The Prodigal Daughter: A Novel

by Isabella Valeri

The youngest daughter of a secretive dynasty returns from a decade in exile, but will her ancestral home become her prison? The intoxicating follow-up to Isabella Valeri’s Letters from the Dead.

Now twenty-two years old, the only daughter of the sixteenth generation is abruptly recalled from her indolent life abroad to return to the isolated Alpine estate where she spent the first twelve years of her life. So many of her childhood memories have been savaged in her long absence. Her grandfather, the former patriarch of the family, is dead. “The Chairman,” her father, now rules the dynasty with a cold and clinical efficiency. Recalling his daughter was no accident. The dynasty has plans for the only “daughter of the line.”

She quickly finds herself engaged to an aristocratic playboy whom she does not love. A virtual prisoner and without so much as a sympathetic ear, she must begin to solve the mysteries her grandfather first hinted at; the enigmas of a 350-year-old secret society that she must untangle if she is to enlist those who might help her escape.

Her efforts to co-opt her father’s trusted aide seem inspired, but will her growing feelings for this handsome, former mercenary with a mysterious past compromise all her efforts, and can she ever be sure where his true loyalties lie?

Even worse, the shadowy forces intent on destroying her family grow ever bolder. With time running out, she must accept the lifetime of servitude that loyalty demands, or choose a dangerous path that could see her forever branded a traitor and cost those closest to her everything.

496 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication July 7, 2026

About the author

Isabella Valeri is the author of Letters from the Dead, her debut novel and the forthcoming title The Prodigal Daughter, the second book in the Letters from the Dead series.

She is an avid markswoman, skier, equestrian, and pilot.

She lives under an assumed name somewhere in the Alps.

Reviews

[J M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this free copy of "The Prodigal Daughter."

First, I have to shout from the rooftops again about "Letters from the Dead" and what a remarkable novel it is! While not expecting a sequel, I was overjoyed when author Valeri announced that the story of the "heiress" (I always think of her as Isabella since that's the author's name) would be continued!

The characters, events, and details from LFTD were so vivid and memorable that I only re-read a few segments to refresh my memory before jumping right into TPD, which picks up right where LFTD ends.

Was coming back home a mistake? Should she have renounced her family? But she wants answers.

Her education was intended to show the dangerous power games played against her, but her education wasn't finished. Will she learn what she needs to know? And will she trust the right people to help her?

As with LFTD, I didn't want it to end. Needless to say, I'll read whatever author Valeri writes!

[Rae Bradshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Prodigal Daughter by Isabella Valeri reads like a confession delivered in a whisper—intimate, bruised, and quietly defiant. Valeri traces the long arc of returning home after self‑exile, not with melodrama but with a kind of emotional archaeology, brushing dust off old loyalties, old wounds, and the versions of herself she thought she’d outgrown. What makes the book linger is its refusal to offer tidy redemption; instead, it honors the complicated truth that coming back is its own kind of courage, and forgiveness—of others, of oneself—rarely arrives all at once. It’s a tender, resonant story about the cost of leaving and the strange, necessary grace of being welcomed anyway.

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not the look for me. Maybe if I had read the first book it would’ve made more sense. I did not like the writing style at all. It felt more like a book based in the 1800s then a book from the 2000s. And I felt the character development was terrible.