Keywords adult fiction, books about houses, California Gothic, Catholic, Christmas, compromise, contemporary, Cozy thriller, empathy, family drama, forgiveness, generational bonds, holiday, holiday drama, housing, immigrant culture, Italian American, mental health, mother daughter, multi-cultural, New Release, northern California, old house, prejudice, relationships, single mother, strong women, Suspense, troubled teen, Victorian, widow, women's fiction

Frances Rivetti is an award-winning British American lifestyle journalist and author, based in Northern California. She has written four books — The House on Liberty Street, a finalist in the 2023 National Indie Excellence Awards, is her second novel.

Her non-fiction books: Fog Valley Crush — Love at First Bite and Fog Valley Winter — Pioneer Heritage, Backroad Rambles andVintage Recipes were followed by a first novel: Big Green Country, which won a Gold Medal for West Pacific Best Regional Fiction in the Independent Publishers Book Awards in 2020.

The author was born and raised in a small town in the East Anglian Fens in England. She trained as a provincial newspaper reporter in Cambridgeshire, UK before moving to the States in her twenties. Now a mother of three grown sons, she’s an avid wine country cook, coastal walker and backroad explorer.

Prairies Book Review – Fast-paced and suspenseful… A wild roller coaster of a story.

Rivetti explores family, relationships, adaptability, change, and acceptance in this immersive thriller. It’s Christmas Eve. With festive tables set and a roaring fire warming her Northern California Victorian house parlor, Adamaria is looking forward to celebrating a cozy Christmas with her daughter Gracie and the latter’s two little girls. When a stranger sneaks into the house in the early hours of Christmas morning, Adamaria finds her world turning upside down. Told in third-person omniscient perspective, the narrative is immersed in holiday spirit. With a keen sensitivity to familial relationships, Rivetti makes good use of her thrilling plot, keeping readers thoroughly invested. The pacing is swift, the prose crisp, and the characterization top-notch. A close-knit family, an adorable pup, deft use of foreshadowing, and a storyline that’s just complicated enough make this an immersive read. A winner.