Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter

Chick Lit Goddess

...because every author wants to feel like a goddess!

  • Home
  • About Isabella
    • Books
  • Blog
  • Reviews
    • Contact/Review Policy
  • Tips for Writers
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Paris

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Juliette Sobanet

December 10, 2015 2 Comments

Juliette Sobanet 115

About the author: Juliette Sobanet is the award-winning author of five Paris-based romance and mystery novels,  four short stories, and a brand new memoir, Meet Me in Paris. Her books have hit the Top 100 Bestseller Lists on Amazon US, UK, Germany, and France, and her work has been published in Italian and Romanian, with more on the way. A former French professor, Juliette holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.A. from New York University in Paris. She is a blogger for The Huffington Post, and she writes about her personal experience with divorce on her blog, Confessions of a Romance Novelist.

**Contact Juliette: Email   Website   Facebook   Twitter   Amazon Author Page   Goodreads   Pinterest   Instagram


INTERVIEW

Describe your writing style in five sentences: I write sassy Paris romances, spicy time travel mysteries, and most recently, I wrote my own true story of love and heartbreak in the City of Light in my memoir, Meet Me in Paris. In my fiction, I love taking my readers on adventures through some of my most favorite places in France—Paris, Lyon, Annecy, Giverny, the French Alps, the French countryside…and the list goes on. Throw in a sexy Frenchman, a little chocolate in bed, and perhaps a dead body or two, and I’ve found it’s the perfect recipe to help my readers escape from everyday life and forget about their troubles for a night. In my memoir, my writing style is more raw and honest, showing what it was like to lose my own happily ever while I was writing romance novels.  Of course, I still whisk my readers away to Paris for a steamy love affair and to Lyon to eat the most decadent of French desserts—le fondant au chocolat…

Tell us about your writing/editing/publishing process? I write 5-6 days a week, in addition to teaching French and yoga, so I am diligent about scheduling in my writing time because I have to be. I self-published my first two novels on Kindle, and four months after publication, Sleeping with Paris hit #30 on Amazon’s Overall Top 100 Bestseller List. That success opened up a new door for me with Amazon Publishing’s Montlake Romance. I signed a few deals with Montlake, and the following year, they released three more of my Paris novels and a short story in addition to re-releasing my first two novels. It was an incredible experience, but I decided to self-publish my memoir because I was excited to have more control in the publishing process again by hiring my own team of editors and designers. I am absolutely thrilled with how everything has turned out for this memoir, and I wouldn’t change a thing!

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? I have been writing non-stop since I was young, filling up journals upon journals with my own stories of love and heartbreak, writing short stories and poems, and everything in between. I first knew that I wanted to write a novel when I was living in Paris, completing my master’s degree. The idea for Sleeping with Paris was swimming around in my mind, and writing a 70 page thesis in French gave me the confidence to give this novel-writing thing a try. After I returned home to the States, I was working at a dreadfully boring translating job when I secretly began typing the opening pages to Sleeping with Paris on my work computer. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Salty or sweet? Sweet! And specifically…chocolate!

At what time of day do you work best? Mornings typically, but sometimes inspiration strikes me late at night, and when that happens, I go with it. I can always sleep another day…

Being that “Meet Me in Paris” is a memoir, how hard or easy was it for you to write this book? The memoir details my experience with divorce and with a love affair that ensued the year after I left my marriage, so writing this book was extremely emotional. What I found, though, once I began, was that the story was so ready to come out that it just poured out of me onto the page (along with all of the tears I shed in the process!). There were days when I would write 15-20 pages in only four or five hours, and whatever flowed out of me was exactly what needed to be told. It was an extremely cathartic process and very healing. In writing this story, I learned how to sit with my pain and my grief, how to accept the choices I’ve made in my life, and how to love myself for all of it. Writing this book was a significant part of my journey, and I’m so thankful that I did it, and that everyone involved in the story has received the book with so much love and kindness.

Do you have any writing rituals? I create playlists on Spotify for all of my books with songs that set the mood for the book or that I would imagine being in the soundtrack if the book became a movie. I listen to the book’s playlist as I’m writing and this always helps me write more powerful, emotional scenes.

If you could meet any other author, who would it be? I was fortunate enough to meet three of my absolute favorite authors in the last few months—Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, and Jewel—but if I was lucky enough to meet another, it would have to be Janet Fitch, the author of White Oleander. That has been my most treasured book since I first read it many years ago, and her writing is absolutely beautiful.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Living in Paris, writing full-time, traveling through Europe on the weekends, being swept off my feet in an incredible romance, and loving life.

Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? I love them both, but I still love the feel of a real book in my hands.

What do you want readers to take away from “Meet Me In Paris”? I want my readers to walk away knowing that whatever is going on in their lives, no matter how hopeless or difficult it may seem, they are never alone and they are loved. I also want them to know that it’s okay to be exactly who they are, and that it is only in accepting who they are and loving themselves that they will invite love into their lives. And of course, I hope the book makes them hop on a flight to Paris!

What are you working on right now? I’m working on my next novel which is a thriller based in Paris. I can’t say much more about it at the moment except that I am beyond excited about this story! I’m also working on a book of poetry that may be a companion book to the memoir. Stay tuned!


Meet_Me_In_Paris_JSobanet_Final

“Meet Me in Paris” by Juliette Sobanet

Blurb: What does a romance novelist do when she loses her own happily ever after? Take a lover and travel to Paris, obviously. Or at least this is what Juliette Sobanet did upon making the bold, heart-wrenching decision to divorce the man she had loved since she was a teenager. This is the story of the passionate love affair that ensued during the most devastating year of Sobanet’s life and how her star-crossed romance in the City of Light led to her undoing. Meet Me in Paris is a raw, powerful take on divorce and the daring choices that followed such a monumental loss from the pen of a writer who’d always believed in happy endings…and who ultimately found the courage to write her own.

Excerpt from the Prologue

No matter the season, no matter the weather, love is always in the air in Paris.

And tonight is no different.

The autumn sun has been swept away by a splattering of gray clouds, blanketing the city’s cobblestone streets in one of those inky, mysterious Parisian nights where lovers’ secrets will be swept away by the choppy waters of the Seine, or captured whole by the Gothic towers of Notre Dame, or better yet, swallowed up by the bottle of red wine my own lover and I are sharing in a charming little bar near Châtelet.

Yes, I’ve taken a lover.

In Paris.

A Paris lover.

Oh, how I adore the taste of those delicious words.

The Merlot slips past my lips, smooth and rich, as I smile at this most disarming man I have by my side. I give him a look that is both coy and inviting, in lust and falling—well, more like plummeting—headfirst and harder than ever before.

It is only the third time we’ve been together, and already, this lover of mine has hopped on a plane from Chicago to spend a few days with me in Paris.

I’m not sure if he understands how much his presence by my side, in my beloved city, means to me. Or how each touch of his strong hands, each adoring smile, each endearing tilt of his head is healing this broken heart of mine.

Divorce has a way of shattering hearts like nothing else. And mine is no exception. It has only been a few months since I left my husband—the man I have loved for twelve years, the man I still love, despite my choice to leave our dying marriage—and I know these days in Paris with my lover will be my only happy ones for some time.

We’ve spent this crisp fall day strolling hand in hand along the hilly streets of Montmartre, devouring croissants aux amandes and pains au chocolat, stealing kisses in abandoned courtyards, sipping espresso at hilltop cafés, flirting with every word, every breath, and falling ever so hopelessly in love.

Although neither of us wants to admit it yet.

**Buy “Meet Me in Paris”: Kindle   Paperback


Filed Under: Meet Me in Paris Tagged With: Books, Chick-Lit, Divorce, Juliette Sobanet, Meet Me in Paris, Memoir, Paris, Romance, Women's Fiction

One Night in Paris

June 10, 2014 2 Comments

OneNightInParisCoverPic

“One Night in Paris” by Juliette Sobanet

Synopsis: From bestselling author Juliette Sobanet, One Night in Paris is a heartwarming and enchanting journey back to Jazz Age Paris.

When Manhattan attorney Ella Carlyle gets a call that her beloved grandmother is dying, she rushes to Paris to be by her side, against the wishes of her overbearing boyfriend. Ella would do anything for her grandmother and jumps at the chance to fulfill her dying wish. But things take a mystical turn when Ella is transported to a swinging Parisian jazz club full of alluring strangers…in the year 1927! As the clock runs out on her one night in the City of Lights, Ella will attempt to rewrite the past—and perhaps her own destiny as well.

* * * * *

Excerpt:

One Night in Paris

by Juliette Sobanet

Excerpt from Chapter 4, after Ella has traveled back in time to a jazz club in 1920s Paris…

“You look lost.”

A deep male voice travels over the lively jazz music and snaps me out of my daze. A young man with dusty-blond hair and boyish blue eyes is leaning against the bar right next to me and shooting me a curious grin. The top button of his white collared shirt is open, and the gray vest he’s wearing is a little snug around his chest.

He waits patiently for me to pull my eyes from his chest.

“Lost? You could say that,” I respond, embarrassed, before taking a long sip of champagne.

When I resurface for air, his hand is outstretched.

“Let me help you find your way,” he says. “I’m Leo Knight. American, a writer . . . well, aspiring writer. You?”

I slip my hand into his, noticing how warm it feels. How comfortable.

“Ella Carlyle, and I . . . I’m . . .” I pause, realizing I can’t tell this guy who I really am. So instead, I tell him what I always wanted to be when I was growing up, what I trained to be before my lawyer parents told me they wouldn’t support such an impractical career. “A ballet dancer,” I finish. “And I’m American too.”

I catch those inquisitive blue eyes of his running up and down my legs. “You’ve certainly got the gams for the ballet, if you don’t mine me saying so, miss.” He twirls his gray cap around on one finger, his warm grin revealing a dimple in his left cheek. “And the face for it too. Ballet dancers have the prettiest faces. But yours . . . well, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

A flush that starts at my toes creeps all the way up to my cheeks, surely turning them the color of a strawberry in summer. I’m not usually this susceptible to pickup lines, but this guy is such a breath of fresh air compared to the hard-edged Manhattan types back home—he’s got charm and charisma, and to be honest, I’ve never seen anything quite like him either.

How did the women of this era get anything done with all of these gorgeous men popping up around every corner?

Catching a glimpse of Lucie and Jean-Philippe bopping around on the dance floor like two lovesick teenagers, I remind myself that this isn’t the time to get wrapped up in my own schoolgirl crush. I’ve got two important tasks to accomplish. And although I’m not 100 percent certain what exactly those tasks entail other than protecting Lucie and hoping that in doing so, I will find a way back to my grandmother’s bedside, I am certain that flirting with this handsome stranger isn’t going to get me closer to either.

Leo pushes off the bar, then fastens his cap atop his head. “Care to let me take you for a twirl out on that dance floor, Ella Carlyle?”

“No, really, I can’t,” I say, but Leo takes a step closer to me, the scent of his cologne and the proximity of his tall, firm body making me regret my answer.

“Oh, I see what’s going on,” he says with a sly grin.

He’s so close now that his warm breath is tickling my lips. I should turn and walk away. I need to watch out for Lucie. But a tiny part of me—the part that has been yearning for something new, something different, something exciting to happen in my life—speaks up.

“What’s that?” I ask, shooting him my own flirtatious smile.

“The ballerina doesn’t think a writer from Saint Louis has any moves.” He offers me his hand once more. “Let me prove you wrong, Mademoiselle Ella.”

Peering over my shoulder at Lucie, who is now wrapped tightly in Jean-Philippe’s arms, I figure just one dance won’t hurt anything. It will buy me a few minutes to think, to figure out my next move.

“Deal,” I say, giving Leo my hand.

Just before we reach the dance floor, I lean into Leo’s ear and whisper. “I have a confession to make. I don’t know how to do the Charleston.”

“A ballet dancer who doesn’t do the Charleston,” he says, his eyes lighting up with the challenge. “Well, I never.”

“I don’t get out much,” I admit. “Not to places like this, anyway.” If he only knew.

“Well, Miss Ella Carlyle, tonight is your lucky night.” Leo winks at me as he ushers me onto the dance floor.

With his hand around my waist and his body pressed closely to mine, I realize it’s not likely I’ll get much thinking done during this dance.

***Excerpted from ONE NIGHT IN PARIS by Juliette Sobanet (January 2014). Reprinted with permission from Amazon StoryFront.

* * * * *

JulietteSobanetPic2**About author, Juliette Sobanet:

Juliette Sobanet earned a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.A. from New York University in France, living and studying in both Lyon and Paris. She worked as a French professor before turning a new page in her career, penning romantic women’s fiction with a French twist. She is the author of six Paris-based romances, including the bestselling Sleeping with Paris. Her upcoming Confessions of a City Girl series will release in 2014. Today she lives in San Diego, where she devotes her time to writing, eating chocolate, and dreaming about her next trip to France.

**Contact Juliette: Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

OneNightInParisGiveawayButton

**Click HERE to enter the giveaway!

**Click HERE to share on Facebook!

OneNightInParisBanner

**Click HERE to see other stops on Juliette’s IndieSage Blog Tours!

Filed Under: Indie Sage Book Tours, One Night in Paris by Juliette Sobanet, One Night in Parks Tagged With: Book feature, Books, Chick-Lit, Indie Sage Book Tours, Juliette Sobanet, One Night in Paris, Paris, Women's Fiction

Honeymoon in Paris

May 29, 2014 1 Comment

HoneymoonInParisCoverPic

“Honeymoon in Paris” by Juliette Sobanet

Blurb:

The sassy heroine of Sleeping with Paris is back! And this time, chocolate-covered French wedding bells are in the air…

It’s only been a month since Charlotte Summers reunited with her sexy French boyfriend, Luc Olivier, and he has already made her the proposal of a lifetime: a mad dash to the altar in the fairytale town of Annecy. Without hesitation, Charlotte says au revoir to single life and oui to a lifetime of chocolate in bed with Luc. She’s madly in love, and Luc is clearly the one, so what could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, quite a lot…

On the heels of their drama-filled nuptials in the French Alps, Luc whisks Charlotte away to Paris for a luxurious honeymoon. But just as they are settling into a sheet-ripping, chocolate-induced haze, a surprise appearance by Luc’s drop-dead gorgeous ex-wife brings the festivities to a halt. Luc never told Charlotte that his ex was a famous French actress, or that she was still in love with him. Add to that Charlotte’s new role as step-mom to Luc’s tantrum-throwing daughter, a humiliating debacle in the French tabloids, and the threat of losing her coveted position at the language school—and Charlotte fears she may have tied the French knot a little too quickly.

Determined to keep her independence and her sanity, Charlotte seeks out a position at Bella magazine’s new France office while working on a sassy guidebook to French marriage. But when Luc’s secret past threatens Charlotte’s career and their future together, Charlotte must take matters into her own hands. Armed with chocolate, French wine, and a few fabulous girlfriends by her side, Charlotte navigates the tricky waters of marriage, secrets, ex-wives, and a demanding career all in a foreign country where she quickly realizes, she never truly learned the rules.

My Review: 

After I read “Sleeping with Paris” by Juliette Sobanet, I was in instant fan, so I was very excited to read “Honeymoon in Paris”.

This book was easy to get started reading, as I was happy it picked up not too much later after the prequel ended. I missed Juliette and Luc together, and I especially missed reading Luc’s sexy accent.

The characters were very well written, funny, and very intriguing, especially the new characters. There was a lot of mystery in this one (maybe a little too much), and I wished there would’ve been more of was more interaction between Charlotte and Luc. In the end, it made sense why there wasn’t, but with all the interaction they had in “Sleeping in Paris”, I wanted more passion. With all the twists and turns in this book, I was pulling for the newlyweds, hoping that it would end well. Thankfully, I was very happy with how the book ended, mainly because I really think Charlotte and Luc had something special.

In closing, Juliette Sobanet is a terrific author who draws readers into the lives of her more than likable characters. While I don’t speak French, she made it easy to understand what was saying. This was my second book by Juliette, and I cannot wait to read more by her, as this book did keep me interested. I’d recommend this book to anyone who wants a sexy, cute, mysterious read.

I give this book 4 stars!

**Due to personal issues, this is a late review**

HoneymoonInParisBanner

**Click HERE to see more stops on Juliette’s Indie Sage Blog Tours**

JulietteSobanetPic2**About author, Juliette Sobanet:

Juliette Sobanet earned a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.A. from New York University in France, living and studying in both Lyon and Paris. She worked as a French professor before turning a new page in her career, penning romantic women’s fiction with a French twist. She is the author of six Paris-based romances, including the bestselling Sleeping with Paris. Her upcoming Confessions of a City Girl series will release in 2014. Today she lives in San Diego, where she devotes her time to writing, eating chocolate, and dreaming about her next trip to France.

**Contact Juliette: Website   Facebook   GoodReads   Twitter

Filed Under: Book Review, Honeymoon in Paris, Honeymoon in Paris by Juliette Sobanet, Indie Sage Book Tours Tagged With: Book review, Books, Chick-Lit, Honeymoon in Paris, Juliette Sobanet, Love, Paris, Romance, Women's Fiction

Primary Sidebar

Recent Features

BOOK FEATURE: “A Jingle Valley Wedding” by Martha Reynolds

COVER REVEAL: “Then You Happened” by K. Bromberg

COVER REVEAL: “Love at The Bluebird” by Aurora Rose Reynolds and Jessica Marin

Chick Lit Chat HQ’s Wicked Good Hop

BOOK FEATURE: “Let It Be Me” by Laura Chapman

See More

Footer

For inquiries

Click HERE to email us now!

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Studio Mommy Themes · Custom Scene Images

Copyright © 2023 · Adore Me on Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress.com. · Log in

 

Loading Comments...