In Chelsea Fagan's debut novel, "A Perfect Vintage", the reader follows Lea Mortimer—a sought-after hotel consultant known for her revival of French countryside estates into charming boutique hotels—as she works on her latest project.
Lea is accompanied by her close friend, Stephanie and her daughter, who are looking for an escape following a bitter divorce. But Lea grapples with the challenge of merging her work and her personal life; Stephanie threatens the delicate professional balance Lea has worked so hard to create over the years, posing a test of Lea's ability to navigate the complexities of her friendship while maintaining her and maintain her professional focus.
Meanwhile, Lea finds herself developing feels for the much younger son of her employer.
I really wanted to like this book, but I found it to be very surface level. And, a lot of cringe. However, I had the pleasure of hearing Fagan speak about her book, and because of what she said, my feelings towards the book changed.
Initially, I was put off by the relationship between Lea, 36, and Theo, 24. Beyond their drastic age difference, I didn’t see any chemistry between the two of them. Also, the way Lea acted around Theo seemed in contradiction to her character. In all other parts of the book, Lea is an ambitious, confident, and independent woman. Around Theo, she doubts herself.
Fagan spoke about how she deliberately created this relationship to draw attention to the double standard social norms we all operate under; she wanted to make her audience uncomfortable. If the genders were reversed and Theo was the older one, I might not have thought twice about this aspect of their relationship. In fact, Stephanie develops a relationship with Alain, the owner of this French countryside estate and father of Theo. Fagan does not draw as much attention to their age difference, but they are further apart then Lea and Theo are. She deliberately puts these two relationships in her book; Fagan encourages her audience to confront their own biases and question the accepted conventions that often go unexamined.
Thinking about the story through that lens, I have a new appreciation for it. Just like Lea, Chelsea Fagan portrays herself as an ambitious, confident, and independent woman. She adds her own spin on a previously explored trope. She doesn’t confine her book to fit within one genre (either Women’s Fiction or Romance). And, she wants her readers to reflect.
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