SEVEN LETTERS FROM PARIS Blog Tour!

I am beyond thrilled to be a part of Samantha Verant’s blog tour for her new memoir, Seven Letters from Paris (Sourcebooks, 2014). I read this book in two days and it’s quickly become one of my favorite memoirs ever!

Samantha and I share a publisher, and that’s how I first came across her book. My editor sent me a goody bag to celebrate my own book release this summer. In that package I found Seven Letters From Paris!

Her story is so fabulous, it’s almost as if it’d been contrived in Hollywood. But it’s not. It’s true! And that’s what makes it so compelling.

When Samantha was 19 and studying abroad, she and a friend traveled to Paris. And as luck would have it, the two young women met a couple of French guys the night before they were to leave the romantic city. Samantha fell for rocket scientist Jean-Luc and his feelings were mutual.

But the two Americans kept to their plans and bid the two Frenchmen farewell at the train station the next day. Jean-Luc wrote seven love letters to Samantha at her address back in the US.

She never wrote him back.

That is until 20 years later when she found herself on the verge of a divorce, out of work, and unsure of her next step. As a 40-something woman, I can say with confidence that we have a lot more courage than our 19 year-old selves. So Samantha did a quick internet search and found Jean-Luc’s contact information. She e-mailed him, not knowing if he would remember her.

He did!

After countless e-mails back and forth, Jean-Luc asked Samantha to visit him in France. He sent her a ticket and the two reunited after 20 years.

You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens next! But suffice it to say, Samantha Verant is a beautiful writer who adds equal amounts of humor and tension to her story. You can’t help but cheer for her from the very beginning.

The structure of this memoir also stood out as Samantha scatters Jean-Luc’s seven letters throughout the course of the book. Thank goodness she kept them all those years!

A huge congratulations to fellow Chicagoan and publishing sister Samantha Verant on her new memoir and a fabulous writing career!

Now go out and read this book! You won’t regret it!