Will There Be Wine?
Adult; Romance; (Market)
Austen Keller was living her dream. She landed a career-defining job which moved her and her husband to Paris. Shortly thereafter, she was divorced. This wasn’t the plan. Yet there she was—pushing 40 and starting over.
A decade after she’d last been single, Austen enters the dating scene playing by a new set of rules in a different language, culture, and lingerie standards. She experiences every type of miserable first date imaginable and lives to tell the tales of Pierre the Mansplainer, Simon the Snoozer, Emile the Over-Sharer, Guillaume of the Gym Shorts, and many more. On most dates, she struggles to get past one glass of Bordeaux without wanting to bolt. Even worse, no one chases after her when she runs. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that whoever said French men were romantic deserves a swift kick in the pants.
A rewarding and high-powered career.
Fabulous female friendships.
True love.
Austen continues to ask herself: Is “having it all” too much to ask?
A genuine and tragically hilarious novel about an ex-pat woman's journey of self-discovery through a string of disastrous dates, relationships forged in a deep cultural divide, world travels, and wine. A lot of wine.
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 7 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 7 out of 10
Overall: 7.50 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Cubbison's charming Will There Be Wine? tells the story of Austen Keller, an American speech writer living abroad who, newly reeling from her divorce, finds herself thrust into the Parisian dating scene.
Prose: Cubbison's prose is effortlessly engaging. Readers will wholly empathize with Austen as she recounts her dating misadventures to both friends and via her blog.
Originality: The author uplifts a familiar story about seeking love following divorce through the Paris setting. Readers will relish being fully immersed in the city's locales and cultural touchstones.
Character/Execution: Austen is an endearing character who emerges fully through Cubbison's writing. Her friends and confidants are vividly portrayed, while the men she dates (amusingly recounted via blog entries), are provided with humanity despite their obvious flaws.
Date Submitted: June 28, 2023
