The risks of making a fresh start permeate Main Character Energy, a smartly crafted and spunky romantic comedy, and the first novel by Jamie Varon. Single Californian Poppy Banks is stuck in a rut. The overweight 32-year-old suffers from a lack of confidence and self-worth. She's trapped in a "soul-sucking" writing job, the drama of familial expectations, and a mountain of debt from student loans and maxed-out credit cards. Added to this malaise are years of "disappointment, failure, rejection... and paralyzing writer's block" in her quest to become a published author. Her brother is already a bestselling author with a novel being adapted to film. Just as Poppy is about to ditch her dream, her Aunt Margot dies. Creative, free-spirited Margot, an expatriate who ran an elite writer's retreat in Cap Ferrat, France, had been estranged from her sister, Poppy's mother, yet secretly in contact with Poppy and supportive of her writing. Her death bequeaths an inheritance to Poppy with strings attached: if Poppy can run the writing center and finish her novel in six months, then the villa in Cap Ferrat will be hers.
Clever, astute Aunt Margot may have been long-lost to the family, but the orchestrations executed upon her death make it clear that she knew Poppy better than Poppy knows herself. Varon (Radically Content) delivers an immensely fun travel adventure. This well-plotted, lively rom-com is populated by a large cast of diverse, colorful characters, beguiling romance, and lots of pleasant surprises. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines