3.5 Star Review, SENEN LETTERS FROM PARIS by Samantha Verant

Seven Letters From Paris Synopsis :

Twenty years, seven letters, and one long-lost love of a lifetime

At age 40, Samantha Vérant’s life is falling apart-she’s jobless, in debt, and feeling stuck… until she stumbles upon seven old love letters from Jean-Luc, the sexy Frenchman she’d met in Paris when she was 19. With a quick Google search, she finds him, and both are quick to realize that the passion they felt 20 years prior hasn’t faded with time and distance.

Samantha knows that jetting off to France to reconnect with a man that she only knew for one sun-drenched, passion-filled day is crazy-but it’s the kind of crazy she’s been waiting for her whole life.

Release date: October 7, 2014 at Sourcebooks

288 pages, ISBN: 978-1402297229, Goodreads

BOOK REVIEW

Who doesn’t love a romance, and better yet, one involving a Frenchman. Often French romances can be quite torturous affairs though – unrequited love and missed opportunity abound. Verant’s memoir Seven Letters from Paris features those quintessential elements, but it’s liberal sprinkling of the fairy dust and sparkle of American Disney movies makes it an uplifting and entertaining read.

Memoirs are tricky things. There is the question of just how much of the author’s unadulterated self to bare to the world. A reader can pick it a mile away when information is being held back, or when the lily is being gilded. Whether or not you connect to Verant’s personality or choices, you have to genuinely admire and respect just how open she is about her thoughts, feelings and motivations in this book. She acknowledges the part she played in her troubles and the self-doubt that has plagued her.

And the romantic Frenchman? He wears his heart on his sleeve in his letters, after spending so little time together.

I miss your voice. It still sings in my head like a sweet bird filled with plenty of happiness. You put thousands of suns in my mind… like a fairy.

Much respect for the passion… a little effusive for my personal tastes though, even after you filter out the translation effect. But each to their own, and it turns out he was just what Verant needed, 20 years later!

In this world today where we are bombarded with trauma and bloodshed stemming from people’s hatred of their fellow man on the TV news, Seven Letters from Paris was just what the doctor ordered – a lovely book to fall asleep with. This memoir is a lesson in the good that can come from being brutally honest with oneself and taking risks for the chance of happiness. You may need to hit rock bottom and overcome many hurdles, but sometimes fairytales really do come true…

BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 3 / 5 ; Overall 3.5

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Genre: Romance, Drama

Author Information: Samantha Vérant is a travel addict, a self-professed oenophile, and a determined, if occasionally unconventional, French chef. Over the years, she’s visited many different countries, lived in many places, and worked many jobs — always on the search for the one thing that truly excited her. Then, one day, she found everything she’s been looking for: a passion for the written word and true love. Writing not only enabled her to open her heart, it led her to southwestern France, where she’s now married to a sexy French rocket scientist she met in 1989, but ignored for 20 years.