The Write Escape

Written by Charish Reid

Narrated by Shari Peele

Take one heartbroken Chicago girl Literary editor Antonia Harper had it all-the career, the man, the future. That was then. Now Antonia is jobless, alone and at a crossroads. What better time to travel the world? A solo honeymoon on the Emerald Isle will be like hitting the reset button. No distractions, no drama. Add some luck o' the Irish Aiden Byrnes may be a literature professor, but words fail him when he meets the woman staying in the cottage next door. Tully Cross is meant to be a sleepy little village, and he's meant to be on a working holiday-not a vacation, and most definitely not with his beautiful neighbor. And you get some mighty good craic They say laughter is the best medicine-and as it turns out, superhot sex isn't so bad either. Antonia and Aiden's spark quickly grows into what could be something special, if they're willing to take the leap. Ending up an ocean apart is unthinkable, and when real life comes calling, there's no ignoring that leap anymore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781980061014

Charish Reid

Charish Reid is a fan of sexy books and disaster films. When she's not grading papers or prepping lessons for college freshmen, she enjoys writing romances that celebrate quirky black women who deserve HEAs. Charish currently lives in Sweden, with her husband, avoiding most forms of exercise.

Reviews for The Write Escape

[janieandharry1987 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Omg… I absolutely love this author. And this narrator!! She is amazing. The way she says Jesus. ??

[spinsterrevival · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An adorable and lovely read with a gorgeous setting and a couple perfect for each other. Also fangirling over the hero who immediately gets immersed in a historical romance.

[samnreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Antonia basically loses everything in the span of two days--well, not everything...but enough. Her fiance, and then her job. Inspired by her very own romance novel heroine and her supportive family, she takes her own honeymoon.

I'll stop there, you've read this set up. I couldn't remember why I picked up this book (other than the cute couple on the cover) but in the end I remembered, I'm a sucker for remote neighbors in a rustic setting and, well, here we are, in Ireland at Tully Cross.

It's evident from the beginning that Aiden is a keeper, and again, while not a bit of conflict in this book felt quite original, so much did. And I have to say, YMMV but this book pretty much made me swoon and heart swell and lots of little smiles...

So, why?

"I'm from Chicago," she said, her face lit up again. "In America," she added for clarification.

He laughed. "I'm familiar," he said. "Home of Barack Obama."


I was drawn to this by the author's authentic characters right in the beginning-a complicated, but ultimately positive relationship with her mother. A force of a sister, a best friend with a endearing but somewhat annoying girlfriend. It was easy for me to fall into step with Antonia. While I don't always love books within books, it felt less forced here than elsewhere, and didn't end up too gimmicky for me overall.

I thought the authors choice to delay the meeting of the main characters till later in the book was a good one, and found their voices interesting on their own. Aiden is dealing with coming up on tenure in a year and not having faced the reality. He's a year out of a failed relationship with an ambitious woman who was his colleague, and all of us can breath a sigh of relief--she's treated overall respectfully by Aiden. Less so by his family.

And boy, does this man love his mother. His family. He wants a family, and he's 38. She's 33. How wonderful to read a nice, relaxed couple in their 30s.

Obviously the characters have overlapping passions. Antonia comes from publishing and wants to write, and Aiden is a professor of literature. But this didn't feel thrown in in a cheap way, and lent itself to discussions that I think would happen (likely with more depth and intensity) without feeling like an infodump. It has nice elements underscoring it related to literature, dancing, give and take (call and response) overall. I really enjoyed how Reid wove these in. It wasn't as masterful as some authors, but it was definitely a great introduction to her work for me. I thought it was interesting how she did this all in the fabric of a black woman in Ireland falling for an Irish man, while also highlighting (with a light touch) some parallels in the black and Irish experience.

Overall, this book has a nice foundation of friendship, individual conflict, and a relationship that moves quickly, albeit, to this reader, pretty convincingly (I was half in love with both of them by their meeting too!)

"Your voice is beautiful," he said, eventually giving up.
"You lie," she said.
Aiden shrugged. "It seemed like a nice thing to say to a woman who was wailing her head off in the middle of the sea."

Overall a clean writing style, that felt straightforward, with some themes that were interesting and fresh to me (that could have been executed less heavily at times but overall did not bog down the story one bit. Nothing felt overcooked, just kind of light and delightful. 3.72, rounded up. (I've decided not to write about what didn't work for me -- at this point anyway.)

She looked up at him. "What have you done?"
"I've created another excuse to hold on to your coat," he said, taking her hand.