Alessandra’s quest

A Golden Web Author: Barbara Quick Publisher: HarperTeen, 272 pages

ALESSANDRA is desperate to escape her stepmother who’s locked her away for a year. She wants to escape the cloister that awaits her and the marriage plans that have been made for her, to escape the expectations that limit her and every other girl in 14th century Italy. There’s no tolerance in her quiet village for Alessandra and her keen intelligence and unconventional ideas. In defiant pursuit of her dreams, Alessandra undertakes an audacious quest, her bravery equalled only by the dangers she faces. Disguised and alone in a city of spies and scholars, Alessandra will find a love she could not foresee – and an enduring fame.