• Complete manuscript: 98,000 words

  • Upmarket adult fiction

  • Dual-POV

  • Immersive setting

  • Romantic, but not a romance

Currently Querying: Venice

Book cover for 'Venice' by Ellen Merryweather, featuring a minimalist line drawing of a table set with wine glasses, a flower vase, and plates with food on a yellow background.

What is love worth when it’s bound to be bittersweet?

Marta comes to Venice to “give this Eat Pray Love thing a go”, after being fired from an all-consuming career. But she’s fine, really. Giulio is quite happy with his simple life of casual hookups and days spent as a gondolier on Venice’s glittering canals. It’s almost enough to distract him from thinking about The One That Got Away. Almost.

When they meet in his gondola, their attraction is as instant as it is unwise. She’s never going to stay, and he’s never going to leave. During one winter together, their deepening connection runs against the clock of an inevitable deadline.

What starts as an atmospheric rom-com unfolds into a poignant look at what happens to romance when geography is too powerful to ignore. Written for everyone who wishes Rachel had got on the plane at the end of Friends. Or who would like to see an Emily Henry novel with a La La Land ending.

Perfect for fans of Jenny Mustard's Okay Days, and Claire Deverley’s Talking at Night.

Published in: The Madrid Review

Cover of The Madrid Review, Volume 1, Issue 2, featuring an abstract artwork and a list of contributors including Simon Armitage, Jordi Doce, María Dueñas, Colm Tóibín, Lawrence Osborne, Margaret Jull Costa, Joanne Harris, Kate Rhodes, Kerry Andrew, and others.

My short story, Madrid by the Hour, was published in Issue 3 of The Madrid Review.

All back issues of the mag are available to order online. (My issue also features Colm Tóibín and Simon Armitage, so you’d be getting your money’s worth!)