Will There Be Wine
Whitney Cubbison
387 pages
Published January 16, 2023
A book about rebounding after a divorce. In Paris. With wine. As I was reading this I wondered if it was fiction or a memoir and in either the author’s note or acknowledgements I read it was fiction based upon the author’s real life experiences.
I had a little trouble connecting with the book at first, but once I did I really did like it. I enjoyed the dating blog she started with entries interspersed in the book. While I am sure her dating fails are no different than those facing young adults, at 40 you are smart enough to know you deserve better. And I think my favorite part of the book was her sabbatical. All the great friends that joined her, the exotic places she went, and the growth we saw in her.
There are many life lessons and thought provoking moments whether you are single and looking for a life partner or satisfied with your current dating life. She reminded me to be bold with my choices, whatever they may be.
About the book
Austen Keller was living her dream. She landed a career-defining job which moved her and her husband to Paris. <Swoon!> Shortly thereafter, she was divorced. <Thud.> 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. <Check.>
Fabulous female friendships. <Nailed it!>
True love. <Umm?>
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.
About The Author:
Whitney Cubbison is a dual American and French citizen living in Paris since 2009. She grew up in Texas and California and graduated from UCLA with a degree in French. She started her career in Communications working for high-tech PR agencies in San Francisco and eventually joined Microsoft where she worked for sixteen years, thirteen of which from the Paris office. During that time, she held various international roles that encompassed public relations, employee communications, executive speechwriting, and social media.
She earned her French nationality in early 2022 and then left Microsoft in July of that year to focus on completing her first novel, Will There Be Wine? The story, while fiction, is deeply inspired by Whitney’s own experiences as an ex-pat divorcée living in Paris and trying to navigate the cultural minefield of dating in a foreign country.
When she’s not writing, Whitney can be found sitting in Parisian cafés and restaurants with her friends, drinking wine. https://www.datingdisasters.paris/
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