The Write Escape is a delicious vacation romance with a heroine who runs away to Ireland as her life is falling apart. This had everything I need from a travel story:

Evocatively described location? Check.
Handsome local who charms you off your feet? Check.
A heroine in need of a fresh start? Yep.
Entertaining characters who subvert cultural stereotypes? Oh yeah.
Flirting using literary references? Did not know I needed this, but YES

Antonia is an editor at a Chicago publishing house that is *too important* to publish romances like the novel she secretly writes in her spare time. She has a boss who ignores her ideas and a wealthy fianceé, Derek, who thinks she should give up her writing “hobby” to be his housewife. Derek helpfully cheats on Antonia, allowing her to extract herself from a relationship that has trained her to be a doormat. She immediately cancels the wedding, and that same day her publisher dissolves, taking her job with it. Antonia is not having a good day, but these twin disasters inspire her to take a solo honeymoon to rural Ireland, use it as an opportunity to finish her book, and have a taste of adventure. Her arrival in Ireland is marred by the discovery that Derek has cancelled all her travel arrangements. After a series of mishaps, she meets Aiden on the way to a new vacation rental off the beaten path.

Aiden is a literature professor in Galway who’s lost faith in his teaching skills after an ex dumps him for his lack of ambition. Originally from a working class family, Aiden has a serious case of imposter syndrome, and is starting to burn out from his efforts to get his tenure bid back on track. He heads to western Ireland for some R&R and chats up a gorgeous American, Antonia, at a grocery store along the way. When they discover they’re both staying at neighboring guesthouses in the same tiny town, their initial attraction rapidly blooms into a summer romance.

This was a lighthearted story with just enough personal growth, and intervention from helpful family members, to keep things interesting. Aiden initially thinks Antonia is beautiful, and tries to flirt by prattling nonstop about James Baldwin in Paris—fully aware of how ridiculous he is being but unable to stop. At their second meeting, in a pub, it’s Antonia’s turn to be nervous and distracted by her attraction to him in an environment where he’s confidently at home. By the time he sweeps her into his arms to keep her from being crushed by a lolling drunk, I was swooning alongside her...

I want my own Aiden after reading this book. I, too want to travel to Ireland, write in a cute cottage and meet a hot Irish literature professor. Charish Reid gives us two wonderful main characters who go away to figure life out and end up meeting, connecting and helping each other. Since both Antonia and Aiden go on a getaway, this is a great book to read on your own trip (or it can inspire you to plan a trip of your own)

Some of my favorite quotes had me grinning ear to ear:

“The way his forest green sweater hugged his chest definitely made her act with urgency.” 🥰🤣🥰

“Lot more fun than the lace curtains from last year. What’s her name?” (I plan to use this descriptor when referring to certain people 🤣🤣🤣)

“How can we keep talking about your book when I don’t know anything about the genre?” 🥰🥰🥰 I want to find a dude who’ll read romance with me!

There are more but I wouldn’t want to spoil this delightful book for you😘

I’m very excited to see what Charish Reid gives us next, perhaps Aiden’s single siblings?

I was so excited to read The Write Escape that I came out of a two-year Netgalley retirement to request the ARC. I could NOT resist a romance set in Ireland, especially an interracial romance written by a black author. (As you might guess, lots of the Irish books I found as I researched for my own trip there were by and about white people.) And there's so much good book nerdery going on--the heroine is an editor turned novelist, and the hero is an English professor. They have a fun, banter-y chemistry that I loved. There is flirting in a grocery store! And cozy drinks in a pub! And friendly Irish people! Anyway, it’s out now and I highly recommend it.

Charish Reid's "The Write Escape" was a witty and charming story featuring likeable, sympathetic characters and a lovely setting in Ireland. I have wanted to visit Ireland for a long time, but reading this book with its descriptions of the country's beautiful scenery and welcoming residents made me even more anxious to start planning my visit!

The book's main characters, Antonia and Aiden, were well-developed and likeable, and I found myself chuckling at their banter as they got to know each other. They both seemed a little lost in the beginning, but as the story progressed, each seemed to become more confident about their life choices and find their way towards a better, happier future. Aiden and Antonia seemed to bring out the best in each other, and I really enjoyed watching their story play out.

I am not generally a fan of "insta-love" plots, and given the short timeframe over which this story unfolded, I was afraid that the romance would turn into exactly that. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Aiden and Antonia's relationship development felt very natural and organic, not rushed, and when they exchanged "I love yous," I believed in the feelings behind the words. There was clearly an attraction between these characters from the beginning, but it seemed to be as much an intellectual attraction as a physical one, which I appreciated.

Overall, "The Write Escape" was an enjoyable read, and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

*ARC provided by the author via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book early.

The Write Escape is Charish Reid's debut and I have some feelings about it. But first, I guess I should quickly sum up the plot:

Essentially, Antonia (from Chicago, in America) finds out her fiancé is trash and loses her job in the span of approximately 24 hours so she flies to Ireland on a solo honeymoon where she is reminded of her fiancé's trashy qualities and winds up in a cottage adjacent to Aiden. Aiden is an Irish professor having some sort of identity crisis, but he and Antonia quickly strike up a friendly flirtationship that turns to more. Both Aiden and Antonia are using their time in this cottage to write: Antonia is writing a contemporary romantic suspense and Aiden is writing scholarly things.

And now for my feelings:

I'm still annoyed that Antonia acts like her contemporary romance novel is the first to (a) have an intense action subplot and (b) have a Black heroine. Like... Do we want to recognize all the greats that are already writing or nah? Apparently not.

I liked Aiden, but despite following him in alternating chapters I'm honestly so confused about who he is as a character.

Antonia was so hot and cold that she felt inconsistent.

The pacing was weird.

Despite all of my complaints, the book overall was interesting and I'm hopeful that Reid's next book will be more to my liking. Also, regardless of my complaints, it seems like many other people have really enjoyed this one, so hopefully it's just me!

Cute and promising debut but 1) beginning felt very slow to start as MCs didn’t meet until 20%, 2) adored Antonia but never felt that the hero deserved her (her POV was far more interesting than his), and 3) I was angry at how the hero’s stupidity of reading her manuscript without permission was mostly unaddressed (she was mad for one page and then the issue went away). I liked it, but didn’t love it.

Antonia has dodged a cheating fiancé and escaped on her honeymoon alone only to discover that her almost-husband cancelled their hotel reservation in revenge. She winds up renting a cottage and having a meet cute with a guy in the grocery store on the way. And then he turns out to be her neighbour!

Aiden is within a year of tenure and slogging away after his girlfriend dumped him a year earlier and made him feel like he wasn't taking his work and career seriously. He's up at his cottage to work on some submissions and a journal article now that the semester is over.

Both Antonia (or Toni) and Aiden have various personal issues to work through - Toni on figuring out why she almost married the wrong man, what to do about her job because the publishing company she works for has folded, and to finish the book she started ages ago. Aiden is struggling with finishing his scholarly work and the feelings left behind when he was accused of not taking it seriously, like the dad who abandoned his family. It's heavy stuff and Reid balances it perfectly with humour (the meet cute and the music war) and support. Despite being miles away from home, Toni has her bffs and sister fixing the wedding that wasn't and helping her plan for the future. Aiden has his mentor, Robert, and his mom, helping him.

Falling for each other is not in their plans and then having to figure it out is so huge on top of everything else. I really believed in their romance and the character and story development were fantastic. This is my first book by Charish Reid and I will definitely be pre-ordering her next. Perfect for contemporary romance readers.

What a cute and lovely debut novel by Clarish Reid. I really adored the characters, and the beginning of the book made me one happy romance reader, although an angry one on Antonia's behalf. I mean, the emotional scenes with the respective partners/exes were so well done and threw me right into the middle of the story and the characters’ lives. 


I liked the way the romance progressed, how it felt slow and deliberate, but was in fact just a couple of weeks for the characters to grow so close and fall in love deeply. That worked really well for me. However, the second half of the book didn’t touch ,e as deeply as the first. Aiden sounded so condescending to me at times, while I couldn’t always understand Toni’s emotional issues until much later. While I did get her hangups and baggage, some of it just didn’t make sense to me at first glance. 


Part of that might have been some writing things I think are normal for a debut novel, like transitions between one emotion and one scene to the next not being as smooth and elaborate as I wished for. (Could also be just a personal preference, honestly. I like wordy prose and you know it.) Same goes for a couple of turns of events that weren’t as clear and understandable from an outsider’s point of view as I needed. 


Overall I loved the potential of the novel, no matter if I struggled with the execution in little ways here and there (and some of the throwaway lines focused on binary gender roles and the gender binary in general). Definitely a cute story, and one that will have me keeping an eye open for more releases by this author in the future.

I received an ARC of this book and here is my review.
That was a sweet and refreshing story. The writing was very nice, with exotic Irish savour. The characters, mainly Antonia and Aiden, both mature, confident and vulnerable. I liked having insights of their lives and inner turmoil before the meet cute. And how the point of view slightly switched fron their personal dilemmas to one another. Antonia was an interesting lead female character. I liker WWAD mantra and the bits of her story that we got to read. Aiden revealed himself to be quite charming and I liked to get to understand what was going on with him. The secondary characters were also great : whether Antonia's mum and sister or Aiden's mom and niece. I would love reading about those 4 meeting!
I highly recommend this book.

A pleasant and entertaining read that made root for the characters.
It's a well written novel, the cast of characters is fleshes out and the setting is lovely.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Common romance trope: heroine loses both her fiance and her job in less than 24 hours. Job wasn't that great and the fiance was definitely a dud. It sucks, the reason that they break up, but it sure underlines Antonia's nervousness about getting married. She decides that, without a job or a husband, she might as well go on her honeymoon. She could finally work on her novel. But she doesn't count on her dick of a fiancee canceling her reservations. With the local festival going on, she barely finds a room in a cottages 30 minutes away. Tired beyond all belief, she barely realizes she's flirting with the cute Irish guy in line behind her at the grocery.
Cute guy, aka Professor Aiden Byrnes, only has a year before he's up for tenure and he's behind on his publishing. So it's a good thing he's got a week at his annual cottage getaway planned. He's not expecting to see the gorgeous American from the grocery store pounding on his door in the morning telling him that his music is too loud. He's delighted that she is as smart as she is beautiful and, before the week is over, he's plotting ways to help her to stay.
The book was a little cheesy and a little too judgmental of other romance novels but a fast, fun, and fluffy read.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out September 30th
ARC kindly provided by Carina Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Write Escape combines the fantasy escapism of falling in love in a charming small foreign town with very real problems, including self-empowerment, racism and generational cycles of alcohol abuse.  It’s mostly successful and very dreamy on all counts, with a couple of flaws in its conclusion keeping it from a flat out A.

Antonia – Toni - Harper works at Wild Hare Publishing as a literary editor, all the while squeaking out time to work on her own book and dealing with her firm-of-mind mom, who hates Antonia’s fiancé, Derek.  The wedding is approaching, and with rumors of her job’s destabilization and all manner of little problems looming, all Toni wants is some wine and not to think of the details.  Within four days of heading off on their destination wedding, Antonia happens to be holding her fiancé’s phone when it buzzes.  A little bit of research brings the ugly truth to light – Derek’s been cheating on her for months.  The wedding is definitely off, and by the next morning she’s out of a job thanks to her boss’ illegal financial dealings.  Toni decides to go to Ireland to heal and figure out what comes next with only her novel as a companion.  And it soon turns out that ‘next’ for Antonia involves discovering that her room’s been given away, and instead of staying where she’d planned, she’s going to be moved to somewhere smaller.

Doctor Aiden Byrnes teaches American Literature, and is dealing with a terrible break-up.  Hoping for a promotion from assistant to actual professor, he takes a disastrous class filled with sleeping students, but his mentor promises to write a glowing recommendation that will move Aiden up the academic ladder, and suggests he unwind by taking a vacation away from the bustle of Galway, if only to finish his own book.  The little house he owns in a small riverside village should suffice.

Living next door to one another, Aiden and Toni’s meet-cute takes place in the tiny Irish town of Tully Cross while in line at a supermarket.  Before long, they’re falling into like with one another, and Aiden takes to showing Toni around town.  Soon they’re in love, but when Aiden’s past rears its ugly head, Toni must choose where her own happily ever will take her.  Will it be back to Aiden’s arms?

The Write Stuff does a fine job of both transporting the reader to Ireland and making us feel Toni’s inner conflict as she tries to figure out if she wants to write professionally.  Reid does good work in making readers believe in Toni as an author, and to understand her fight to become a fully-fledged author; and when she wonders to herself what her heroine Augusta would do in such a situation, I believed in her thought process and in her as a writer.

Aiden generally works as a sexy through fallible hero with issues left over from his absent, drunken father’s abuse. I appreciated how much he liked and respected Toni – although his ‘Irishness’ felt a little overdone and sometimes he leaned on it a little too hard with his nonstop “Jaysus”-ing.

The romance was very cute – and more importantly, very well-grounded.  Toni and Aiden have a lot of emotional healing and self-loving to do, and the romance bolsters this growth instead of hindering it.  This is how Toni comes to find herself as a woman instead of a trophy for her callow ex-fiancé, and how Aiden realizes he won’t replicate his father’s drinking and abusive behavior.

The secondary characters were fun – Aiden’s mom was a hoot, as were Toni’s mother and sister.

The book’s only real problem is The Big Breakup that happens near the end, which really didn’t really work for me; Aiden pushing Toni away in that moment, after what she’d seen and what she knew about him, didn’t flow at all.

But otherwise, The Write Escape has the right stuff to keep a reader firmly fascinated with its fun, fallish beauty.

Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
Visit our Amazon Storefront

Antonia is working for a publishing company editing novels, when she dreams of becoming a writer herself. Getting heartbroken and laid off all within 24 hours, she decided to take her honeymoon solo to the beautiful Emerald Isle. No distractions so she can finally write her novel.⁣
⁣
Aiden is an Irish professor looking for a getaway to the cottages after a long hard semester. But words fail him when he meets the girl staying next door. ⁣
⁣
Both Antonia and Aiden share a love of words and literature, sparking a connection that neither of them expected. When Antonia’s trip is closely coming to an end.. Can they go back to being separated by an ocean and the way their lives used to be? Or will they make the leap and do the unthinkable?⁣
⁣
Witty, strong, American female lead. Handsome, muscled Irish man. YES. I loved Antonia and her journey to find herself as a writer and drawing inspiration from Aiden. Also, Aiden was PERFECT. He literally read a historical romance novel to better understand Antonia’s writing, and he enjoyed it! I loved the two of them together and I was rooting the whole time for them! This definitely had it’s fair share of steamy scenes and tension between the two of them. I want to go to Ireland on “holiday” now and have a lot of “craic” (and I only know what that means from To All The Boys I Loved Before lol). I loved the Irish lingo and thought the author did a good job of making Aiden’s character believable! I will for sure be picking up more Irish romance novels in the future!⁣
⁣
⁣
Thank you to @carinapress / @harlequin and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! ⁣

Aspiring romance author escaping a cheating fiancee plus sexy Irish literature professor equals sparks in The Write Escape. I thought this was a fun story and promising debut, with lots of little details only someone very familiar with academia would think to include. (My husband is actually a professor, so I thought those elements were great.)

Antonia is a Black woman from Chicago who faces a layoff from her publishing job right after discovering her fiancee was cheating on her days before their wedding. She decides to take their Irish honeymoon anyway and use the opportunity to work on her romance novel and rediscover herself.

Aidan is an Irish literature professor working to get tenure, but a run-in with his ex leads to him taking a mini-vacation in rural Ireland where he meets Antonia. They have some truly funny banter and a somewhat slow-burn relationship.

Overall I enjoyed this, but I did find some of the conflict to be irritating and I wanted Antonia to believe in herself and stand up for herself much earlier, instead of getting upset about pretty trivial things. Neither she nor Aidan are particularly self-aware despite their education, and I didn't love that. There are also some things that walk that line between cute and cheesy, like the way Antonia constantly references how her more-confident character/alter-ego from her book would behave. It wasn't perfect, but there was a lot to like and I would read more from this author in the future. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was a delightful contemporary romance and I real enjoyed it. I was just laid off so this book was exactly what I needed. I needed to disappear in a romance and forget about what has been going on in my life even for a moment.

I also love romances like these when the two main characters are from different countries and fall in love. Amazing love story that I highly recommend.

3.75 stars

An enjoyable love story with an unusual setting and characters. Antonia is working in publishing, engaged to a wealthy and snotty young man, and has set aside her dream of being a writer. Then, days before the wedding she discovers her fiance is a two-timing phony, and she calls everything off and also loses her job. She takes her unfinished novel and heads to Ireland, where they were supposed to honeymoon.

In the next cottage over we find the nearly-perfect Professor Aiden. He is handsome, sensitive, sexy, articulate and smitten with Antonia. Although she is black and Aiden is white, that never seems to be a major point of interest to them or anyone else.

Can they both escape the baggage of their pasts to forge a future together? What do you think? This is a very readable story with two beguiling main characters. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Every now and again a story comes along that hits the spot. A pleasant and entertaining read about two people who come together and then have to work through various issues and conflicts to ensure they are doing the right thing.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Special thanks to Charish Reid & Harlequin for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

If you're looking for a romantic tale that centers around a strong, hard-working female protagonist, look no further. The Write Escape by Charish Reid is a wonderful story about love, perseverance & following one's heart. Also, love the fact that it is set in Ireland!

Finding One's Way

At the moment, Antonia is a bit lost. Things are definitely not going her way. Without a job & without a significant other, she embarks on a journey to Ireland. I love that she's traveling to really find her way. See, she is wanting to get back to the person she wants to be. In walks Aiden. Looks like she may be finding love too.

THE VERDICT

I am Really Into This book! The Write Escape by Charish Reid is touching, heartfelt and emotional. If you're in the mood for another feel-good romance, be sure to check out Good Man, Dalton by Karen McQuestion.

Lovely feel good read. It was well written and flowed well. I enjoyed it very much. The plot was good and interesting. Hard to put down

Twitter has been talking about Charish Reid’s forthcoming debut novel, The Write Escape. I was happy to receive it as an arc from NetGalley en exchange for an honest review.

Antonia is about to get married, she has a good job in publishing and she is kind of working on her novel. The problem is, her mother doesn’t like her fiance, she doesn’t like her soon to be in laws, and now their are rumors of trouble at her publishing house. In a few short hours, she loses her fiance and her job.

Dr. Aiden Byrnes has had a bad year since his girlfriend left him. He’s afraid she was right that he’s been drifting through his career. If he doesn”t make tenure in a year he’s out. He’s uninspired by his writing, his teaching, and his life in general.

Separately, Antonia and Aiden retreat to vacation cottages in Tully Cross, Ireland to recuperate and find themselves. They end up finding each other.

I loved Antonia and Aiden, separately and together. The best part of the book was Antonia and Aiden sparking off each other intellectually while talking about Zora Neale Hurston and the parallels between African American and Irish cultures (not the Irish slaves myth, they clear that right up). I enjoyed the parts where they sparked off each other physically as well. I enjoyed their bickering and arguing. Both characters come to life as they spend time together.

What doesn’t work as well is the conflict that is the obstacle to their HEA, and it’s resolution. I don’t think Reid was entirely comfortable with the high drama of emotions. I don’t know how to articulate the difference between the authorial confidence in Antonia and Aiden’s bickering, and the lack of confidence in their big fight, I just know I felt it.

Bobbles in voice aside, Charish Reid can write and she has a clear appreciation for the genre. I very much hope Reid is hard at work on a novel for Antonia’s awesome sister, Octavia. I think as she writes more romances, a genre for which she has a clear fondness, her books will keep getting better. The Write Escape was sets the bar high for her next book.