In Veiled Secrets, two teens from different sides of the country collide on the other side of the world in a little Italian village.

Cynical and mistrusting of their heritage, Nick and Lia are thrust into a foreign world of their ancestors by a chance decision. Unknown to each other they set out on a long journey back to the ‘old country’ to appease their respective grandparents, only to find themselves involved in a mystery that could tear their individual families apart.

Somewhere in the not too recent past, a misguided moment of youthful naivety threatened to crumble the hopes and aspirations of more than just the people involved. Now, with hindsight, and in an effort to know the truth before it’s too late, Nick and Lia have to put aside their differences and put right the many past wrongs as they uncover a family secret that bonds them for life. In the process do they reveal their own hidden secrets?

Little did they know they have more in common than they realised.

Humour and heart hold hands in this lively novel of third generation Italian-Australians who realise their Nonnis were once young rebels, and their mountain patch of Italy isn’t quite Insta-influencer material. Told from alternating perspectives of Lia and Nick, who get to travel to the “old country” with their Nonni, we’re with them in the plane queuing for the loo, in the church under the altar, staring at a dead saint’s teeth, checking out hotness at the annual village festa, hiding from the priest behind the fig tree, spying on nauseating not-Nonni behaviour. Funny and fast-paced, you’ll laugh and love and start wondering about your own Nonni’s secrets.

– Dr Maria Pallotta-Chiaroll, Academic, Author & Activist