[Book Review] Sleeping With Paris by Juliette Sobanet

Summary (on Goodreads):
Charlotte Summers is a sassy, young French teacher who is two days away from moving to Paris with the love of her life and from fulfilling her dream of studying at the prestigious Sorbonne University in France. But when she discovers her fiancé’s online dating profile and has a little chat with the busty red-head he’s been sleeping with on the side, she gives up on committed relationships altogether and decides to navigate Paris on her own.
Determined to stop other women from finding themselves in her shoes, Charlotte creates an anonymous blog on how to date like a man in the City of Love—that is, how to jump from bed to bed without ever falling in love. But, with a slew of Parisian men beating down her door, a hot new neighbor who feeds her chocolate in bed, and an appearance by her sleazy ex-fiancé, she isn’t so sure she can keep her promise to remain commitment-free.
And, when Charlotte agrees to write an article for a popular women’s magazine about her Parisian dating adventures—or disasters, rather—will she risk losing the one man who’s swept her off her feet and her dream job in one fell swoop?

Normally, I like to have print copies of the books I’m reading. I like to be able to hold the book while I read it. But in the last year I’ve made lots of online writer friends who only have e-books published. So I  got over my selfish ways, downloaded Kindle for my laptop (and iPod) and got a bunch of e-books. Sleeping With Paris was one of the first ones. Still, it took me months to finally sit down and decide to look at a book on my iPod. I went straight for Sleeping With Paris.

Plot: The main idea of the story is what drew me in. A women about to leave to Paris with her fiancé finds out he’s cheating. Here comes something I haven’t really read about before. She creates a blog teaching women who to date like men. For the most part, I could see where the story was going. I noticed that with most contemporary books that I’ve read. However, Sleeping With Paris did take a few unexpected turns that I didn’t see coming.

Characters: Along with the unexpected turns came some unusual characters. I typically stay in the YA genre. Along with a different genre comes different characters. These aren’t teenager guys who want the school hottie to look at them. They’re grown woman who make it seem like they don’t want to fall in love. Take Charlotte, the main character for example; she found out the man she loved was cheating on her. Therefore she loses her trust in men. Lexi, a friend she makes in Paris, just wants to jump every guy’s bones. Then there’s Fiona, another friend the main character makes who is more on the calmer side. Any scene with these three girls together is pretty funny, in my opinion.

Relationships: Any why I like Charlotte, Lexi, and Fiona scenes so much? Because I really like the friendship that girls had with each other. Three completely different girls who bring out the best (and worse) in each other.  

Romance: There’s more than one romance in this book. There’s one relationship that I knew I was game on for since the beginning (actually when the male character was introduced) and there’s another romance that was dragged out a little more. Both romances kept me reading for more. I’m just hoping that “Kissed In Paris” (the companion novel following SWP) tells the story of the other pairing.

Creative Way of Writing: I absolutely loved the blog entries at the end of the chapters. That has to be one of my favorite things about Juliette Sobanet’s writing. I really liked the format that it brought to the book. Also since the book is set mostly in Paris, there’s a lot of French being spoken. The author doesn’t just assume that I know French nor does she flat out say what the character has just said, but creatively works it into the next sentence. Sly, but wise.

I really enjoyed Sleeping with Paris and can’t wait until I have time to pick up Sleeping With Paris.

5 out of 5 stars for Sleeping With Paris by Juliette Sobanet.