The way Maria became an author is a little crazy. One day she quit her PR job and went to Argentina by herself for what was supposed to be a two-week trip. Instead, she ended up staying for a year to play soccer for River Plate, one of the most famous clubs in the world.

While down there she decided to be bold and try something she’d long dreamed about—writing a novel! 

Fast forward a few years, and she’s now the bestselling author of eight romantic comedies, including the Waverly Bryson series (Perfect on Paper, It’s a Waverly Life, Honey on Your Mind, and Chocolate for Two, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly), as well as International Book Award winner Cassidy Lane, Katwalk, Wait for the Rain, and Bridges.

A remarkable story behind the story

Perfect on Paper was initially turned down by several major publishing houses. In an effort to prove them wrong, Maria self-published and implemented a creative, grass-roots marketing campaign.

And it worked!

Within a year Perfect on Paper attracted the attention of senior executives at Amazon, who chose it out of more than 10,000 self-published titles for the company’s venture into traditional publishing. They offered Maria a contract, and a year later Perfect on Paper reached #2 overall on Amazon.

Since then the book has been translated into German, Hungarian, Italian, Serbian, Turkish, and Indonesian. Maria’s subsequent novels have also been purchased by Amazon Publishing, housed under the Lake Union imprint.

Organizations that have invited Maria to speak include the Harvard Women’s Leadership Conference, the Massachusetts Conference for Women, the Baltimore Book Festival, the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, the Texas Conference for Women, and Temple University’s Fox School of Business, among many others. 

She has been featured in USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Entrepreneur, and PopSugar. A Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar at UC Berkeley, she graduated with high honors in English and Spanish and was an Alumni Scholar. She also received a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University.

Maria currently lives in Brooklyn, and yes, she still plays a lot of soccer!