Customer Reviews

Three Weeks in Paris

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

Acclaimed Broadway actress Kate Burton is spectacular in this reading of Barbara Taylor Bradford's 18th novel, which is spiced with romance, mystery, excitement, and, of course, problems to be overcome. What a pair - Ms. Burton, surely one of today's most accomplished actresses and Ms. Bradford, the bestselling doyenne of women's stories.. A dynamic duo!

With her 85th birthday approaching, Anya Sedgwick, head mistress of an exclusive arts school, invites her four favorite former pupils to return to Paris to celebrate this important milestone. While they were once the closest of friends, Alexandra, Kay, Jessica, and Maria departed the school as enemies. Worlds apart, the women have pursued their individual dreams - Alexandra is a set designer, a valued member of Broadway's theatre community; Kay is a successful dress designer who has married and moved to Scotland; Jessica is an interior designer based in California; and Maria has joined her family's textile business in Italy.

The invitation from Anya elicits different emotions in each of the women, yet a blend of curiosity and a yearning to perhaps heal old wounds compels each of them to attend the celebration.

As always, Ms. Bradford is a pro at creating alluring settings and fashionable people. Her penchant for painting idyllic surroundings is matched by Ms. Burton's consummate reading.

- Gail Cooke

Take away the descriptions of meals, clothes, and room decor and you are left with a not-very-good short story about four immature women. Don't waste your time. If you must, check it out from the library.

I checked this out at the library to listen to in the car on a long road trip - it was an unabridged version. About 30 minutes into it I was thinking that an abridged version would have been better. This is a story about self-absorbed women who are talented, but still need men to "rescue" them. It ends happily-ever-after with handsome men and gifts of jewelry. I particularly hated the part about the woman with the weight issue. It did pass the time on the road and saved me from bad music.

This isn't the worst book I've ever read but it's very close. The story is about four former friends who haven't spoken to each other in seven years but will be reunited when they celebrate their mentor's eighty-fifth birthday. What makes this book so bad is the fact that you don't care about any of the characters. All of their tribulations are all summarized so you don't experiance them with the girls.

The feud that tore apart their "strong" bonds was juvenile and pathetic, worthy of only junior high students. One of the biggest beefs I had with the book is the fact that Alexa leaves America engaged to a fabulous guy and then hooks up with her old flame. Suddenly they're together and you never hear another word about Jack. In fact by the end of the book you're not sure she's even called him to break off the engagement.
If you feel like you absolutely must read this monstrosity, borrow it from the library and don't waste your money.

If good books are supposed to transport us from our ordinary lives to someplace worthwhile, then Three Weeks In Paris in as good as they get!

You have got to hand it to BTB for coming up with great story after great story with memeroble characters and wonderful locations. In this case, Barbara selects Paris as a backdrop and creates a mystery, an old feud and three love stories as the plot. It's not brain surgery, but its complelling story telling.

This is the perfect page turner for anyone looking to escape the doldrums. And its even better at a paperback price!

One of Barbara's best books in years!

Sorry I did not wait to buy this book used. Was not worth the full price I paid.....The main characters were very predictable and kind of boring....You know from the start where this story is going....Too much descriptions of the streets of Paris and houses....The story is about four women who return to Paris 7 years after graduating from Anya Sedgwick's School of Decorative Art....These women were best friends while attending school, but had a terrible fight and left after graduating. each persuing her own life and career without contacting each other all the years since..... They each received an invitation to attend their beloved teacher, Anya's 85th birthday party......They all attended and the rest of the story is spent rekindling old memories and revisiting all their old haunts.....etc. etc...If you want to read this book I suggest you borrow it from your library.

This author just can't be the same person who wrote "A Woman of Substance." It was such a tremendous book but they have gone down hill from there and has now ended up in the bottom of the barrel.
This book spends much time developing the characters, but when you find out what the "big quarrel" was, you just want to say, "Get over it". This is a quarrel high school girls would consider major and these characters (30+) carried on for 7 years over that little incident? It was a disappointing and boring book. You would be wise to save your money. If you must read it, get it from the library -- but believe me, nothing happens in it. How do the author's get these types of books published? Because their names will sell anything - boo!

Three Weeks in Paris deserves its bad reviews. Everyone is rich, beautiful, talented, radiant, elegant, and effortlessly successful on a world-wide scale. The characters just can't get over themselves. In describing (and describing and DESCRIBING!)their world of unreal glamour, the author seems to have made a deal with every upscale product placement company. Characters' motivations are petty. I did listen to the whole thing (albeit using fast-forward on the library's CD as often as I could). Afterwards, I feel as if I have eaten six dozen twinkies. What junk!

A Woman of Substance, which I thoroughly enjoyed, is the only other work I've read by Mrs. Bradford. So, when I checked out the audiobook of Three Weeks in Paris from the library, I was looking forward to good read (listen??). Even a reader as excellent as Barbara Rosenblat couldn't make this book better.

The characters were all self-centered, soulless, shallow, and unsympathetic. I never want to encounter any of these people. I should have stopped listening, but it was like a train wreck--I was mesmorized by the horror!

This is not a good book.

This book could have been half as long if you take out all the long boring descriptions of everything. BTB gives way too much information about what the room looks like, what the characters are wearing, etc. Using your imagination is one of the great things about reading a book. I should have learned from the last BTB book I read. This one is the last.