The protagonist in Lakeville author Loretta Ellsworth’s latest novel, The Jilted Countess, has a lot going on: She’s a Hungarian countess whose family lost everything in World War II; she just had her heart broken by the American man who promised to marry her; and she’s sorting through more than 1,700 offers of marriage in less than two weeks in a last-ditch attempt to find a happily ever after.
Most surprising of all: This book was inspired by a true story. Ellsworth first read about the countess in an archived news story in 2015, and over the years, she tried to discover whatever happened to her. While Ellsworth’s research didn’t yield much, her imagination inspired an entire book. The story is fictional, but Ellsworth includes the newspaper articles that acted as inspiration for the story and set the book in Minnesota, incorporating local landmarks, like Como Park Zoo & Conservatory and The Lexington in St. Paul, into the plot.
Ellsworth’s previous book, The French Winemaker’s Daughter, was a Minnesota Book Award Finalist.
