A striking widow intent on proving the military lied about her husband's death lures a Washington journalist into the investigation. Working together, they discover the power of temptation, the futility of revenge, and the consequences of yielding to either.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
One of those stories that drew me in hook, line and sinker. Readers Favorite Book Reviews. I find it utterly fascinating (and sexy) that a man would write romance. LA Blogger Donna McBroom-Theriot. Smart and witty with an edge. Each character is perfectly flawed. Reader Views Reviews. This book is about mid-life love, sex and politics, but it is not political; it's sexy and smart. Maryanne Stahl (author of Forgive the Moon). A riveting read. Recommended. Midwest Book Review. Once you're drawn into Bella's world, there's no exit until the last sentence on the last. Author Sheila Sobell
From the Author
Isabel Moss knew she might lose her husband when he went off to war. When the call came, she was almost ready. What stopped her cold was the second call... Bella is a young mom living the life she dreamed of
- she's married to Hank Moss - a hunky, charismatic rising pro tennis player ...
they have a great child. Then Hank's sister dies in 9/11. He enlists and dies
in battle. As Bella is mourning, an anonymous caller tells her the Army lied
about Hank's death. She enlists the help of a Washington reporter and they set
off to find the truth. But they uncover a lot more along the way.
Product Details
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By antoinette22
Format:Paperback
I took Bella with me to the beach and finished it in three days - I could barely put it down!
The mystery and seduction that unfolds in Bella is enough to capture your attention for hours at a time...
Enjoy it, I sure did!
The mystery and seduction that unfolds in Bella is enough to capture your attention for hours at a time...
Enjoy it, I sure did!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Classified as a romance novel in the sub-genre of Men's Romance, which is not a sub-genre that I have read before, Bella by Steve Piacente was not my usual experience with "romance." Dan Patragno, journalist and main character, is not so much in the middle of a romance as he is infatuated with Isabel Moss, behaving irrationally as the result of this fateful passion. More than a romance, I saw Bella as a tale of betrayal: betrayal between husbands and wives, betrayal between lovers, betrayal by the military to the soldiers they command, betrayal by legislators to the people they represent.
The act that brings them all together is the death of Isabel Moss' husband, Hank, in Afghanistan, reportedly by enemy fire. An anonymous tip that it was instead friendly-fire leads Isabel to contact Patragno about the possibility of a cover-up. Despite the shaky start of their relationship with her going over his head to make him listen to her story, Dan quickly becomes addicted to her wiles, losing sight of what is important in his life. Even exposing what had really happened to Hank appears to be driven more by Dan's desire to win over Isabel than his desires as a journalist. How does it all unfold? All I can say is that anytime one deals in betrayal, there is always a price to pay, a price that changes everything.
The political thriller elements of the story are intriguing and entertaining but play second fiddle to the examination of Patragno's character. Written from the first person view of Patragno, Bella offers you a front row seat to the mental wanderings of a man driven by lust, ambition, and responsibility.
Reviewed by Dannye Williamsen, Breakthrough Bookstore
The act that brings them all together is the death of Isabel Moss' husband, Hank, in Afghanistan, reportedly by enemy fire. An anonymous tip that it was instead friendly-fire leads Isabel to contact Patragno about the possibility of a cover-up. Despite the shaky start of their relationship with her going over his head to make him listen to her story, Dan quickly becomes addicted to her wiles, losing sight of what is important in his life. Even exposing what had really happened to Hank appears to be driven more by Dan's desire to win over Isabel than his desires as a journalist. How does it all unfold? All I can say is that anytime one deals in betrayal, there is always a price to pay, a price that changes everything.
The political thriller elements of the story are intriguing and entertaining but play second fiddle to the examination of Patragno's character. Written from the first person view of Patragno, Bella offers you a front row seat to the mental wanderings of a man driven by lust, ambition, and responsibility.
Reviewed by Dannye Williamsen, Breakthrough Bookstore
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Kelly
Format:Paperback
Absorbing, affecting and witty...Piacente has an incredible way of immersing the reader in the worlds of his characters. I highly recommend this book.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thought-provoking novel
I wasn't sure what I would think of this book when I picked it up. The description intrigued me and I saw there were a lot of terrific reviews. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Caren
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bella hooks you fast and keeps you turning the pages!
Like the title character, Bella grabs you immediately and keeps you going back for more. I think the measure of a good book, at least for ME, is ALL about how late you are up at... Read more
Published 1 month ago by clb
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bella by Steve Piacente
Just finished Bella and loved it. Grabs you from the first page. The characters, especially Bella and Dan, are complex yet endearing. Sexy mystery that you cant put down. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dean Hinchey
5.0 out of 5 stars
A unigue take on Washington scandal type novels!
Description- Isabel Moss knew she might lose her husband when he went off to war.
When the call came, she was almost ready. Read more
When the call came, she was almost ready. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Regina Niesen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bella - a truly entertaining read
Bella is a well written book that captivates the reader from the very beginning. The combination of an easily tempted man and a seductress with an agenda makes this story like... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Abby Hugill
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keeps You Guessing
I rather enjoyed this novel. No surprise there since I love a good conspiracy story, and this is nothing if not a good conspiracy story. Read more
Published 5 months ago by What the Cat Read
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great character study.
When I picked upBella by author Steve Piacente, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had seen it classed as a political thriller, a mystery/thriller, a romance. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Lyn Meadows
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling debut by a writer on the rise
By ANNETTE MARDIS
PostHereReaders
Deception, infidelity, journalism ethics, gamesmanship and a heartbreaking case of mistaken identity are at the core of Steve... Read more
PostHereReaders
Deception, infidelity, journalism ethics, gamesmanship and a heartbreaking case of mistaken identity are at the core of Steve... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Annette Mardis
3.0 out of 5 stars
Okay...But Not Great For Me
It was really just okay for me. I expected more, but it was still an enjoyable read. A good escape read with believable characters, a descent story, and the kind of politics, game... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Richard Whittington
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bella
Great book, very interesting. It reminded me of a true story that happened a couple of years ago. You know the one about the football player who enlisted in the Army and got killed... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Johnny Rock
More About the Author
Former award-winning journalist Steve Piacente is the author of Bella and recently published a prequel titled Bootlicker. Bella, the story of a young widow's quest to find the truth about her husband's death on an Afghan battlefield, won a National Indie Excellence 2012 Book Award, and the Readers Favorite 2012 Gold Medal for Dramatic Fiction. Bootlicker is the story of a dark secret that imperils the 1992 election that gave South Carolina its first black congressman since the Civil War.
But it all started for Steve way back in 1954.
Eisenhower was president, no one beat the Yankees, and Elvis was still an unknown. TV was three channels and two colors, black and white. Growing up, he didn't particularly like school. He liked baseball, egg rolls and comic books, and it was Superman that got him interested in reading and writing.
Raised in New York and educated in Washington, he kept moving south after college, eventually learning all they left out at journalism school at the feet of street-smart newspaper editors in Florida and South Carolina.
In 1985, one of those editors found him presentable enough to send back to D.C., this time as correspondent for the Tampa Tribune. The job ended four years later, and he found myself in steep competition for a similar slot with the Charleston, S.C. paper.
He won the position, enabling nine more years of Washington reporting, and front row exposure to the real South, as Charleston is far deeper into Dixie than Tampa, geography be damned. As time wore on, his NY sensibilities blended with Southern convention to produce stories on intriguing topics such as public celebration of the Confederate flag, and segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond.
It was a great time until Charleston ran out of cash and shuttered its one-man D.C. bureau. Out in the cold, he - by this time a father of three ravenous, athletic, college-bound children - found warmth in a little known federal agency. He began as a speechwriter and today heads the agency's web and social media teams.
Though Bella was his first real fiction, some thin-skinned politicians would say the stories he wrote were just as fabricated. In fact, no fiction bubbled up until he earned his license to write in the Johns Hopkins Masters program in 2000. During this time, he also reentered the classroom at American University, his alma mater, and began teaching journalism classes.
HIs insistence on clean, tight writing did no lasting harm to the three afore-mentioned children, now taxpaying adults in the fields of public relations, art therapy, and engineering. It wasn't until years later that he learned that the kids snuck secret help from their mom, Felicia Piacente, a special education administrator in the Montgomery County (Md.) Public School System.
But it all started for Steve way back in 1954.
Eisenhower was president, no one beat the Yankees, and Elvis was still an unknown. TV was three channels and two colors, black and white. Growing up, he didn't particularly like school. He liked baseball, egg rolls and comic books, and it was Superman that got him interested in reading and writing.
Raised in New York and educated in Washington, he kept moving south after college, eventually learning all they left out at journalism school at the feet of street-smart newspaper editors in Florida and South Carolina.
In 1985, one of those editors found him presentable enough to send back to D.C., this time as correspondent for the Tampa Tribune. The job ended four years later, and he found myself in steep competition for a similar slot with the Charleston, S.C. paper.
He won the position, enabling nine more years of Washington reporting, and front row exposure to the real South, as Charleston is far deeper into Dixie than Tampa, geography be damned. As time wore on, his NY sensibilities blended with Southern convention to produce stories on intriguing topics such as public celebration of the Confederate flag, and segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond.
It was a great time until Charleston ran out of cash and shuttered its one-man D.C. bureau. Out in the cold, he - by this time a father of three ravenous, athletic, college-bound children - found warmth in a little known federal agency. He began as a speechwriter and today heads the agency's web and social media teams.
Though Bella was his first real fiction, some thin-skinned politicians would say the stories he wrote were just as fabricated. In fact, no fiction bubbled up until he earned his license to write in the Johns Hopkins Masters program in 2000. During this time, he also reentered the classroom at American University, his alma mater, and began teaching journalism classes.
HIs insistence on clean, tight writing did no lasting harm to the three afore-mentioned children, now taxpaying adults in the fields of public relations, art therapy, and engineering. It wasn't until years later that he learned that the kids snuck secret help from their mom, Felicia Piacente, a special education administrator in the Montgomery County (Md.) Public School System.
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