Title: Moonlight over Paris Author: Jennifer Robson

Recovering from a broken wartime engagement and a serious illness that left her near death Lady Helena Montagu-Douglass-Parr vows that for once she will live life on her own terms.  Breaking free from the stifling social constraints of the aristocratic society in which she was raised, she travels to France to stay with her free-spirited aunt.  For one year, she will simply be Miss Parr. She will explore the picturesque streets of Paris, meet people who know nothing of her past – and pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

A few years after the Great War's end, the City of Light is a bohemian paradise teeming with actors, painters, writers, and a lively coterie of American expatriates who welcome Helena into their romantic and exciting circle. Among them is Sam Howard, and irascible and infuriatingly honest correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Dangerously attractive and deeply scarred by the horror and carnage of the war, Sam is unlike any man she has ever encountered. He calls her Ellie, sees her as no one has before, and offers her a glimpse of a future that is both irresistible and impossible.

As Paris rises Phoenix-like from the ashes of the great War, so too, does Helena.  Though she's shed her old self, she's still uncertain of what she will become and where she belongs. But is she strong enough to completely let go of the past and follow her heart, no matter where it leads her?

'"For the first time in her life [Lady Helena] was wonderfully and blissfully alone, and she would savor every single intoxicating second."'

She was on her way to stay with her aunt, in the south of France, for the summer.  When autumn fell the the two ladies would return to Paris where Helena would start her classes at Academie Czerny.

That summer she regains her health playing on the beach and swimming in the Mediterranean Ocean with old friends. It's through them that she meets Sam Howard.

'"Will you look me up when you're back in Paris?" [he asks Helena.]'

'"I will, though it may be a while. I'll need to get settled... "'

He promises to wait.

When autumn arises and they move to Paris Helena has every intention of writing him, but feels nervous.

'What if the man she remembered from that day... was a concoction of her memory... Besides, she was busy enough with her friends at school.'

As good as her friends claim she is Helena feels invisible in the class and decided she simply needs more time to perfect her technique.

'For good or for ill, by the end of the year [her teacher] would know her name.'

She throws herself into her work and her friends; people, who accept her, enjoy her company, and even come to rely on her.  She claims she hasn't forgotten Sam Howard but when she runs into him accidentally he playfully accuses her of just that. He joins her and her friends at a café and the talk turns to art classes. Helena admits she hopes to gain entry into an exclusive oil painting class.

When they're done Sam invites Helena out to dinner the next night.

'His manner was so appealingly open and straightforward...

'"Yes..." [she responds.] "I will."'

She begins to see him more and more, in spite of the fact that his job as journalist makes for odd hours and long absences. Which is just as well for she does gain entrance into the coveted oil painting class and spends most of her free time trying to perfect the difficult technique.

'The paints, so bright and perfect and new, turn dull at the touch of her brush, and the more she worked at them the worse they looked.'

Her friends gave her tips, helped her.  Still, she felt she wasn't good enough.

'Helena's life... Settled into a comfortable and comforting rhythm.'

She continues to see Sam on and off but insists it's just friendship, until the night kisses her. It's her first-ever kiss, passionate, full of sparks, shocking her into thinking of him as more than a friend. But inexplicably the relationship cools.  She begins to believe there is no future for them.

To busy herself she spends her time between painting and attending fashionable parties with both her aunt and her friends.  She runs into Sam occasionally but their interactions are devoid of any hint of passion for months.  She throws herself into her work.  She has only three months to paint a submission to the Salon des Independants.

'[Her work] lacked life... [it was] pretty... even rather interesting but not the slightest bit compelling.'

At the last minute she decides to paint something more personal; a memory of her stop at Gare de Lyon on the Train Bleu when she first arrived in France.

'Everyone... moving, all rushing to board... say their farewells... the longer you looked the more you... see.'

She worries that she doesn't have enough time, that she paints too slowly.

'"Then paint faster," [her friend] ordered.'

In spite of her friends praising her work she feels it's unready for the exposé and submits another piece instead of Train Bleu. Her professor is unimpressed and during the event she finds her painting in the back corner of the darkest hall.  No one is looking at it.  She feels dejected.  Her mood worsens when she overhears an ugly comment from her professor she believes is being said about her.  Claiming the need for fresh air she spends the rest of the and sitting outside.

She proceeds to get quite drunk at the soirée that evening, noticing all to keenly Sam Howard's eyes watching her.  He notices her state and offers to get her home where she embarrasses herself thoroughly by vomiting all over him.

The next morning, waking with quite a headache, she's confused with the feelings she has for Sam.  They're hurling themselves at a piece of disconcerting information she learned about his family.  All of this is wrapped around a deep embarrassment she still feels from the night before.

To her surprise, she finds out from her aunt that Sam Howard is downstairs.

'"Should I ask him to come up?" her aunt asks.'

Elena declines and meets him downstairs instead.  She's quite certain she'll be met with warmth, even passion, but instead finds a quarrel and some devastating news.

'"I'm leaving Paris," he said.  "I sail home to New York at the end of next week... Come with me... to America... make a new start."'

She wants to, badly, and fears she will regret it, but refuses coldly both caught up with the emotion and the undeniable truth about his family.

With the strength of her aunts, her friends, and by coming to terms with both her past and her possible future, Helena realizes what she must do both with her art career and with Sam.

Does she have the courage?

Moonlight over Paris is a delightful, fun read on a quiet, rainy afternoon.  It's undeniably romantic, but that romance is not just from the lovers, but from the scene set by the author of Paris itself and the uncertain paths of the artists.

It's a book of new friends; ones you'll carry with you long after the book ends.