overlapping story lines, its major and minor couples and even comic relief in some of the faculty caricatures this story is truly a treat.

--Jane Davis