Pretzels and Pythons: A Beijing love story

Can you reinvent your life as a middle-aged American woman in faraway China?

On the surface, forty-something Wendy Van Breest’s expat life in Beijing is to be envied+ — she is married to an affluent business executive, has a gifted daughter and spends her days as a woman of leisure.

But her life slowly starts to unravel, and unassuming Wendy is suddenly faced with hard choices after her quirky best friend, Angie, suggests she get a new haircut from a young and handsome Chinese barber and reluctantly reveals some dark secrets. Wendy sees her expat bubble burst as she is forced to radically reevaluate her life.

Set against the backdrop of contemporary Beijing’s glitzy Sanlitun bars, the fast-paced CBD district and the traditional narrow back alleys of China’s capital, Pretzels and Pythons explores what it means to grapple with one’s existential fears after falling illicitly in love in a foreign land.

Pretzels and Pythons is a cross-cultural romance novel with suspense and soap opera-like elements that begs the question: Should you leave your comfort zone?