First published 2000
Isabel Walker steps off the plane in Paris expecting a pleasant visit with her stepsister Roxy. Instead, she discovers that Roxy's French husband Charles-Henri de Persand has just walked out on his pregnant wife for another woman. The powerful de Persand family urges Roxy to wait patiently for her husband's return, while Isabel takes a more combative American approach to the crisis. Soon both Walker parents fly to France to support their daughter. Meanwhile, a wedding gift painting that belonged to the Walker family emerges as unexpectedly valuable, creating another battleground between the two cultures. Isabel navigates Parisian romantic entanglements while Roxy struggles with abandonment and pregnancy. The collision between American directness and French sophistication creates complications that threaten to escalate from comedy into something darker.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Paris, France
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
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