Rating: 
Summary: Drivel
Review: This book was so cliche-ridden and trite that it isn't worth the paper it's printed on. The characters are predictable, the plot tedious, and the book entirely forgettable. Don't waste your time or your money.
Rating: 
Summary: When are we going to have strong women characters
Review: This was the same romantic dribble. Woman marries man when young, man cheats on woman when older, older woman finds solace in arms of younger man.Why do women need another man to get over the first man? Save your money and buy a tour guide book like Lonely Planet Paris if you want to read about Paris. And if you want romance where a great women meets a great man, read Jennifer Cruise
Rating: 
Summary: Great travel package but weak romance baggage
Review: Though Elizabeth Adler's latest novella blends in a potent fusion of romance and wanderlust, the cardboard-romance can never measure up to the pleasures derived from her vivid descriptions of France and details of the hustle in the tour. Lara Lewis, her central protagonist, decides to embark on a self-discovery tour to France after her twenty-year old marriage with her husband Bill crumbles with his infidelity. She rediscovers youth and courage with a new-found, younger lover Dan Holland who is a handyman engaged by Lara. Adler's affectionate prose pours over the flight delays, messed-up hotel reservations and lost directions in France. Her penchance for details judiciously sums up the beauty in Provence, the glamor in Cannes and the architectural majesty of the Louvres. Cafes, delicacies like prunes and wine sumptuously tease the imaginations of readers. It's great fun and certainly vivacious travel read. The same though cannot be said of the monotonous romance that interrupts the flow of the travel passage with over-dramatized passion. The naive and indecisive Lara is difficult to empathize with. She punctuates the novel with wanting to reconcile with her betraying husband (read:weak) and afraid to love Dan. The conflicts drone on but it's really the travelling we are interested in.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful premise but made to easy by elements of the plot
Review: When I first started the book I enjoyed the idea of the premise: a stay at home wife devoted to her husband, his career, their children; my generation. You know the type on the cusp of a new journey in her life, as the kids are gone, and it should be time for the couple to re-emerge. When the chance arrives it is fraught with all too familiar elements for many women of my generation: a husband too involved in his own life to make room for her or better yet he has someone new to share that new life with. Well despite this numbing event unlike most of us she has far too much money or status to be in any real danger of not making it. After all to find her self she is going on a second honeymoon trip with a new love interest and money is no worry. I mean how many women find them selves in this position with no career skills to make it on their own let alone getting to take a trip to France to ponder and take a wonderful caring newcomer with her? Where do I go to sign up? Sure I am not naive this is fiction and given such, many of life's realities shouldn't play in it. However, it would have been nice to see this woman have a bit more to worry about than missed luggage, hotel reservations gone bad and car troubles, all easily solved with money. A little bit more reality here would have been nice and her journey to discover the new "you" would have made this one more than just a good beach read . Also, wouldn't it have been a bit nicer for her own character development if she had not succumbed to the same adultery her husband had. Granted who wouldn't want to go with the sexy Dan but I felt like she used him for her own end not unlike her husband; not a way to start a relationship based on trust. I was also disappointed with the ending also, the dialogue at the airport, seemed to me she didn't really learn anything new. Although I will admit the scene with her husband in the Paris restaurant was a wonderful display for our protagonist, RIGHT ON!!! All in all I gave the book a three because, even though it was a fun read for a lazy afternoon, I wanted more depth of character from our protagonist and a bit more real situations the reader could identify with. Dan could have been fleshed out more, reactions from her kids and her husband well he was pure stereotype, you know the kind we love to hate. If money is an issue wait for the mass marked release.
Rating:
Summary: Read a travel guide or read a bodice-ripper, but not this!
Review: While it was an easy read, as most romances are, I found the plot and the events happening therein extremely trite and redundant. A middle-aged woman escapes to Paris with a younger man after finding out her husband has been cheating on her (promising enough) but what ensues are repetitive descriptions of charming French inns, exotic food (if she mentions getting a "grand crème" one more time, I will scream!), and tepid, sentimental erotic encounters. Each chapter plays like the one before it: Lara loves the scenery, Lara loves Dan, Lara experiences self-doubt, Lara and Dan quibble, Lara goes shopping, Lara and Dan make love, Lara feels better. Ugh. Maybe a 7th grader would consider this marginally interesting, but I consider it something that would tire even the most bored, romantically-deprived reader. Check it out at your local library (at your own risk).
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