Lost in Paris by Elizabeth Thompson - 2021- 346 Pages

Lost in Paris by Elizabeth Thompson - 2021- 346 Pages 

This is part of my participation in Paris in July, hosted by Thyme for Tea

Website of Paris in July

Paris in July is an opportunity for book bloggers like me to expand our knowledge beyond literature and history.  There will be posts on numerous Paris related topics. Msybe you might not be quite ready to Go to Paris in person, but you can virtually visit. The event is also a way to learn about new blogs and maybe get some new contacts. 

Every year I design my own badge, this year our badge features  a great American poet in front one of the greatest symbols of French heritage, Norte Dame.

   My first book this July is , Lost in Paris by Elizabeth Thompson in which an American woman about thirty and her mother inherit an apartment in Paris from her great grandmother.  The apartment has not been entered since 1940.

Hannah Boyd left Orlando to move to London.  She leads Jane Austin Tours through the British countryside.  She lives a quiet Life.  Then she comes home to find her alcholic poor excuse for a mother in her apartment with a potentially Life changing announcement.  She has brought with her the deed to an apartment in Paris.  It was from her great Grand mother Ivy.  Arriving in Paris they find an apartment unentered since 1940.  With the Help of a French Law firm, they hire cleaners.  

As Hannah and her mother begin to explore the apartment they now jointly own, they find a diary from Ivy, The novel opens with an entry from August 1929.

“Remnants of my birthday celebration litter the marble-topped nightstand: Leftover cake. The opened bottle of champagne. One empty flute, another half-full. The note on the pillow next to mine reads, Good morning, my love. You looked so beautiful sleeping I hated to wake you. I will see you this evening. I feel like a queen in this four-poster bed with the fluffy duvet covering my naked body. It is one of those rare instances in life when everything seems good and right and, dare I say, perfect. I want to live in this moment forever. For the first time since moving to Paris, I am finally in the position to write and tell my parents I am doing well.”

Ivy is in a beautiful hotel with her lover, or one of them, a famous writers.

From here we flash to Bath, England in 2018 with Hannah trying to deal with her mother.  The story line goes from Ivy in Paris in to Hannah and her mother.  They are shocked to discover nude paintings of Ivy by a famous artist. Slowly The once Secret Life of their great grandmother is revealed, including How she came to own an apartment.  They discover what seems to be an unpublished novel by a famous writer. In The mean time Hannah begins to fall for a senior partner at the Law firm advising her.  Her mother is only 45, and has her own Paris dramas.

Ivy left Paris in 1940, moved to Orlando and never talked about her time in Paris.

Lost in Paris kept me wanting to see what happens next, with multiple threads to follow, lots of interesting minor characters and a very satisfactory close.

Elizabeth Thompson is a lifelong Francophile with a degree in journalism, and Lost in Paris is her first novel. She currently resides in Tennessee with her husband and their Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Luna. - from the publisher