Paris in Love -- Review

Continuing with my obsession for all things French, I picked up the book Paris in Love by Eloisa James. I'm not sure why it was called Paris in Love unless it's because the author writes romance novels.

The book was mostly like a series of tweets on Twitter. I mean, not that I'm on Twitter, but it was made up of a series of short snippets about the author's life as she and her Italian husband, plus two kids, a 15-year-old and 11-year-old live in Paris for a year. Okay, first we have to get over the resentment that they have the kind of jobs that allow them to simply take a sabbatical and move to Paris. They both teach at American universities. The author also tries to make us not feel so bad about her lucky life by beginning with her breast cancer and her mother's recent death. It's hard to begrudge someone a year in Paris after they've been through those hardships.
I enjoyed the book, even though I'm usually a plot person. It was nice to be able to pick it up for a few minutes and get through several tweet-sized paragraphs without commiting to the suspense of a whole chapter. Here's one example:

It's night, after a day of rain...the windows are open and the strains of a glorious opera pour from the conservatory down the street.(p. 14)

Many of the "tweets" just set the mood in Paris.

Mirabile dictu! Anna has found two things she likes in Paris. The first is chocolate, and the second is the rat catcher's shop, which has four big rats hanging upside down from traps. We detour to gawk at them before grocery shopping.(p. 14)

Well, I enjoy chocolate and I have stood in front of that exact window. Isn't it funny how we love finding things we know in a book?
So, I enjoyed the book and seeing Paris through Ms. James' eyes. The book cover and title bugged me though. The title, I already explained. The cover problem. The family doesn't have a dog. Well, it had a chihuahua but the Italian mother now has it, and the dog on the cover is not a chichuahua anyway.
Don't let these little details get in the way if you want a vicarious year in Paris.