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One Night in Paris
Available to pre-order now, the new novel from the multi-million bestselling author of The Little Paris Bookshop.
Set against the backdrop of a Parisian heatwave and the isolated French coast, two women who would never ordinarily cross paths navigate the emotional effects of marriages, affairs and unexpected friendships . . .
----
She knew he was asking whether they would do it again. Share a secret hour behind closed doors. Whether this would start to mean something, or end here and now, in Room 32 of the Hotel Langlois, Paris.
Claire Cousteau is one of France’s most esteemed biologists, with a seemingly perfect family life. But behind closed doors she has become increasingly frustrated by the stasis of her marriage and her husband’s unremarked-upon affairs, and desperately wants something to change.
As she and her family prepare for their annual long summer on the Breton coast, her son Nico comes to her with a can his new girlfriend, Julie, join them? Julie has conundrums of her own - she is a young woman of ambition and can’t help but question whether kind, dependable Nico really is her match.
But what the rest of the family don’t realise is that Julie and Claire have met before, in a Parisian hotel during a night that Claire thought was her secret - a night that’s implications will colour their relationship from the moment it happens. Beneath the blazing Brittany sun, could their surprising bond be the spark to alter the course of their lives for all time?
Sensual, provocative, and stirring, Nina George’s One Night in Paris explores femininity in all its facets. It is a story of becoming who you were meant to be by breaking apart the things you've always known.
----
PRAISE FOR NINA
'A true gem for fiction lovers' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'An enchanting, uplifting read. The sort of book that acts as a soothing tonic' INDEPENDENT
'Glowing . . . Layered with wit, enchanting writing and a love of books' DAILY MAIL
'A charming tale' RED
Set against the backdrop of a Parisian heatwave and the isolated French coast, two women who would never ordinarily cross paths navigate the emotional effects of marriages, affairs and unexpected friendships . . .
----
She knew he was asking whether they would do it again. Share a secret hour behind closed doors. Whether this would start to mean something, or end here and now, in Room 32 of the Hotel Langlois, Paris.
Claire Cousteau is one of France’s most esteemed biologists, with a seemingly perfect family life. But behind closed doors she has become increasingly frustrated by the stasis of her marriage and her husband’s unremarked-upon affairs, and desperately wants something to change.
As she and her family prepare for their annual long summer on the Breton coast, her son Nico comes to her with a can his new girlfriend, Julie, join them? Julie has conundrums of her own - she is a young woman of ambition and can’t help but question whether kind, dependable Nico really is her match.
But what the rest of the family don’t realise is that Julie and Claire have met before, in a Parisian hotel during a night that Claire thought was her secret - a night that’s implications will colour their relationship from the moment it happens. Beneath the blazing Brittany sun, could their surprising bond be the spark to alter the course of their lives for all time?
Sensual, provocative, and stirring, Nina George’s One Night in Paris explores femininity in all its facets. It is a story of becoming who you were meant to be by breaking apart the things you've always known.
----
PRAISE FOR NINA
'A true gem for fiction lovers' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'An enchanting, uplifting read. The sort of book that acts as a soothing tonic' INDEPENDENT
'Glowing . . . Layered with wit, enchanting writing and a love of books' DAILY MAIL
'A charming tale' RED
- GenresContemporaryLesbian
319 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2013
About the author
Nina George
75 books2,365 followersENG (for German Bio please scroll down).
Born 1973 in Bielefeld, Germany, Nina George is a prize-winning and bestselling author (“Das Lavendelzimmer” – “The Little Paris Bookshop”) and freelance journalist since 1992, who has published 26 books (novels, mysteries and non-fiction) as well as over hundred short stories and more than 600 columns. George has worked as a cop reporter, columnist and managing editor for a wide range of publications, including Hamburger Abendblatt, Die Welt, Der Hamburger, “politik und kultur” as well as TV Movie and Federwelt. Georges writes also under three pen-names, for ex “Jean Bagnol”, a double-andronym for provence-based mystery novels.
In 2012 and 2013 she won the DeLiA and the Glauser-Prize. In 2013 she had her first bestselling book “Das Lavendelzimmer”, translated in 27 langues and sold more than 500.000 copies.
In November 2011, Nina George established the “JA zum Urheberrecht” (YES on Author’s Rights) initiative, which supports the rights of authors, artists and entertainers and is dedicated to resolving issues within the literary community as well as establishing fair and practical rights-license models for the web-distribution. 14 writers’ associations and 27 publishing partners have since joined the JA…-Initiative. George supports the “Initiative Urheberrecht” (Author’s Rights Initiative—www.urheber.info) as well as the “gib 8 aufs Wort”-campaign of the VG Wort.
In August 2014 George initiated the Amazon-protest in Germany www.fairer-buchmarkt.de, where overs 2000 germanspeaking authors – Nobelprizewinnig Elfriede Jelinek or Bestsellingauthor Nele Neuhaus – sign an open letter to Jeff Bezos and Amazon, protesting against the banned-book-methods of the giant retailer in the Hachette/Bonnier-dispute.
In 2015 George is the founder of the Initiative Fairer Buchmarkt e.V., which supports questions of law in daily business of authors – for ex in contracts, fees or author’s rights and e-Business.
George is Member to PEN, Das Syndikat (association of German-language crime writers), the Association of German Authors (VS), the Hamburg Authors’ Association (HAV), BücherFrauen (Women in Publishing), the IACW/AIEP (International Association of Crime Writers), the GEDOK (Association of female artists in Germany), PRO QUOTE and Lean In. Nina George sits on the board of the Three Seas Writers’ and Translaters’ Council (TSWTC), whose members come from 16 different countries.
Nina George teaches writing at Literaturbüro Unna, Alsterdamm Kunstschule, Wilhelmsburger Honigfabrik, where she coaches young people, adults and professional authors.
George also moderates (bilingual) readings and works as a speaker.
www.nina-george.com
find me also on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/NinaGeorge.S...
www.ninageorge.de
DE
Die mehrfach ausgezeichnete Publizistin Nina George, geboren 1973, veröffentlichte bisher 23 Romane, Krimis, Science-Thriller sowie ca. 88 Kurzgeschichten und über 500 Kolumnen.
Ihr Pseudonym Anne West gehört zu den erfolgreichsten deutschsprachigen Erotika-Autorinnen.
Für ihren Roman Die Mondspielerin wurde George mit der DeLiA 2011, dem Literaturpreis für den besten Liebesroman des Jahres, ausgezeichnet. Mit dem Wendekrimi Das Licht von Dahme war George 2010 für den Friedrich-Glauser-Preis nominiert. Sie gewann ihn 2012 mit dem in Nigeria angesiedeltem Fußballkrimi „Das Spiel ihres Lebens“.
George gründete 2011 die Initiative „JA zum Urheberrecht“, mit der sie sich aktiv für die Rechte aller Kreativarbeiter und Kulturschaffenden gegen die Mentalität der Gratiskultur im Internet einsetzt.
Sie ist Mitglied im Syndikat, den Mörderischen Schwestern sowie des Verbands deutscher Schriftsteller.
Nina George lebt im Hamburger Grindelviertel.
Born 1973 in Bielefeld, Germany, Nina George is a prize-winning and bestselling author (“Das Lavendelzimmer” – “The Little Paris Bookshop”) and freelance journalist since 1992, who has published 26 books (novels, mysteries and non-fiction) as well as over hundred short stories and more than 600 columns. George has worked as a cop reporter, columnist and managing editor for a wide range of publications, including Hamburger Abendblatt, Die Welt, Der Hamburger, “politik und kultur” as well as TV Movie and Federwelt. Georges writes also under three pen-names, for ex “Jean Bagnol”, a double-andronym for provence-based mystery novels.
In 2012 and 2013 she won the DeLiA and the Glauser-Prize. In 2013 she had her first bestselling book “Das Lavendelzimmer”, translated in 27 langues and sold more than 500.000 copies.
In November 2011, Nina George established the “JA zum Urheberrecht” (YES on Author’s Rights) initiative, which supports the rights of authors, artists and entertainers and is dedicated to resolving issues within the literary community as well as establishing fair and practical rights-license models for the web-distribution. 14 writers’ associations and 27 publishing partners have since joined the JA…-Initiative. George supports the “Initiative Urheberrecht” (Author’s Rights Initiative—www.urheber.info) as well as the “gib 8 aufs Wort”-campaign of the VG Wort.
In August 2014 George initiated the Amazon-protest in Germany www.fairer-buchmarkt.de, where overs 2000 germanspeaking authors – Nobelprizewinnig Elfriede Jelinek or Bestsellingauthor Nele Neuhaus – sign an open letter to Jeff Bezos and Amazon, protesting against the banned-book-methods of the giant retailer in the Hachette/Bonnier-dispute.
In 2015 George is the founder of the Initiative Fairer Buchmarkt e.V., which supports questions of law in daily business of authors – for ex in contracts, fees or author’s rights and e-Business.
George is Member to PEN, Das Syndikat (association of German-language crime writers), the Association of German Authors (VS), the Hamburg Authors’ Association (HAV), BücherFrauen (Women in Publishing), the IACW/AIEP (International Association of Crime Writers), the GEDOK (Association of female artists in Germany), PRO QUOTE and Lean In. Nina George sits on the board of the Three Seas Writers’ and Translaters’ Council (TSWTC), whose members come from 16 different countries.
Nina George teaches writing at Literaturbüro Unna, Alsterdamm Kunstschule, Wilhelmsburger Honigfabrik, where she coaches young people, adults and professional authors.
George also moderates (bilingual) readings and works as a speaker.
www.nina-george.com
find me also on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/NinaGeorge.S...
www.ninageorge.de
DE
Die mehrfach ausgezeichnete Publizistin Nina George, geboren 1973, veröffentlichte bisher 23 Romane, Krimis, Science-Thriller sowie ca. 88 Kurzgeschichten und über 500 Kolumnen.
Ihr Pseudonym Anne West gehört zu den erfolgreichsten deutschsprachigen Erotika-Autorinnen.
Für ihren Roman Die Mondspielerin wurde George mit der DeLiA 2011, dem Literaturpreis für den besten Liebesroman des Jahres, ausgezeichnet. Mit dem Wendekrimi Das Licht von Dahme war George 2010 für den Friedrich-Glauser-Preis nominiert. Sie gewann ihn 2012 mit dem in Nigeria angesiedeltem Fußballkrimi „Das Spiel ihres Lebens“.
George gründete 2011 die Initiative „JA zum Urheberrecht“, mit der sie sich aktiv für die Rechte aller Kreativarbeiter und Kulturschaffenden gegen die Mentalität der Gratiskultur im Internet einsetzt.
Sie ist Mitglied im Syndikat, den Mörderischen Schwestern sowie des Verbands deutscher Schriftsteller.
Nina George lebt im Hamburger Grindelviertel.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 23, 2026
“Claire Cousteau is one of France’s most esteemed biologists, with a seemingly perfect family life. But behind closed doors, she has become increasingly frustrated by the stasis in her marriage and her husband’s unremarked-upon affairs.”
I haven’t read Nina George before, but I will just state that in my opinion she writes perhaps more than the reader needs to know about Claire’s feelings of being trapped - by motherhood and marriage and also much more than we really need to know about her job as a biologist.
That must sound odd and I don’t think I have ever written anything similar before in my 700 plus reviews. But there it is. Less is more. (And I will be saying something similar in an upcoming review of Mavis Gallant). But for this book, One Night in Paris, (to explain) I feel George dives too deep into the minutiae of Claire’s life at the expense of action, luckily this does not occur in the first few chapters. Action that would move things along more and possibly characterise her in a more meaningful way. To give you an idea:
“Claire thought of her fellow professor. Anne-Claude from the law faculty, how she had sat in Claire’s office at the Institute late one afternoon, distraught and surprised by her own readiness to pour her heart out to Claire of all people. The pain that spills out into eloquence, as if the act of shaping it into words allows us to contemplate and fight it; right there among all the ammonites, books and old maps, in the middle of Claire’s green sofa.”
Don’t get me wrong, the whole book is beautifully written and I particularly enjoyed the glimpses of her childhood which actually helped me understand Claire better than such passages as above. But above all I loved the Breton landscape and the way the characters inhabit it.
The novel is made up of two points of view, Claire and the young Julie who comes to stay with her new boyfriend, Claire and Gilles son, Nico and the married couple at an old cottage on the coast. To make matters intriguing Julie has a secret from “one night in Paris” that could destroy Claire’s marriage. Here is Julie:
“Julie got up quickly, went over to the window and opened the curtains a chink.
The pale green of the dune grasses. The velvety white of the long curving beach. And the wavy blue expanse, breathing rhythmically between rocks and sky. Silk rippling on the wind, all the way to the horizon, shot through with glinting sunbeams.
It looked beautiful from here.
Beautiful, strange and scary.
A vast alien, breathing thing.”
As some readers of this review may have guessed. Julie can’t swim. And other readers might be surprised at where the narrative goes when all four people are living in close proximity to each other in the cottage.
I leave you with another glimpse of Brittany:
“The Corniche took them out of Trevignon, past properties with tall, wind-battered fir, yew and pine trees; the houses grew sparser as the village petered out into the dense greenery. They rode between sand-dunes and field margins covered in brambles.
Julie looked out at the endless expanse of the ocean; it felt as if, were she to follow the lines of the horizon, she would be able to detect the natural curvature of the earth.”
.....”It felt like riding through a landscape that had always been twenty or thirty years behind the times and had one day decided to simply stand still. The villages, cliffs and roads appeared to Julie like something out of an old film or a quaintly penned poem: this landscape was a ballad of salty stones, wild trees, blueness and wind.” One of many exquisite descriptions. Four and a half stars.
I haven’t read Nina George before, but I will just state that in my opinion she writes perhaps more than the reader needs to know about Claire’s feelings of being trapped - by motherhood and marriage and also much more than we really need to know about her job as a biologist.
That must sound odd and I don’t think I have ever written anything similar before in my 700 plus reviews. But there it is. Less is more. (And I will be saying something similar in an upcoming review of Mavis Gallant). But for this book, One Night in Paris, (to explain) I feel George dives too deep into the minutiae of Claire’s life at the expense of action, luckily this does not occur in the first few chapters. Action that would move things along more and possibly characterise her in a more meaningful way. To give you an idea:
“Claire thought of her fellow professor. Anne-Claude from the law faculty, how she had sat in Claire’s office at the Institute late one afternoon, distraught and surprised by her own readiness to pour her heart out to Claire of all people. The pain that spills out into eloquence, as if the act of shaping it into words allows us to contemplate and fight it; right there among all the ammonites, books and old maps, in the middle of Claire’s green sofa.”
Don’t get me wrong, the whole book is beautifully written and I particularly enjoyed the glimpses of her childhood which actually helped me understand Claire better than such passages as above. But above all I loved the Breton landscape and the way the characters inhabit it.
The novel is made up of two points of view, Claire and the young Julie who comes to stay with her new boyfriend, Claire and Gilles son, Nico and the married couple at an old cottage on the coast. To make matters intriguing Julie has a secret from “one night in Paris” that could destroy Claire’s marriage. Here is Julie:
“Julie got up quickly, went over to the window and opened the curtains a chink.
The pale green of the dune grasses. The velvety white of the long curving beach. And the wavy blue expanse, breathing rhythmically between rocks and sky. Silk rippling on the wind, all the way to the horizon, shot through with glinting sunbeams.
It looked beautiful from here.
Beautiful, strange and scary.
A vast alien, breathing thing.”
As some readers of this review may have guessed. Julie can’t swim. And other readers might be surprised at where the narrative goes when all four people are living in close proximity to each other in the cottage.
I leave you with another glimpse of Brittany:
“The Corniche took them out of Trevignon, past properties with tall, wind-battered fir, yew and pine trees; the houses grew sparser as the village petered out into the dense greenery. They rode between sand-dunes and field margins covered in brambles.
Julie looked out at the endless expanse of the ocean; it felt as if, were she to follow the lines of the horizon, she would be able to detect the natural curvature of the earth.”
.....”It felt like riding through a landscape that had always been twenty or thirty years behind the times and had one day decided to simply stand still. The villages, cliffs and roads appeared to Julie like something out of an old film or a quaintly penned poem: this landscape was a ballad of salty stones, wild trees, blueness and wind.” One of many exquisite descriptions. Four and a half stars.
January 14, 2026
Oh, a difficult book to sum up! I'm interested in the structure and substance of writing, so this is not so much a reader's review as a set of notes on what worked and what didn't, from my personal perspective. At first a jarring note, the constant reference to the 'Frenchness' of the setting - place names, wines, activities, markets, brands, even stereotypical character types. I felt I was being herded into the tourist office until I would have to admit this was set in Paris. Then there are some quite brilliant bits of writing about feelings of place. Then a jarring amount of references to the profession of the protagonist, her definitions of human behaviour, not that it was a bad idea to include it, but that the references ran too deep and for too long, the building of the main protagonist's character on her academic expertise was, I felt, overplayed. Academics I have known barely ever talk about their work unless explicitly asked, and don't think about it much either unless they're 'working'. Claire, the main character here, seems to have fully identified with her career in a way that didn't sit naturally. I kept thinking to myself 'but no-one thinks like this' and asking myself whether this could have been depicted with more subtlety. I don't know quite how to explain what doesn't work here but I found it alienating. Many places in this novel I felt I was being told, not shown. Place was central to the novel but became routine, some treatment of the beach, the sea, the ocean, the water was prosaic and stereotypical, other parts were more fully mysterious and deeply felt. There are these leaps of brilliance, tantalisingly scattered between what felt like standard description and standard plot. I wanted more of that brilliance, to connect better to the author and the characters, for characters to be more subtle, less hard outlined. I know, the author describes her main character as 'absolute' so perhaps it was to this purpose that Claire is made into such a maddeningly stiff character. Then there's much philosophising about woman's identity and belonging - not relatable to me particularly, having been outside the model of wife-dom and motherhood all my life. A great scene between Claire and her sister late at night at the kitchen table was genuine and touching. Yet, the whole seemed not to hold together well, and for any woman reader who doesn't live with men in a culture that swallows women and subsumes them to the needs of the family and demands a particular expression of womanhood, the novel felt like it was depicting stereotypical marriage and, to be honest, stereotypical self-discovery. Age difference was handled well. In short, nothing earth shattering here and not a personal journey that stirred me, though some astute observations and some delightful bits, but too few of the later to keep me hooked. Not a novel I would aspire to write nor a life I could relate to very well, though the author is really very good and that left me wanting this novel to be more than it is - less conventional? Not sure what was missing for me but I felt the lack of something important here - or perhaps I'm not the intended audience and just could not relate. I also wonder whether something had been lost in the translation. Damn. I hope the author and/or translator are not reading this. I'm being super judgemental when I don't have their skills, but as a reader, this is my honest take on this strangely good, strangely bad, strangely frustrating novel. For all it's deep searching, it didn't take me into the depths with it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2025
I didn’t love this book and at times I was very tempted to stop reading. Claire drove me crazy!!! Certainly not mother of the year material.
At least the ending was satisfying, but I won’t be recommending it to anyone.
At least the ending was satisfying, but I won’t be recommending it to anyone.
March 10, 2026
A worthy worthy story.
January 19, 2026
So boring. I tried so hard to get into it but just not my cup of tea as they say!!! The writing made me feel like adjectives were just thrown around left right and centre with a bit of right click synonyms on word action. Would not recommend. Might explain why it was half price.
April 13, 2026
Lives are complicated, both male and female but this story details the depths of women's feelings and the complications of love, marriage, partnership, the difficulties of a relationship where one person is more competent and professional than the other, when the marriage breaks down or reinvents itself and if it does should it, is there a reward for reimagining your life and realigning your future with or without a long-term partner. Should you just please yourself? The welding machine said it all.
January 16, 2026
Slow to start, but oh so Beautifully written. She understands the nuances of what it means to be a woman, a mother, a lover, a wife, a girlie in stem. Whilst there are parts I did not like or agree with, She reminds us that it is never too late to “find yourself”. That we are human, constantly evolving, ever changing.
“Will you add me to your collection of beloved old objects and look upon me with affection as I age?”
“Will you add me to your collection of beloved old objects and look upon me with affection as I age?”
March 26, 2017
I like this one even more than the first. This is shaping up to be an incredible series.
September 28, 2019
A great read
Great tension in the story line and sexually. I loved the way it turned out and look forward to reading more by Kate Sweeney!
Great tension in the story line and sexually. I loved the way it turned out and look forward to reading more by Kate Sweeney!
August 6, 2025
A provocative story that challenged its characters to better know themselves and to accept others who are discovering who they are "meant to be".
October 26, 2025
This popped up on Libby, and after reading the blurb, I knew I'd enjoy it. I didn't expect to ✨love✨this though! I was hooked from the start and read it in one sitting!
November 11, 2025
I went into this one without preconceptions, not having read about it. It's good writing, heavy on relationships and life and such, and will be enjoyed by others. But in the end not for me.
February 25, 2026
I wouldn't recommend this book. I didn't finish it but was glad when it was over!!
February 26, 2026
Gripping, questioning, soul-searching read that I couldn't put down. totally unexpected moments that really take a hold of you.
March 20, 2026
This would make a great movie.
April 8, 2026
Dnf, horrific writing, main character so bland
May 16, 2026
It was both great and awful?
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews