**An enthralling historical novel of Renaissance Europe.

History brims with silenced stories. Will Mira's be one of them? ** Mira’s Way , Book 2 of The Miramonde Series, continues the mesmerizing tale of a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern-day art scholar who risks everything to learn her secret.

1504: Young artist Mira wants nothing more than a peaceful life by the sea, painting portraits of wealthy merchants. But when she and her new husband try to help a friend, they are catapulted into a series of dangerous adventures that leave them scrambling to survive.

2015: Art scholar Zari races through France, working feverishly to connect Mira with a series of masterful unsigned portraits. Meanwhile, an academic rival peddles his theory that the works were made by a famous male artist. Will Mira be lost to history forever?

**An unforgettable journey to a world rich in history, romance, and adventure.

"Grips from start to finish. Amy Maroney has a gift of bringing the past to life in a way that is relatable and engaging."
—Historical Novel Society Review**

Review

" Mira's Way takes you on a breathless journey through Spain and France, in the company of two determined women, separated by five centuries. A brilliant read."
--Deborah Swift, author of The Lady's Slipper

"Mira's Way , though one of a series, is a stand-alone story that grips from start to finish. Amy Maroney has a gift of making the past come to life in a way that is relatable and engaging. Her characters are convincing, her stories are about the art world and painting, and she paints her own portrait with delicate words and visual imagery."
--Historical Novel Society

"Maroney has presented her readers with a book that is not only meticulously researched and exquisitely hewn, but also one that is compulsively readable and next to impossible to put down. A true gem."-- Myths, Legends, Books, and Coffee Pots historical fiction blog
Mira's Way is a B.R.A.G. Medallion honoree.
Mira's Way was a finalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

From the Author

Q: Mira's Way is book 2 in The Miramonde Series, the story of a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern-day scholar who tries to discover her secret. What inspired you to write the series?

A: During travels with my family through Europe in 2010-11, I was thrilled by museum visits but my two young daughters were not. I wished more of the art they saw was relevant to them. We wandered through great halls of Renaissance-era paintings, and I mourned the lack of female artists. Meanwhile, my girls stared at portraits of frozen-in-time people in their gilt frames and were unmoved. I wished we knew more about the stories behind those portraits.

Then I visited Oxford University and saw a 500-year-old painting of a mysterious woman, attributed to female portrait artist Caterina van Hemessen. I was floored. So there were women painters in those days! I began to dig into history, and the idea for The Miramonde Series was born. I would bring one of those mysterious old portraits to life, and I would create a place in history for its maker. Along the way I learned that women have always been artists. Their work was often attributed to men or kept anonymous, but it exists. And more and more of these women are being rescued from history's shadows.

Q: How did you come up with the dual-narrative format starring two women who lived 500 years apart?

A: I became fascinated with the idea that in the past few decades, modern science and technology have changed the face of the art world. The connoisseurs who made critical decisions about who painted have started to be contradicted by the findings of art conservations. Even if a painting has all the signs of being made by an Old Master, x-rays or other tests can prove that wrong. I wanted to write a story about a determined young woman (Zari), an outsider in the old-boys' network of art experts, who creates a wave by asserting that an unknown female painter (Mira) is responsible for a series of masterful 16th century paintings. Only with the help of modern technology could an unseasoned academic hope to contradict the art world's venerable experts and succeed. I wanted my story to show how women's voices and work have slipped through the cracks of history, and how it is still possible to uncover those silenced stories--in fact, there has never been a better time to start bringing those stories back into the light.

Q: How did you develop Mira's story?

A: The same year I visited Oxford, I travelled with my family to the Pyrenees mountains, deep into Aragón, Spain, and we stayed in a restored medieval tower in the tiny hamlet of Oto. The artist Miramonde de Oto came to life for me over the few days we spent exploring that beautiful region of the world.

The action in Mira's story takes place in those mountains along the pilgrim's route of Camino de Santiago (also known as the Way of St. James or St. Jacques). From the middle ages onward, this also happened to be a major trade route between what is now Spain and the rest of Europe. The mountain communities evolved with the constant presence of traveling pilgrims, itinerant merchants and artisans, smugglers, refugees, and nomadic shepherds. This created a dramatic brew of tensions, culture clashes, religious differences, unlikely alliances, the spread of disease, and a constant flow of news. Add into the mix the looming presence of the mountains themselves, and it's a writer's dream come true!

Mira's very existence is precarious from the start, and she spends her early years--chronicled in The Girl from Oto, Book 1 of the series--navigating obstacles, dangers, and heartbreak that would challenge even the most formidable spirit. She is a dedicated artist by the time Mira's Way begins, though her dream of painting portraits for a living is derailed when she and her husband promise to help an old friend and find themselves thrust into a series of risky adventures that propel them all over what is now Southern France.

Q: How are Mira and Zari similar?

A: Though they live centuries apart, Mira and Zari share the same impulsive, curious nature. They're both confident, sometimes a bit overly so. They are passionate, creative, and have strong moral compasses. At the end of The Girl from Oto, both characters are feeling empowered and victorious, if shaken by some of their experiences. In Mira's Way, Zari's confidence takes a serious hit when she runs into roadblock after roadblock in her efforts to unveil Mira's presence in history. And when Mira's impulsive nature drags the people she loves into danger, she realizes too late that the world is full of things she cannot control.

Q: What's next?

A: A third book, A Place in the World, launched in 2019 to complete the trilogy. Audiobooks of the trilogy are now underway and will launch in 2022. My new Sea and Stone Chronicles series launches in 2021 with Island of Gold.

Q: What kind of reader likes your writing?

A: People who love history, art, travel, romance, and mystery will enjoy The Miramonde Series.

About the Author

Amy Maroney lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. She spent many years as a writer and editor of nonfiction before turning to historical fiction. When she's not diving down research rabbit holes, Amy enjoys hiking, dancing, and reading. Amy's next book, Island of Gold, features a noble falconer and a beautiful merchant's daughter who seek their fortunes under the rule of the medieval Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes, Greece. Look for it in September 2021. To get a free prequel novella to the Miramonde Series, please visit amymaroney.com.