The Cerulean Locket

Love, betrayal, family secrets, and political intrigue collide when a powerful politician's forgotten scandal is unearthed by an unlikely young heroine after she finds a clue in a secret locket. Sofi Vadoma is a marginalized Roma from a remote village in the Dobrich Province of northeastern Bulgaria. Bright and determined, Sofi dreams of rising above her lowly status through education even though she is required to attend a segregated, reduced-curriculum school. Her reclusive mother has never been married. Consequently, the Roma community ostracizes them and Sofi is bullied by her peers. Across the Continent, Ren Hartenau-Hesse is the President of France. Strikingly handsome, brilliant, and wildly popular, his primary objective is to preserve France's national security post 9/11. By all accounts, his record is untarnished, but Ren has a past. A former playboy from an aristocratic family, he strives to make amends for his years of womanizing, which would have ruined his career if not for his longtime mentor, Philippe Roubert. The aging Roubert is obsessed with fulfilling his lifelong political mission-to oust the Gypsies from France. Back in Bulgaria, Sofi is presented with a peculiar necklace. When tragedy strikes, Sofi discovers that her necklace is actually a secret locket containing a clue to the past that draws her into a scandal buried by one of Europe's most powerful families. From the sparkling coast of the enigmatic Black Sea, through an impoverished village nestled into the folds of Bulgaria's lush countryside, to the sumptuous lyse Palace in Paris, The Cerulean Locket delicately examines the tendencies of our human nature, our desire for acceptance regardless of status or circumstance, and the heart's capacity for forgiveness. Justina Uram is an author and public interest attorney with degrees from Penn State Law and Syracuse University. She splits her time between her home in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and her historic hometown in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. Justina can be reached at www.justinauram.com