For everyone who dreams of falling in love in Paris
I have never read anything by Kristen Harmel before but I am glad I started with Meet Me In Paris because I think I’ve found a new author to binge read. Her writing style is personal and she makes her characters feel intimate, friendly, and recognizable.
(Note: a lot of the books I read are actually audio books; I travel fairly often and audio books are my way of staying focused and not getting lost in daydreams and avoiding driving off the road. Listening to a book is reading, too!)
Meet Me In Paris by Kristen Harmel Is Many Stories In One
I originally thought this was a book of short stories but it is the story of how people find connection with each other. They fall in love and get divorced and mourn and all of those things bind them together. Sometimes they meet in person. Other times they meet each other only through shared connections.
In this book, the characters stories are revealed little at a time. Don’t worry – it is well worth it to take the time to read them all!
In Meet Me In Paris you will meet:
- Henri and Celeste, and elderly couple who lost each other but find each other again.
- Julia and Piper, a mother and daughter on a belated trip together.
- Jackson Quick, a Gen-X rock star, on tour for the first time in ten years.
- Melanie, Henri’s granddaughter, struggling within her marriage
- Shelby, on the brink of divorce, and Russ, a bartender, struggling in his career
- George and Lou, vets who remained best friends through their life
Multiple Stories Tied Together
I absolutely love the way Harmel tied all the stories together. It could have felt kind of disjointed. It could have felt like I was starting a story and stopping to read a new story before finishing the first one. But neither of those things happened.
Each story is tied together. By mutual friends, by places, by timelines, and by love. One person might briefly cross paths with another in their journey and learn something that impacts their own decisions (as Melanie does when she overhears Shelby and Russ talking at the bar he works in). A couple might be inspired to speak their truth when they see another couple together. But each of the stories in this book have an impact on others’ stories.
You might think this book is about finding love in Paris (and you wouldn’t be totally wrong) but it is about so much more than that. It’s about self-discovery, understanding, and connecting with fellow human beings. Would each of the characters have the same ending if the other characters didn’t exist? Maybe not.
The relationship between Piper and her mother, Julia are very touching but also hard to read. Julia has cancer and she’s run out of options for treatment. I could identify with Piper and her fear of losing her mother because my mother is getting up there in age. But their story is important. But just because they are dealing with impending loss it doesn’t mean they don’t have room for love.
5 Stars for Every Story in Meet Me In Paris
I have a hard time giving books a star rating because I want to give them all 5 stars. LOL. But seriously…
I have to give Meet Me in Paris by Kristen Harmel 5 stars because I can’t think of even one way I’d like it to be different. Harmel’s execution of the stories was perfect. Her characters made me fall in love with them, even in their imperfections. I was completely invested in how each story would end.
This one definitely gets a recommendation from me. Read it if you love love. Read it if you’re a little bit cynicle and need a little bit of hope. Skip it if you don’t want to have a good cry and believe in happily ever afters that aren’t exactly perfect.
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