Opposites Attack
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Published by: Vivant Press
Release Date: April 22, 2013
Pages: 348
ISBN13: 978-0985548223
Synopsis
“A fun, rollicking tale with an enchanted setting, the kind of book you want to share with your dearest friends. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss this one!”
Cassandra King Conroy. New York Times bestselling author, Moonrise, Tell Me A Story: My Life with Pat Conroy
Alyce Donovan has a lot of nerve. After losing her low-paying job and the wealthy man she hoped to marry, she spends her severance on a total-immersion language program in the South of France. Never mind that she’s never left American soil or that her courage came from a bottle of Bordeaux she gulped down in her dismal Hoboken apartment. Once in France, Alyce unintentionally offends her local hosts. From farmers to nuns, each one sends her packing. She has only one option left: the guest cottage of her program director’s brother. Enigmatic author Jean-Luc is no fan of Americans, but he could use the money. He’s also searching for new book material and thinks Alyce is just the one to provide it. Can he put up with the brash American? And can she stick it out long enough to learn French … and some other well needed lessons?
Extras include an essay from the author on the true adventure behind the story, recipes, and discussion questions.
“Merci for taking me back to the deliciousness of Provence! I wish my first stay in France had been this delightfully wicked.” Teresa Engebretsen. The Sabbatical Chef
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Praise
“A fun, rollicking tale with an enchanted setting, the kind of book you want to share with your dearest friends. Do yourself a favor and don’t miss this one!”
—Cassandra King Conroy, New York Times bestselling author
“Sparkles like fine champagne and makes you feel just as good. Opposites Attack feels like a Truffaut romantic comedy with a touch of Julie and Julia thrown in for good measure. Uncork and enjoy to the last drop.”
—Richard Goodman, author of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France
“Filled with gutsy good humor and fantastic characters that made me laugh out loud. Armchair travel at its best!”
—Kimberly Daniels, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
“Merci for taking me back to the deliciousness of Provence! I wish that my first stay in France had been this delightfully wicked.”
—Teresa Engebretsen, The Sabbatical Chef
Backstory
The inspiration for Opposites Attack grew out of my experience at a total-immersion language school in Provence d’Azur—a heavenly part of France where Provence and the Côte d’Azur meet. There were students of all nationalities there. As a certified story junkie, there was no shortage of entertainment in that department. One older American told me he had been coming back to the school every summer for many years. Perhaps it was my vivid writer’s imagination, but was his “friendship” with the instructor he always dined with in the school cafeteria more than that?
My goodness, I thought. What endless mischief could erupt as foreigners whooshed in and out of the lives of the locals for weeks and months at a time? It was like a cruise ship for language nerds.
The full story of why I went there and what it was really like can be found in the “Lagniappes” section at the end of the 2023 10th Anniversary edition. Bottom line: I entered the school in Hyères speaking like a one-year-old and left fourteen days later speaking like I was two. But it was worth it!
If this book inspires you to travel, take a cooking class, learn a new language, or fall in love with someone very different from you, tout nouveau, tout beau! What is new, is good.