Silk and Stone — Dinah Dean

Sometimes the miracles you were praying for were there all along… Italy, 1136 Norman-born Elys de Wix fills her time with embroidery on the long pilgrimage to Rome to pray for healing of brother's injury. She never thought much of it, until their new traveling companion, Saxon master-mason Aylwin, admires her skill. While not as handsome and diverting as Sir Fulk, when Elys is dreading entering a nunnery, it is Aylwin who whispers a solution: she could make a living from her embroidery. On her return to England, Elys finds her brother Matthew living in Waltham, a little church known for its miracles. She has always known her calling was to be a mother, not a nun, but with her dowry already paid to the nuns, Elys will need a miracle of her own to find a husband, or someone who believes in her needlework, to keep her out of the cloister walls.  With glorious historical detail of Medieval Christian life and the crafting of religious objects from stone and silk, Elys' journey to love and fulfillment will charm readers of historical romance.