The Champagne Letters

MacIntosh debuts with a fizzy story of an unmoored woman who finds solace in a cache of historical letters. When Natalie Taylor’s 20-year marriage ends in divorce, she isn’t sure how to move on. Casting about for a new beginning, she flies from Chicago to Paris, where she buys a collection of letters written by Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, who inherited her husband’s champagne business in early 19th-century Reims, to her great-granddaughter, Anne. Barbe-Nicole’s description of her struggles and resilience as a woman business owner provides Natalie with a path forward. She meets handsome wine merchant Gabriel and puts together a chic French wardrobe with help from her hotel’s concierge. MacIntosh alternates Barbe-Nicole’s accounts of life in Napoleonic Reims with Natalie’s fast-moving romance with Gabriel, which is complicated by Natalie’s discovery that he’s not the highly successful wine merchant he purported to be. The author also cleverly draws parallels between Barbe-Nicole and Natalie as they cope with the loss of their husbands and their similar feelings of isolation when facing life’s difficulties without input from their spouses. This feel-good story hits all the right notes. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Word One Literary. (Dec.)