Once upon a time, a woman went to Paris in the 80s, met a sexy Frenchman in a café, went back home to the States, received seven lovely love letters from him… and didn’t reply.
Samantha Vérant (the fact that she has a French surname is a bit of a giveaway about the ending!) tells the story of of what happened twenty years later, when she was 39. She had no job, a sad marriage and financial difficulties. However, she had very supportive parents and a great friend called Tracey, who takes her out for a drink and, to cheer Sam up, reminded her of their trip to Paris twenty years ago, and the two Frenchmen they met.
I’m liking
Even though it was clear what was going to happen right from the beginning (the cover says “Sometimes love gives you a second chance,” and on page 2, the author describes her husband, saying ”I am just as attracted to him as I’d been when we first met over twenty years ago.”), this book was engaging and I enjoyed the story, wanting to read more to find out more details. Samantha is honest about the good and bad parts of her past, and about how difficult it was when her life wasn’t going well, while keeping the story generally light and entertaining.
Jean-Luc’s letters were indeed swoonworthy and I had a good laugh about Samantha’s mistakes as she learnt more about French and French culture. Anyone who has learnt another language will understand!
It really was nice to read about someone whose life hadn’t been going very well who suddenly had a second chance and found happiness.
Things that made me go hmmmm
There wasn’t much I didn’t like about this book. I found it a bit odd that, although Sam is American, the version of the book I was reading referred to her mother as “Mum”.
I found Samantha generally likeable, but I was quite shocked to read that she was planning to use a clothes dryer all winter and not hang her washing out!
There were also a few too many details about the wedding. I didn’t really want to know exactly what everyone wore and what they ate and the names of all the guests and exactly what flowers went where. I guess the author wanted to include all of her friends and family who were part of the story.
The conclusion
Seven Letters from Paris is a lovely real-life fairy tale. I don’t think I’d recommend it to people having a tough time, or to a twenty-year old about to visit Paris, because not everyone gets to be saved by a sexy French rocket scientist, but I would recommend it to people who like a bit of armchair travel or a good romance. It’s a good read about someone’s dream come true.
