Backwards and In Heels

Laid off. No boyfriend. And a mortgage that isn't going to pay itself.

Marianna Toscano's holiday season is off to a spectacular start.

Not.

When a ridiculously handsome stranger's cat leash sends her sprawling onto a San Francisco sidewalk—and she subsequently douses herself in Diet Coke—Mari decides she's officially hit rock bottom.

At least she'll never have to see said handsome stranger again.

Except…

Desperate to save her new condo from foreclosure, Mari takes a job at her cousin's struggling Sicilian soda company. But when her cousin abandons the business for a surfing and skateboarding retreat in Portugal, Mari finds herself running a company on the brink of bankruptcy.

And who's its brilliant new chemist, hired to head Research & Development?

Errol Yin. Aka Cat-leash guy.

Of course.

Errol has a mission of his own: save the beloved North Beach Kids' Club that once saved him. The generous signing bonus he's counting on could keep its doors open. But first, he and Mari have to rescue a soda company that's going under—without getting distracted by a different type of chemistry.

Unfortunately, there's another complication.

Errol doesn't do girlfriends. He dates. He charms. He makes scrumptious baked goods. He leaves everyone smiling. But he's spent a lifetime making sure he never gets close enough to anyone to risk losing them. Falling in love? Absolutely not.

Mari, on the other hand, has a spectacularly bad track record with men who leave. The last thing she needs is another broken heart—especially when her financial survival depends on working alongside the man who could break it.

But when locking arms to save Savoca starts turning into locking lips, keeping their hearts out of it may be the one challenge neither can overcome.

Set against Christmas in San Francisco's North Beach and Alameda, with meddling Italian families, laugh-out-loud mishaps, and a very special Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, Backwards and In Heels is a romantic comedy about the risks we take—and the love we find—when life doesn't go according to plan.