Tempted: The Worthy Maven Series

By Ataegina Silveira

Tempted is a contemporary romance novel that follows fifty-five-year-old Catarina Rossi, embarking on self-discovery and unexpected love at a Costa Rican surf retreat after losing her beloved vintage boutique.

Main Characters

Catarina "Cat" Rossi (55): A woman grappling with the closure of her vintage boutique, confronting fears about aging, loneliness, and her place in the world. She seeks solitude and healing but finds herself opening to love despite her abandonment issues.

Francisco (50): A former professional surfer whose career ended due to a devastating injury. Now running a coffee shop, he carries deep scars from both his lost identity and the departure of his ex-fianc e. He fears both failure and abandonment.

Paulina: Francisco's ex-fianc e, who returns unexpectedly, determined to reclaim him while systematically undermining Catarina's confidence through subtle cruelties about age and desirability.

Plot Summary
Act I: Escape and Discovery

Catarina arrives at a secluded surf retreat in Costa Rica, deliberately disconnecting from the digital world to heal from the loss of her vintage shop. The jungle bungalow represents her attempt to find peace through isolation. When she meets Francisco at his coffee shop, their connection is immediate and unexpected. Despite her intention to remain solitary, she finds herself asking for "a new beginning" and feeling uninhibited with a stranger for the first time in years.

Act II: Connection and Conflict

As Catarina and Francisco spend time together, they discover their shared wounds from abandonment and professional loss. Their relationship deepens as they recognize kindred spirits who understand each other's pain. Francisco's warmth and understanding begin to heal walls Catarina has built over years of disappointment. However, their growing intimacy forces both to confront their deepest fears about trusting again and risking vulnerability.

Act III: Crisis and Choice

Just as Catarina embraces this new love, Paulina reappears-beautiful, confident, and relentless in her determination to reclaim Francisco. She subtly undermines Catarina's fragile confidence with insidious comments about age, change, and the inevitability of heartbreak. This external threat becomes the catalyst that forces Catarina to confront not just a rival, but her own deep-seated fears about worthiness and the risk of loving again. She must choose between the safety of emotional walls and the terrifying possibility that love might be worth the risk of loss.

Central Themes

Midlife Reinvention: Both protagonists must rebuild their identities after losing the careers that defined them, exploring how professional setbacks can become opportunities for personal growth.

Abandonment and Healing: The shared experience of being left behind-by careers, people, and circumstances-creates both connection and conflict as they learn that healing sometimes requires letting someone else help carry the weight of old wounds.

Mature Love: The romance explores how love later in life carries different complexities, requiring courage to be vulnerable again while acknowledging the wisdom that comes with experience.

Self-Worth and Aging: Particularly through Catarina's journey, the novel addresses societal pressures about aging and the challenge of maintaining self-worth in a youth-obsessed culture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FL12J4NB
• ISBN13: 9798294576264
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"