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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Alexis Lynn has just quit her successful twenty-year career and escaped on a direct flight to Italy.
A one-way ticket to Venice with free wine on the flight and a chance to start over.
A chance to become the writer she wanted to be years ago.
Alexis has always been inspired by Venice. The history. The romance of the canals. The wandering paths through the city.
A place to get lost and to find something new.
Now if she can just put her thirteen drunken hours of airplane-crammed Italian language apps to use, surely she can convince one of the waiting boats to ferry her out to her rented apartment near the Campo San Stae.
What could possibly go wrong?
Fill your glass with this laugh-out-loud pouring of romantic fun.
The first in a new series following Alexis Lynn around the world on her adventures.
REVIEW by Christina Boyd:
In Sara Wesley McBride's debut, Will Write for Wine, Alexis Lynn has everything she should want, a successful scientific career in her field of study and a handsome artist for a husband, but she’s stuck in a rut. If someone asked her if she was happy, could she say yes? So one inspired moment, she decides to quit her job, lease an apartment in Venice, and do what she’s wanted to do for years—write. Leaving her husband in Southern California, with the understanding he would follow in six weeks once she’s had time to write and immerse herself in the city, she escapes on her own adventure of self-discovery.
"I came to Venice hoping to create the self-discipline required to become an author. However, I did not realize and was fully aware of my partial sabotage efforts in my mission because living in an amazing historical city would be extremely distracting.”
Now she has six weeks on her own to get to know herself again. And decide whether if "divorce or not to divorce" would bring her happiness. On this journey of self-awareness, she adopts a stray dog, makes friends with the locals, sells a few short stories, and begins to fall in love with the city—and maybe another man.
As soon as Manu, a sexy, mysterious chef, enters the picture, I was anxious for Alexis Lynn: Would she fall for this practiced charmer who woos her as easily as breathing? A man who pays attention to her and seems to admire her writing talent without feeling threatened? Each day her emotions for him ebb and wane, adding confusion and pressure to her list of life-changing dilemmas.
"After a moment, I heard him mumble in an annoyed tone and he unfolded his arms, put them around me, and we hugged each other. I listened to his heartbeat, which was neither rapid nor slow, just a normal tha-thump, tha-thump, compared to my own which was racing from anger. The fact that his heart rate exhibited calmness concerning the entire situation caused my heart to further increase.”
With no lack of romance, author McBride teases us with the idea of abandoning her marriage for this Italian playboy or rekindling her love with her steadfast husband. The stakes are high for Alexis Lynn, and I, for one, wasn’t sure which direction I wanted her to take for most of the book. Oh buon Dio!
Sara Wesley McBride hits her stride from the moment Alexis Lynn steps foot off the boat in Venice and all her luggage falls straight into the canal. With humor, McBride delivers fully developed, sympathetic, and clever characters. If you enjoyed the bestseller The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, McBride’s debut, Will Write for Wine, is a must read! And don’t miss the companion book, Stories I Stole from Lord Byron’s Bastard, the collection of stories that Alexis Lynn wrote while in Venice.
A curious bit I’d like to share… I first read this in July. The original cover made me think that it was some ghoulish dark comedy, and I couldn’t make the connection between that green floating head and the suggested romance of the book information. Totally not my thing.
But I soldiered on. And wasn’t I surprised to find a sweet, funny romance flirting on the edges of women’s lit. At 4 a.m., after finishing it, I went to my Canva app (graphic design app) and created a sample cover.
I then emailed the concept to McBride, begging her to forgive my presumption, but “your cover is all wrong. And maybe it would do better finding an audience if you rethought it…and don’t mind, but here’s my idea from the middle of the night.” Or something like that. I was beyond delighted to receive a response welcoming my officious opinions, adding she and her cover designer husband had been considering changing the cover, and my email was just the nudge they needed.
About the Author: Sara Wesley McBride holds a BA in theater from UCLA and a BS in Molecular/Cellular Biology from SDSU, which she believes are completely related. She has worked in Hollywood and academic research, can be seen in at least two international research documentaries—due to her illustrious theater training—and loves her current career in non-alcoholic brewing.
Her first novel in the Alexis Lynn series, Will Write for Wine, and the companion short story collection, Stories I Stole from Lord Byron’s Bastard, both set in Venice, Italy, were recently released by Puck Publishing. She’s hard at work on the second Alexis Lynn novel, a Regency mystery series, and a haunted play. She strongly feels the world needs more haunted plays. She can be found hiking the shorelines of San Diego with her husband and their tiny bouncy dog named Wombat.
