Tell it to the skies (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link) I’m slowly re-reading my collection of novels by Erica James, interspersed with other books. I’ve just finished ‘Tell it to the skies’, which I last read in 2008. I know I liked it when I first read it, but had entirely forgotten the story and the characters. 
The novel opens in a dramatic way. A woman called Lydia, in her forties, sees something that startles her so much that she trips and falls, twisting her ankle badly. We learn that she lives in Italy, and next see her back in...