Hannah never expected that a train separating her from her boyfriend would lead to her finding (or re-finding) herself. But that's exactly what happens in Lorraine Brown's charming debut novel, The Paris Connection. Hannah and Si are traveling by train to his sister's wedding in Amsterdam after a few days in Venice. Unable to sleep, Hannah switches cars midway through the journey and wakes to find that the train has uncoupled and she's on the half speeding toward Paris. Frustrated--not least by Léo, an annoyingly handsome French musician who blames Hannah for his own detour--Hannah must navigate an unfamiliar city without her luggage or phone. As she and Léo spend the day hopscotching around Paris, their conversation helps Hannah confront some painful past memories and make a decision or two about her future.
Brown's breezy narrative, told in Hannah's first-person voice, takes readers through the irritations of travel snafus and the joys of spending a day in a world-class city. Léo takes Hannah up the Champs-Élysées and insists she see Sacré-Coeur, but he also ducks into a café to buy her a pastry and shows her a few hidden parks. Readers will enjoy seeing Hannah slowly start to savor her unexpected day out, and root for her as she begins to rethink her dedication to both Si and her dead-end office job.
Light and sweet, with plenty of evocative Paris details, Brown's debut is as enjoyable as the confections beckoning to Hannah from the windows of Léo's favorite pâtisserie. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams