My Lovely Emma opens with a 43-word Prologue where Emma Lovely’s life is threatened by her partner, and for once, she is unreactive. Then the book cuts to Emma in her teen years, where she travels from her town in Russia to the Italian coast for the summer, to stay with older family friends. It is there she meets a Russian-American named Milos, five years her senior, with whom she falls in love. After seeing him for one short visit in Russia and pining from a distance, Emma saves enough money to fly from Moscow to Los Angeles to surprise Milos with a visit. Only after arriving and losing her virginity to him, she discovers he has a girlfriend. She is heartbroken and attempts to make herself feel better by partying with new friends that she met through Milos. Through this partying, she meets Victor, a music video producer almost twice her age, and begins a tumultuous and passionate relationship. He convinces her to stay illegally in the United States and to move in with him, referring to her often as “My lovely Emma”, and it isn’t long before Emma feels like his possession. But she suppresses those feelings because the scent of him and his incredible want of her act like an aphrodisiac and her love for him enters addiction territory. When Emma, an incredible painter, gets jobs creating artwork for hotels in Las Vegas, and Victor’s jealousy sabotages her opportunities, it’s this pivotal moment when Emma faces the stark portrait of what her life has become, and how much of her own identity has been lost to them as a couple and to Victor. She barely escapes his electronic tracking of her movements and flees to NYC where she tries to rebuild her life. But when her art draws critical attention again, Victor appears in New York where they have one final showdown. Will need this for Cori Deyone: Pitch: My Lovely Emma explores what happens when love borders on obsession, how easily it can be to lose oneself in a relationship and in another person, and how difficult it can be to regain your sense of self.