Customer Reviews

Last Time I Saw Paris

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Lara Lewis has her second honeymoon all planned - airline tickets, reservations at hotels and restaurants, car rentals - all at the same places where she and her husband, Bill, visited on their first honeymoon. There is only one problem - her husband cancels out on her and takes a business trip with his young associate doctor.

After talking with "the Girlfriends", Lara decides to go anyway. But then she impulsively invites Dan, the younger man who is repairing her deck, to go with her. He does and what an adventure it is!

From overbooked flights, hotel reservations not held, bad weather and "someone" not being able to read a map correctly and all the other mishaps that can happen on a vacation to wonderful finds when they just "go with the flow", its a great read for us.

The author visited all the places in France that are in the book and it shows. It's a wonderful, imaginative escape with some surprises on the way.

Pick it up and let some wonderful writing take you to France and a great adventure.

I recently read and loved Summer in Tuscany by Elizabeth Adler. Shortly afterwards I came across The Last Time I Saw Paris by the same author and while I enjoyed this book it wasn't nearly as good as Summer in Tuscany. Whereas Summer in Tuscany was a fun-filled read which almost served as a travelogue of the region, The Last Time I Saw Paris had a rather silly premise and didn't describe Paris nearly as interestingly as the former book.

After almost 25 years of marriage, Lara plans a trip to Paris to celebrate this milestone anniversary. But more than this it is an attempt to revitalize her failing marriage. Remembering back to their honeymoon plans every detail exactly the same as it was during their honeymoon hoping they can recreate those fun-free and happy days. Or at least this is the way Lara chooses to remember them. But Lara's husband has a surprise for her. Not only doesn't he want to recreate their honeymoon 25 years later, he no longer wants to be married to Lara preferring the company of a much younger colleague. Licking her wounds, Lara retreats to their beach house where she meets the contractor they previously hired for some odd jobs. He is young, good looking and Lara is immediately attracted to him. During a hasty moment Lara invites him to accompany her on this trip and he accepts. As one can imagine these two are now in for some very madcap and hilarious moments as everything that can happen to tourists happens to them. They arrive in Paris to find their luggage is missing, they have no reservations in a small French town and during a violent rainstorm their car breaks down. In a rather predictable plot, Lara and Don find themselves beginning a relationship in the city of love. And things really become interesting when Lara's husband reconsiders and flies to Paris to spend the rest of the trip with her. Only then does Lara remembers her honeymoon the way it really was and not how she imagined.

This is not an altogether unpleasant read. It is a light fast paced book best suited for a vacation or time spent on the beach. For travelers to foreign cities it will remind them of their own travel escapades, wondrous sights and events as well as the disastrous moments. Ultimately I did enjoy this book and would recommend reading it. Be sure and read Summer in Tuscany too for a mouth watering reading experience.

I bought and read this book on a whim, as it is out of the usual realm of fiction that I read, but it came highly recommended and so I gave it a try. At first, the novel held my attention. I read the first 100 pages in one sitting and enjoyed them. The plot line was interesting...woman turns 45, discovers husband has taken lover, and so she seeks comfort in the strong and sexy arms of her 32 year old deck repairman. Simple enough, but still believable. It was in the next 200 hundred pages, that the book lost me. The protagonist, Lara, and her new, younger lover, Dan, take off to Paris, and for Lara, this is the much dreamed about 2nd Honeymoon that she had taken a year to plan for her husband and herself. Lara and Dan find themsleves visiting many of the old haunts of the original honeymoon, without Dan's knowledge of this fact, and much to the misery of Lara. Simply stated, this book read like a tour guide to France, and as someone who hasn't had the pleasure to visit the country, it couldn't hold my attention. I found myslef skimming many of the overbearing details, much too many in French BTW, just to get to the basic plot line. In my opinion, if the author had just stuck with writing a work of fiction instead of trying to weave so many details of the places AND people AND food that she encountered while in France, I could have given this book a much higher rating. Instead, I felt like at least 1/4 of it was spent discussing French food and wine, while another 1/4 discribed the French countryside.

Elizabeth Adler's books always entertain, they always bring smiles to my face and sometimes an ache in my heart, I'm so involved with her characters, but it's hard to beat Lara and Dan in Last Time I Saw Paris. Read and enjoy a vicarious trip through France given to you by a master of descriptive narrative - you'll believe you were there and since Ms. Adler tells us all the places she visits are real, you could in fact go there. Which is exactly what I plan on doing - with a husband who hasn't dumped me for another woman I'm glad to say.

Lara Lewis just turned forty-five, but is miserable, and has been ever since her husband of twenty-five years began to ignore her desires. He refuses to allow her to accompany him on his business trip to China, which adds to Lana's belief that he is cheating on her with his assistant. Still she looks forward to her upcoming second honeymoon trip with Bill when he returns to the states.

Bill calls from China informing Lana their trip is off. Outraged, Lara decides to go to France without Bill. To her own amazement, she invites the carpenter working on her deck to join her. Even more amazing, the thirtyish Tom Holland accepts because he finds Lara very attractive. Overseas, the couple bickers, shares madcap adventures, and enjoys each other company until love intercedes and decisions must be made.

THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS is a fun to read lighthearted romantic romp that will leave the audience in stitches of laughter as they observe the loving duo dives head first from one crazy incident to another. Elizabeth Adlerís tale has a serious undertone as the heroine must face reality and see her husband for what he is and not how she wants him to be. Romance lovers will thoroughly enjoy this first class ride into true love.

Harriet Klausner

This book was suggested as a better alternative to the dreadful "Three Weeks In Paris" by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and it is only marginally better than the aforementioned novel. The main character, a frumpy, middle-aged housewife named Lara Lewis, is too naive, neurotic and insecure to be an interesting protagonist. There are also too many stock characters, such as Lara's kids (whose only purpose in the story are to prove that Lara's a mom), "the Girlfriends" (Delia was a decent character, but Vannie and Susie were useless), and other random people that pop up. It seemed like the plot was for Lara and her young lover, Dan, to do the three "F's"---to fight, feast and, er, well, another word that begins with F that can't be mentioned in this review. Lara constantly refers to this trip as a "self-discovery," but how can she find herself when she's either whining or in bed with her young lover? Lara is as bland and undefined at the end of the novel as she is in the beginning of it.

It was hard to get into the French setting of this novel, since such perfunctory descriptions of it---the landscape, the people, the essence, period---were given. The French people who appear in the novel are nondescript to the point of being invisible. And how convenient that Lara and Dan manage to find Americans and Englishmen in France (rolling my eyes).

I could not imagine what someone like Dan would see in Lara, other than him having a mom/plump woman fetish. Nothing about Lara's character seemed sexually attractive, regardless of how Ms. Adler tried to spin that character.

I agree with the other reviewers that a guidebook is more interesting than this.

Trying to rekindle the passion of their honeymoon, Lara plans a trip to Paris with husband Bill to commemorate their silver anniversary. When he calls to postpone the trip from a conference in Asia, she puts two and two together, and discovers he is having an affair with a young pediatrician, and tells him she is aware of his infidelity and is planning to go without him.

She finds solace at their Carmel beach house, and when she finds the deck it rotting, she calls in a handyman, and finds herself attracted to Dan, the young carpenter. They embark on an affair and she impulsively invites him to share in her Parisian adventure. While she is attracted to Dan, she is a little concerned about the 12 year age gap.

From the moment that they arrive at the airport, everything that can go wrong does. From missed connections to lost luggage and canceled hotel rooms. Just about any reader who travels can relate. But Dan is a great travel partner and does not let it upset him. She realizes that the trip that she and Bill took all those years ago is not as rosy as she remembered, and that most of what she has planned is not really Dan's cup of tea, but he goes along with it, not realizing that this is supposed to be her second honeymoon.

Although the story was entertaining, I found the descriptions of the sights, hotels, and restaurants to be a little daunting - I felt like I was reading a travel book accented with bits of tension and romance. It was kind of annoying after awhile. But I loved the chemistry between Dan and Lara.

I love Europe. I love reading about Europe. I love stories that take place in Europe with vivid descriptions and lively characters and funny anecdotes. This book promised all this and more. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver. Instead, it is a stilted recounting of somebody's road trip. It could take place anywhere in the world or nowhere at all. The descriptions of towns and countrysides are two dimensional and boring, characters are stiff and shallow, and supposedly funny anecdotes are stilted and forced. The whole thing comes off like reading a really dry travel book. So, if you want vivid, colorful descriptions of lovely French towns and hilarious tales of travel gone awry, try a Rick Steves' travel book. If you want a passionate romantic tale, try any number of romance writers. But whatever you do, don't waste your money on this one. Thank goodness I checked my copy out at the library.

I cannot recommend Elizabeth Adler's THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS highly enough. I loved it! She makes it all so real, and brings Paris with its restaurants, cafes, bars, shops, museums to such large life, I wanted to be there, and in magical Provence and the Cote d'Azur. In this book, I could almost smell the lavender and rosemary and the sea. Elizabeth Adler also drew me into the love story of Lara and Dan, as well as Lara's search for the woman she feels she has "lost somewhere on the road of life". ( a road whose emotions many woman will idenify with). She does this on an intimate, sensual level, expressing Lara's doubts and fears as well as the new pleasures her younger lover,Dan,brings to her life. It's a MUST read!

How talented she is! Elizabeth Adler made another classic! I recently read "The Last Time I Saw Paris", and thoroughly enjoyed it. I travelled with Lara and Dan, ate at the restaurants, savored the food, and even walked the streets of southern France. I too have a love affair with the magical city of Paris - and with France, and the writer brought the locations alive in a very special way. And, as well, she shared Lara's personal conflicts and emotions until Lara becomes 'her own woman'. I heartily recommend to all women of 'a certain age', to all travellers - and to lovers.