Meet Me in Paris: A Memoir

Okay, this book was hard for me to read because I love fidelity as much as the author loves Paris. I'm the one who wants to celebrate her 70th wedding anniversary with her husband (married at 30? might be a bit ambitious, but you get the point). That was the only reason I knocked off a star - totally personal, nothing to do with the writing.

But in reading the book, I understood the writer. I was able to walk in her shoes and understand her decisions - truly understand them - which is the essence of a good memoir. Sobanet's writing is lucid and poetic as she speaks both about the beauty and delights she's rediscovering in her favourite country, but also about her soul-wrenching pain. My favourite parts of the book were actually when she hit rock bottom because that was something I could identify with, one battered soul to another, and I really rooted for her to overcome. The book had good "character" evolution. (What do you call that when it's a memoir)? The evolution of her heart and mind is evident, and I cheered at the victory in the last chapter.

I think this book might be freeing for someone who has gone through a divorce, and perhaps even more so for someone who lives with her wings clipped.

WOW! Just wow... this was a very quick and easy 300 + page read. Such highs... with the love affair and the steamy scenes and then such lows with the death of a dear friend, divorce, & depression. This book is real life. I admire you for writing your story and finding yourself, revealing the true you!

This is a story that I think most can relate to. Best book yet... you hit it out of the park with this one. I hope Paris welcomes you with open arms and you are able to start fresh in a familiar place. What an extremely tough couple of years you have had. Keep your head up... this book will help many who have been in your shoes.

Such a raw book written by an imperfect human... this is real life. Decisions are hard, things don't add up or make sense and most of the time there is no fairy tale ending. In the end you all you have is yourself, and that is the person you need to fill up, find, and just BE. Such a great story on finding ones TRUE self and the real life trials and tribulations that take you there... Can't wait for the book of Poems!

This memoir, from one of my favourite romance authors, is the true tale of a hopeless romantic addicted to writing, travel and France who found herself in a marriage where she had to be someone she wasn’t for everyday life to tick over nicely, despite loving a husband who also loved her. One day she spread her wings, took off to experience freedom and to find the passion she could only write about, divorcing her husband and having an affair that gave her great highs but deep lows too. She is a good example of the torment of the creative mind who needed to flee what she feared was slowing killing her inner soul, but the price of freedom was high. It was not an easy journey, there were some very dark days for her when loneliness and depression zapped her of her energy and threatened her life. There were times when I felt very sad, times when I felt she was selfish and times I wished she would just stop making the wrong decisions and get on a plane to France, which she does numerous times throughout the book.

Ultimately this book is a journey of discovery and recovery, where Paris and Lyon try their best to soothe her troubled mind and help her move forward to a happier place. She just needs to work out where to find this happiness; is it in France, in her marriage, in the arms of her lover or is there something else? Her writing certainly became very important in her healing process and this led to an emotionally charged memoir that contains some strong language and scenes of a sexual nature.

At the end of the book I found myself wondering how I felt. She has slightly deflated my dream of the typical life I expected a romance novelist like Juliette Sobanet to be living, but I can’t help but feel privileged she has shared her real life with her readers. Characters in a novel have ups and downs before finding their happily ever afters, real life is a different story altogether. She will always be Juliette to me and I can’t wait for her to feel ready to write another chocolate filled romance set in France.

I was sent a copy of this book for an honest review.

Beautifully written and love the characters! Didn't want story to end.

“It is my firm belief that upon leaving one’s husband, one should immediately hop on a flight to Paris”

Indeed! France is balm for a broken heart. This is a very personal story of Danielle, who falls madly in love with Nick as her own marriage is faltering and this new relationship proves to be a catalyst in the ending of her marriage. A memoir with many tears along the way, periods of deep depression and oftentimes liberal use of Xanax (used to treat anxiety disorders).

I am not sure whether to refer to Danielle, the pseudonym, or Juliette, the author when I say the lead character is an absolute Francophile and it is to the country of France to which she looks for solace when things are going pear-shaped. It is also far from her home city of San Diego where she can immerse herself in her new relationship with Nick. Nick, however is himself married – he seems to run an open marriage with the blessing of his wife – and is not inclined to rock the boat at home.

So, she finds herself in a terrible bind as she is sucked into a passionate affair that takes over her life and, with it, the powerful emotions and passions that inevitably come with subterfuge. The exhilaration and depression are palpable as she wears her heart on her sleeve, feeling swamped by the cycle of love and loss. Indulgent as this memoir can be at times, ultimately, this is a courageous sharing of raw emotion.

From Paris to Lyon and the South of France, Danielle shares her love of the country. There are mentions of culinary delights aplenty like Pain et Cie and the Paul Bocuse eatery Le Nord in Lyon. She shares titillations at the lingerie shop Darjeeling in Paris where Danielle buys a soutien-gorge combo (love that word, French for bra). And it is on to Saint Tropez, as she writes: “All divorced women need to come to Saint-Tropez and eat la Tropézienne”.

She describes how she originally got in the mood for her French sojourn by listening to the soundtrack by Yann Tierson to the film Amélie, (and an author after our own TripFiction heart, she says “Just as books can allow you to travel, so can films…” and describes how watching French Kiss with Meg Ryan was a turning point in her burgeoning love for all things French).

This is a tumultuous period in the life of the author, rendered in such frank prose, that sometimes it can feel quite swamping. She is needing of those around her and of her reader, as she searches for the love that was withheld as a child (as she sadly describes: “The father who never wanted me…“). She is almost that small child who has been a parent to her mother and found her father emotionally unavailable, and now, in her adult skin, searches for that overwhelming, all-consuming and generous parental love in her partners… and, of course, struggles.

This is a heartfelt, bare-all-memoir, that will take you from San Diego to France and back again. She will tug at your heartstrings, annoy you, flood you with personal emotion and finally win you over. Her writing style is good and very personal.

When romance writer Juliette Sobanet makes the gut-wrenching decision to end her marriage, all she can think about is being anywhere but home. As the worst year of her life unfolds, she embarks on a passionate love affair with a man she meets during a conference and who ultimately sweeps her off her feet to destinations all over the world, most romantically, Paris, a city Juliette has loved since she was a girl. As her affair starts to unravel as well, Juliette must decide if she still believes in happy endings - for herself.
This is a very honest and emotional memoir of divorce and recovery. The writing is very raw, to the point I could really feel her pain at leaving her marriage and the emotional roller coaster she is on, not only with her lover, but with her love of Paris as well. While not a happy story, I did feel by the end that this was a journey she needed to travel in order to come out better on the other side.

This was definitely not what I was expecting but I really liked it. I haven't read a memoir that is so raw and emotional before. I find it a bit hard to review without giving away any spoilers though. If you're going through a rough time in life, give this book a shot. And it is a must read if you love France :)

Wow. This is a book that will take your breath away. We've all had a relationship like this-passionate but that will suck the soul out of you, so you have to get out, but it's so tricky. And of course, there are a million other things going on. Aren't there always? The author was very brave and really wrote it like it is. It's not always pretty. Sometimes you are really alone. And then you make it through. I thought she did a great job of writing it how it really goes.

my high school English teacher told me that there's no point reading a book if you can't relate to it in some way, whether it be with the characters, the plot, the emotions, or the setting. I just finished reading 'meet me in Paris' and I don't think I've ever connected with with anything so deeply. if you've ever struggled with heartbreak, depression, or finding your true self, read this book. if you've questioned your beliefs on relationships and love, read this book. if you love Paris, read this book. I promise you'll love it as much as I did!

Juliette Sobanet's, "Meet me in Paris" is a raw, authentic, entertaining and gripping read I couldn't put down. She shows anything is possible regardless of life's challenges. I highly recommend.