Kirsten Lobe's Paris Hangover

Paris Hangover

Tues April 25th- Coliseum Books @ 6:30pm- NEW YORK
Wed May 3rd- Hotel Montgomery @ 6:30pm- SAN JOSE,CA
Thurs May 4th- Anne Fontaine Boutique @ 6pm- SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Mon May 1st- Book Soup @ 7pm- LOS ANGELES, CA


I haven't finished it yet, nor am I really a Francophile, but I'm liking Kirsten Lobe's Paris Hangover a lot. It's about a very fashion-obsessed New Yorker who moves to Paris to live the good life, much like its author did. She also has a great set of dealbreakers which I'm gonna quote in my dealbreakers 2 column. Her protagonist, Klein, can be a bit pretentious but is lovable nonetheless. And, full disclosure (how freaking excited am I to say this?): we share the same agent. She's reading tomorrow night at Coliseum Books, here's their blurb:

A hilarious & glamorous fish-out-of-water novel about Paris, romance, finding oneself, men, and oh yes, even a menage-a-quatre.

In this witty, intoxicating debut Klein has left Wisconsin behind and entered any fashionista's dream. In New York she swims in the glitzy world of haute couture. She has the job, the clothes, the triplex in Tribeca and the man to die for.

Ah, but Paris has always been her dream. With only the clothes on her back (and what will fit in ten pieces of Louis Vuitton) Klein heads for the City of Lights, wanting to decode the mysteries of all things French, especially the men.

From a tiny walk-up in the 7th arrondissement that she had to lie (in broken Franglais) to get, Klein plunges into the tantalizing world of Gallic Men: the casually sexy Alexandre, a prototypical Frenchman with a flute of Moet and Gauloise always at the ready; trying to keep everybody straight when she dates three men named Jean at the same
time; and one completely wrong Monsieur Married Aristocrat who wants Klein for his very well-kept mistress.

As Klein falls into Paris's passionate embrace, she may also be falling inexorably into the arms of the man who can rival that embrace.