No es amor, es solo París

by Patricia Engel

Una joven estadounidense llega a la Casa de las Estrellas, una residencia de chicas en París, donde ha venido a estudiar. Una historia sobre la búsqueda de un hogar lejos del hogar, la búsqueda de uno mismo y la búsqueda de la pasión.
«El amor no es un accidente; no cae del cielo como la lluvia. El amor es un plato cocinado con esmero por dos personas que luego se sentarán a degustarlo juntas.»

La joven Lita ha viajado a París con la excusa de aprender bien el idioma, aunque lo que de verdad desea es vivir una apasionada historia de amor. Pero, mientras pasea por las hermosas calles de la capital francesa, ni siquiera sospecha que este sentimiento es tan intenso, tan poderoso, como el que la invadirá cuando conozca a Felix de Manou, Cato para sus amigos, un joven aparentemente inalcanzable, desarraigado y con una infancia triste a su espalda.
Pero Lita y Cato son como el día y la noche, dos opuestos que parecen tenerlo todo en contra. Todo menos los encantos de una ciudad mágica, capaz incluso de hacer realidad los amores más imposibles.

Genres: Fiction, France, Romance, Book Club, Coming Of Age, Travel, Short Stories

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2013

About the author

Patricia Engel is the author of five books including The Faraway World; Infinite Country, a New York Times Bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick; The Veins of the Ocean, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris, winner of the International Latino Book Award; and Vida, a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway and Young Lions Fiction Awards, New York Times Notable Book, and winner of Colombia’s national book award, the Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her stories appear in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. Born to Colombian parents, Patricia teaches creative writing at the University of Miami. 

Reviews

[Chaitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book destroyed me. Well, that's obviously an exaggeration, but it did move me considerably more than I expected it to. I don't like romance as a rule, and tend to avoid the genre. I've never read anything by Patricia Engel either even though I have Vida on my to-be-read shelf (it has moved up in my anticipation btw). I'm unsure why I even picked this book up, but I'm glad I did.

It's a simple story, and it's told in an unpretentious way. Engel writes well and kept me invested in what is not, truthfully, something that can be seen as subverting the genre. I liked that the prose never got melodramatic or flowery, even though it had a several opportunities to go overboard with the angst. The main characters, Cato and Lita, are realistic and relatable. I loved them, even when they did stupid things (they're young and no saints). I found their actions understandable under the circumstances they're up against. I also loved the other denizens of the House of Stars where Lita resides. Seraphine, Loic and Tarentina, especially, were incredibly sketched.

It's not that I didn't find a single fault, I did. There were some threads that were brought up, but not expanded on (such as, Lita being thought of as Antoine de Manou's girls. We never hear of these girls again). Lita was obtuser (is that a word?) than she needed to be about Cato's health for the sake of drama. It isn't stretched for long, and Lita's devastation is handled well when it's done, but it's there and it needn't have been. Speaking of Cato, he remained a bit of a blank page for quite a bit, but he does get a fairly full character by the time we end the book. But these are minor quibbles. I enjoyed the book throughly despite them, and I will definitely look forward to reading more from Patricia Engel. 5 stars.

Edited to Add: I think it is love, but it's also Paris.

I received this copy for review via NetGalley.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was so mediocre and blah that I can't even summon the energy to write a summary. Instead, I shall use this space to promote two books about living in France that I actually liked: Julia Child's "My Life in France" and "Lunch in Paris" by Elizabeth Bard. Had I known "It's Not Love" would be so weak, I would have spent that time rereading Julia's lovely memoir.

[Gea · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris is one of the best books I’ve read all year including The Great Gatsby and True Grit. Yes, I’m putting Engel in the same category as Fitzgerald and Portis. This coming of age story is a true classic, filled with such poignant honesty and searing wisdom as to stand the test of time, yet it is a fluid page turner too. An easy five stars and I do not grant five stars easily. If you’re looking for THE novel of 2013, this is it.

Lita, a young American-Columbian girl in her 20th year, journeys to Paris to continue her education. She’s a green blood, a new moneyed girl from parents who come from tragically modest means yet clawed their way out of poverty to realize the American Dream. In Paris, Lita will come crashing against old money, blue blooded establishment, multi-million dollar girls from all over the world, and maybe, just possibly, the greatest love of her life. Love is a simple story really; an international Romeo and Juliet for the 21st century full of timeless universal themes.

Engel explores what it is to be an outsider, poised on the edge of an exotic world looking in. She explores what it is to be female on the cusp of womanhood, a girl discovering herself yet torn in half amidst conflicting loyalties to family, tradition, country, and love. How Lita resolves these various tensions blooming and soaring within her will keep you relentlessly turning the pages.

This is a novel hard to put down. As I came to the end, I was desperate to see what would happen to our dear Lita. I’m a fire medic and I flew through pages on the way back from panic attacks and a car accident before finishing back at the station alone in the truck, breathless, eyes welling up with tears. I was stunned. And still now, long after I’ve turned the last page, I feel the novel’s atmosphere and characters lingering in my mind like the memory of an unforgettable perfume.

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Few writers are funny and wise simultaneously, but Patricia Engel (like Charles Portis), is one of those writers. She is also tragically romantic. I have often yearned for a category of literary romance, but it is hard to find a writer beyond the age of Jane Austen or the Brontes who can render desire in breathtaking prose. Robert Goolrich (The Reliable Wife) can, and now I am happy to add Patricia Engel to the list.

It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris is romantic and wise. Sad and beautiful. It is a novel that transcends hype and fads and time. Patricia Engel is a deeply talented writer with a sensitive eye and compassionate heart threaded through with a touch of tragedy. I cannot wait to see what her next adventure will bring.

[Flor Méndez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gracias a Penguin Random House por el ejemplar.

Actualización: no creo que haga una reseña en el blog, porque para destruir un libro mejor lo dejo acá.

(Puede contener pequeños spoilers que no hacen a la historia, y el resto están ocultos; reseña larga y llena de bronca, sepan disculpar)

Este libro está hecho en chiste. En serio. Es eso o que yo no entiendo cómo funcionan estas historias insulsas.

Tengo mucha bronca porque hacía mucho que no leía uno de estos libros donde todo es una excusa para que el "romance" de los dos personajes principales no decaiga. Bueno, decayó desde la página 1.

Tenemos a Lita, hija de padres huérfanos-pobres-colombianos que emigraron a EEUU gracias al Destino y Dios todopoderoso. Tiene dos hermanos: el mayor, castrador y misógino, y el menor, con un extraño problema de "pesimismo" (osea, vive deprimido, con ideas de suicidio y muchas veces en estado catatónico, pero jamás se dice que tenga un problema realmente importante) y manipulador al extremo. Sus padres lograron hacerse multimillonarios con una multinacional de comidas latinoamericanas en el mundo (¿?) y además prácticamente ayudan a todo extranjero que llegue a EEUU como para que se adapte.

Entonces, con toda la carga cultural y la culpa de "nosotros nacimos pobres y moriremos pobres, entonces vos prácticamente tenés que hacer lo mismo y quedarte toda la vida junto a nosotros sin progresar porque eso es lo que hacen los buenos hijos" la dejan (nótese mi bronca en esa palabra) pasar un año en París estudiando en la universidad. Casualidad que la mandan a una especie de pensión donde sólo va gente "de sangre azul" y Lita pasa el primer día quejándose de todas porque son unas presumidas y unas molestas y prácticamente la apartan de todo, pero al segundo día de repente son sus mejores amigas y son muy buenas personas y bla.

Lita habrá ido dos días más o menos a la facultad que al tercero conoce a un chico y de repente se olvida de todo. El chico (misterioso, con una historia misteriosa, con un padre político, conservados y xenófobo) perdió a su madre cuando era chico y se quedó solo en una casa de playa junto a una criada que le hizo de madre porque el padre es un monstruo (¿?). Y ni hablar de cuando habla de la enfermedad que tiene. ¿La bomba de Chernobyl? ¿Estamos hablando en serio? Osea, puede ser que haya afectado a niños franceses y demás (es más, no lo dudo), pero ¿para qué poner algo con tanta carga histórica si lo vas a usar para un par de páginas nomás?

La autora pone la excusa del viaje de estudios para hacer que los dos personajes principales se "enamoren" (y va entre comillas porque Lita lo descubre después de pasar semanas encerrados en su habitación actuando como conejos y sin salir a la facultad ni ver la luz del sol). La autora pone la excusa de la enfermedad de Cato para justificar un par de rupturas y problemas en la relación. La autora prácticamente hace que sus personajes se desvivan hablando sobre la cultura, el verdadero hogar, la familia y el amor pero prácticamente creó protagonistas y secundarios que se cagan en eso, y perdonad la expresión mi lord. En serio, no puedo contener mi bronca. Capaz que esto lo lea en una semana y me arrepienta, pero teniendo en cuenta de que ni siquiera sé por qué le estoy dando la segunda estrella, creo que me merezco sacar un poco de todo esto que tengo adentro.

Lita es plana, insulsa, boba hasta el extremo. No sólo se caga en el esfuerzo que sus padres hicieron para poder enviarla a París a estudiar (más allá que no esté de acuerdo para nada en su forma de pensar; si tantos problemas tuviste con la libertad y demás, ¿vas a hacer lo mismo con tu hija? ¿Tan hijo de puta sos?) ya que sólo asiste a una clase como mucho, sino que además intenta avanzar como persona a lo largo de la historia y no lo logra en lo más mínimo. Al final pude escuchar a la voz de la mina del GPS diciendo "recalculando". Al final sigue siendo la misma boba manipulada por su familia, mientras que en París prácticamente se dejó manipular por un chico que apenas conocía diciendo que era "amor" (y no, la relación no me pareció nada creíble). Al final me comí 240 páginas de explicaciones y reflexiones vacías que no me dejaron nada.

La historia es totalmente pasiva; al extremo. Casi no hay diálogos, sino que Lita te cuenta todo como desde un futuro no tan lejano, porque ya sabe tooooda la historia del personaje que se encuentra como para estar hablándote en el mismo momento en el que conoce a la otra persona. Te cuenta toda la historia de su familia, de sus hermanos, la suya, la de Cato, la de Séraphine, la de todas las chicas de la Casa de las Estrellas, la de los familiares de la propietaria... todo. ¿Todo lo que no necesitás saber? Bueno, eso y más. Cada vez que pasaba una página con la esperanza de encontrar un poquito más de acción y movimiento lo único que me encontraba era Homero dándole a la puerta con el hacha diciendo "aúúúúúúún hay más". Me aburrió tanta descripción, tanto detalle. Además, al final nos habla de cómo los años pasaron y ¿? es como si la chica hubiera estado contado todo en pasado y de su vida pasada, pero nosotros nunca nos enteramos. Y me da lástima, porque París es de mis ciudades favoritas, y no se sintió para nada ese ambiente parisino, la ville de l'amour. El romance fue muy de plástico, y eso no ayuda nada a París.

Y ese final.¿No hubiera bastado con que se separaran y jamás se volvieran a ver? ¿Tanta cosa para que el pibe se muera al final, en una de las dos o tres oportunidades mínimas en donde se aprovechó su enfermedad? Me pareció innecesario y bastante obvio. No logra el efecto deseado cuando dice cosas como "pero yo no sabía lo que el destino nos tenía preparado". No me generó lástima, me generó obviedad e irritación. Totalmente innecesario.

En fin, la verdad no sé qué más puedo decir. No hay mucho más que no sea bronca dentro de mí. Sí me gustó Séraphine como personaje secundario, y me parece que dentro de todo se aprovechó en su justa medida. También me gustó cómo terminó ella, así que de eso no puedo decir nada.

¡Ah! Me olvidaba. La novela transcurre más o menos entre 1997 y 1998, no vaya a ser cosa de que pasen todo el libro sin saberlo y recién se enteren cuando menciona el Mundial del 98 en las últimas páginas como me pasó a mí :)

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the revised version of the lame review I posted last night.

It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris comes on the heels of Engel’s terrific short story collection, Vida and is her first novel. The protagonist, Lita del Cielo, daughter of two Columbian orphans who made good in America, has been granted one year to study in Paris before returning to work in the family’s Latin food empire. Her protective father installs her in the House of Stars, a declining Left Bank boarding house for young women. I concede in lesser hands, pretty standard novel fare. What distances Engel is her ability to wield a pen as if it were a paintbrush - images so vivid you can almost chew them….”It was a jacketless night, the last thread of Indian summer before the blue season of winter arrived to smother us.”

It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris poses the rhetorical questions – at what point does your life belong to you? and, where and what is home? With one leg straddling Columbia, US born and raised Engel stated in a Seattle book reading last week that she “feels like a stranger” no matter where she is. In the US she is Columbian, in Columbia she is American; wherever she goes she is a daughter, a granddaughter, an aunt, a sister. Engel deftly works these themes through Lita exposing a familial current that nourishes while its very tentacles strangle.

”I wanted to tell him about Cato but knew my father would say, “People don’t fall in love like it’s a hole in the ground. Love is not an accident. Love doesn’t arrive or drop from the sky like rain. Love is a carefully prepared meal between two people who will sit and eat together.” And a choice that should be made very carefully because, according to him, we are the sum of the people we love. He chose my mother because they had lived a similar story, a blanket of hunger and shame covering each of their childhoods. Neither of them had anything, and they thought that, together, they might make something.”

And a conversation with her older brother:

When I later asked Santi about it, he told me, “I keep having to explain to them that your self-discovery crap is an American thing. They’re just enduring it until you come back to us to do what you’re meant to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“What you’ve always done. Help Mami with her charity work and come work at Compa’ with Pa and me.”
“Did they tell you that?”
“They didn’t have to.”
“But what if that’s not what I want?”
“Oye, where’s your loyalty? You’re not an amoeba. You didn’t come into this world alone. Our viejos gave us so much, the least we can do is put everything we gained back into our own family. Jesus, Lita. You’re such a gringa sometimes.”
“I just want to know, when exactly does my life belong to me?”
“Are you kidding? Never.”

Where Engel excels is in her characterization. She has every nuance down to the point where you can almost hear Lita’s boot zipper going up and you almost feel you could reach out and tuck a stray hank of hair behind her ear. Engel’s dialog is pitch-perfect. This is not to say that the book doesn’t have its fair share of shortcomings. First, there’s the Miss Havisham aspect of the boarding house and second, a romance central to the book that doesn’t really work. But you know what? I don’t care because for me it’s all about the quality of the writing and anyone who can write lines like ”Our parents indulged him because that’s what you do when you want to love someone into happiness.” deserves my five hard won stars.

It’s a shame the book is saddled with such a corny title as it will repel serious readers while disappointing and confusing those who are looking for mindless romantic fluff. This is a novel that deserves to be read and preferably in hardback with a bottle of cachaca at hand. Let me make this official: Patricia Engel, I choose you.. Readers of this volume will understand that sentence.

[Stella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant novel. It runs so much deeper than the love story on the surface. It's been a long time since I've been so captivated and deeply affected by a novel. I have so many impressions of it, that I'm almost hesitant to list them all, afraid I will miss something. The love story being clearly relevant, did not leave me lingering as much as the more more profound and pressing themes of the book; Immigration-both the actual journey and social status, faith, familial duty/obligation, love, and of course the journey of an individual's self-discovery. When Lita asks "when does my life belong to me?" I almost hear myself asking the same question as I have many times in my life. There were so many other personal connections I felt to this book, as a woman, as an immigrant but primarily as someone on the outside looking into so many different worlds with their own desires and foreign sets of order. I truly adored this book for the obvious rich storytelling, layered characters, and irresistible setting of contemporary Paris. But what resonated with me most was the deeper message and questioning of who we really are and who do we really "belong to" (family, lover, country, God)? A question especially fitting as Lita asks Cato if he "chooses her"' rather than "love her." I am so deeply entranced by this book, I will have to reread it as I'm sure I missed something else.

[Dominique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, just WOW. This book blew me away. The writing is exquisite (I underlined great lines all over the place) and I was transported into the narrator's world of young, modern Paris. Having lived there myself, I can say that she got it so right, with details only insiders would catch. This is NOT your standard Paris novel, and definitely not a typical romance story. The love plot is well-crafted and honest, and by the end, completely shattering yet believable. The supporting characters that fill the House of Stars are wonderfully developed, intriguing (not at all stereotypes!), each worthy of having their own novel written about them. The protagonist, Lita, is endearing and I was rooting for her all the way. People looking for that kind of light romantic fluff will be disappointed. This book is not just a love story or a tribute to young expats, but a deeper and very subtle yet profound examination of race, class, family, and how those those affect our lives. This book is breathtakingly beautiful and I full of so much insight. I can't recommend it enough.

[Vikki VanSickle · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Lita moves to Paris, she spends one year in The House of Stars, a rooming home for girls in a derelict French mansion, run by an enigmatic aristocrat and her two grandsons. The girls are confident, wild, and full of life, which makes Lita shy at first. But then she meets Cato and suddenly she finds herself wrapped up in his complicated life.

This dreamy, nostalgic, but emotionally sharp novel was wonderful to sink into. Using a very simple (and familiar) premise, Engel is able to weave something that feels different and a little haunting. Lita is an extremely well-rounded and vivid character, caught between responsibility and the desire for abandon. I particularly liked Lita's connection to her family and it is clear that their struggles and love have shaped who she has become, even in wild, anonymous Paris. In some ways the novel felt like a Sofia Coppola film, dreamy, visual, internal, and deliberate. I'm thinking particularly of The Virgin Suicides.

[Gizella Caicedo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro que habla sobre el amor al hogar, a la familia y a su tierra sobretodo a sus orígenes. Es una historia que te hace apreciar lo que tienes y lo que vives.

Lo malo es que sentí la trama muy forzada, al punto de llegar a pensar " mmm estas cosas no pasan en la vida real" y yo sé es ficción, pero para una trama que trata de hacerme notar lo bello de la realidad que me rodea, sale con momentos muy cargados e incluso demasiado pintorescos. Y quizá fue por esto que a pesar de ser un libro corto se me hizo super largo.

[María · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title catches my attention. So I buy it but it was not what expected. It is well written but the plot is strange: Lita was a girl searching herself in Paris...and then girl met boy. They fall in love. All is idyllic until he get very sick and she found out he had a terrible illness produced by radiation.
So they split out for a time and weeks before she had to return home, he visited her and ask her not go back to America.
But she knew she had to came back because of her family and they tried a long distance relationship but she was a coward and slowly abandoned him...Years later he died and she have the bittersweet regret of what could have been a live with Cato...

[Olive · Rating 2 out of 5]

(reviewed on olivereviewsbooks.tumblr.com)
People go to Paris for dozens of reasons but perhaps the most famous, or infamous, one is romance. The City of Lights is plenty Romantic, capital “R”, and because of this those that go there tend to forget that life is life no matter the city. The people of Paris are no less likely to be late to work or have their hearts broken. There may be a sort of unnameable magic in the air but it’s not a cure for the reality of everyday existence. Lita del Cielo, the protagonist of Patricia Engel’s novel “It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris” learns this the hard way. She arrives in Paris where she’ll be studying for a year expecting charm and magic and romance- though she won’t admit to that last one- and is from the start disappointed. The house she’s meant to stay in is run down despite it’s wealthy inhabitants and said inhabitants don’t seem to like her. Her only friends seem to be the building’s owner and her son who is her constant companion as she tours Paris. That is, until she meets Cato, the son of an infamous politician whom he is nothing like but whose stigma has left him branded. The two, of course, wind up together and as the title suggests, it’s not all rose tinted and happy endings. “It’s Not Love, It’s Paris” is a novel that’s supposed to be about the self-exploration and growth of a girl thrown out into a world she hasn’t known but I couldn’t quite see past the completely unhealthy relationship she was in with Cato and how the author seemed to be trying to paint it in a tragically romantic light.

The main character, Lita, is young and like most insanely smart girls a bit on the naive side. We bookworms spend so much time in the lives of fictional people that we sometimes forget about real life. Lita is no exception. She has lived a mostly charmed life, growing up as the daughter of now wealthy immigrants who- despite instilling in their children an appreciation for hard work- have sheltered Lita from the harsher realities. As a narrator, her voice was shallow and flat and her “Spanglish” when reminiscing about conversations she’s had with her parents was beyond basic. The most interesting characters wound up being her parents, but that’s another story- a story I wish the reader could read more about. As it is, we are left with naive Lita and the household of unbelievable socialite girls who board with her in Paris. They, with the exception of one or two, are carbon copies of each other, all sleeping with older men and more than one at once. I’m not sure who Engels was thinking of while writing these characters, but I have never and hopefully will never be put in a house of random 20 year old girls who are all somehow more sexually experienced than I don’t know what. The fact that they are all wealthy makes the magic of Paris that the reader catches in rare glimpses feel unattainable to the average person. If Lita had worked and saved up to get herself to Paris the story could have held more weight but as it is, it was about a young rich girl who goes to study for a year and quits because she gets a boyfriend. The Boyfriend, Cato, is a distant character, one the reader barely gets to know or understand. The entire time, I was left wondering what Lita saw in him and he in her. The conversations they had I could list on one hand and yet, for some reason, she was visiting him for weeks on end in his house on the coast and he was staying with her in Paris. Cato was manipulative, perhaps without meaning to be because of his poor health which we don’t find out about until later on, and impossible for me to get behind. Still, the title was wrong- it was love for Cato and Lita, albeit the kind of young love that burns bright but fades fast. And it wasn’t just Paris, it was Columbia where her parents were from and the small fishing town outside of Paris that Lita and Cato would go to get away. It was love and it was life, pushing people together just as it tears them apart and moves them along.

Patricia Engel’s second novel may have been a bit dry and a bit overly Romanticized, but it was honest. “It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris” felt at times like a snap shot of a woman’s life, a brief glimpse at a stranger’s memories of a time and a person long gone. Lita’s and Cato’s relationship wasn’t fairy tale easy despite their abrupt beginning and they didn’t have movie-perfect lines to feed to each other. Granted, they barely had any lines but it’s sometimes better to say nothing than be a cliche. Paris stood alone as it’s own character, as it often does, acting as host to the story as it unfolded and became another long lost tale in a timeless city’s history. Overall, I found the novel a bit bland and more than a bit unbelievable- at least when it came to the other girls in the House of Stars- with a main character who on occasion bored me and a love interest I don’t think either of us got to really know.

[Lucie Montes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish it. Engel is a talented writer and I didn't want to be disappointed, but I was young so long ago I couldn't get into it. I was an American abroad myself my junior year, but we weren't nearly so naughty! Or disaffected. The boarding house seemed more like a brothel.

[Marian May · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creo que tengo mejor concepto del amor que esta autora.

[Alexia Safieh · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris” is a romantic novel that follows Lita, a hispanic-american, through her year abroad in Paris. Lita has always aspired for a more diverse life traveling and learning from the world. She ultimately decides to study a year in Paris, the city of love. She arrives at the House of Stars - a decaying mansion turned into an upscale hostel or downscale boutique hotel- the day Princess Diana dies. The owner of the house is Séraphine, a countess in her 80’s, but the house is mainly run by her two grandsons, Garson and Loic. Before it became the House of Stars, it was hers and her husband's home. Theo, her husband, killed himself seventeen-years before Lita’s arrival.

Lita is torn by the feeling of leaving her family behind in the United States and following her dream. Both of her parents were immigrants from Colombia, and had very difficult backgrounds. Her father, Beto, was able to open one of the biggest factories of Latin food. However, no matter how successful they were, her parents never stopped being humble and hard workers. Lita and her older brother, Santi, felt an obligation to repay everything her parents had sacrificed for them. That made it more difficult for her to leave her family behind to follow her dream.

Lita’s younger brother, Beto, was another setback. Lita’s mother describes it as “an illness just like those of the sick kids in the orphanage she founded back in Leticia, a town in Colombia. Kids born missing limbs from contamination, abandoned children with jungle diseases, born unwanted ...” Beto didn’t want her to ever leave him. Both of them had a strong bond that made her feel guilty of leaving. Before she left, he begged her to stay, “she was the only one who understood him, she was the only one who didn’t look at him with pity, who didn't judge him and thought his life a waste just because he didn’t know how to turn off the pain of living.”

During her year in Paris, she experiences situations she had never lived before. Living in a safe bubble in the United States, being exposed to the real world alone, especially in Paris and in the House of Stars, changed her. Lita didn’t feel the same way about love as the other girls. Paris was a captivating city, with powers of changing a person, even the most solid of persons. Many things can change in a single year, especially in a foreign country.

Before coming to Paris, she had fallen in love once, but never the way she did with Cato. She fell in love with him in the most unusual way. They met one night after a party, she didn't describe him as beautiful or handsome. However, after their encounter, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. And the more she thought and spent time with him, the more she loved him. You can tell by Lita’s different loves - her parents, her siblings, her friends, Cato - Engle’s different points of view about love. It became clearer to me the different types of love that exist. I see these loves in other people, I experience them myself. It was nice to stop and think about how different these loves were in my life as well.

“You don’t ‘find’ love, mi amor, you choose it. And then to keep love, you must choose it again, day after day”

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted a very different ending for this book. It was highly readable and I wondered whether she or a close friend had experienced life in the same fashion as some of the privileged in The House of Stars. While many of her characters were stereotypic types, she created round and believable people. Her Cato and Lita were even more finely presented despite the dramatically right wing father and autistic brother. Somehow she made all of the extremes work and seem legitimately true or at least acceptable in her story. Really it was quite amazing as her talented writing lifted the somewhat insipid story lines high above annoying standard so-called chick-lit drudgery.
My single complaint centered on Lita's discard of Cato. The relationship was obviously doomed from the beginning, but I was curious how it would be achieved. Sadly it was rushed and not at all believable in those 4 short pages ending the book. It was not so much Lita's discard of Cato but more the way it was written, almost as if it were a different author pushing those pages out to get it done, just over 250 sheets.
Jarring and vaguely unsatisfying at the end and not such a fan of her cover either.

[Treesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you're wondering if i read this bc i am currently suffering from wanderlust and the sunday scaries, you would be 100% right. but oh boy, i finished this and felt like i was waking up from a haze.

honestly cato/the romance felt underdeveloped (which i often find to be the case in literary fiction), but lita's voice is so compelling, and the supporting characters are so vibrant that the underdevelopment didn't even bother me. everyone in lita's life is constantly spitting out such beautiful lines about love and life that you wonder if they practice them in the mirror (and engel has done such a thorough job of creating these characters that you can actually imagine many of them doing so). i'd say that overall the dialogue in this book was so fantastic (smart, interesting, thought-provoking), but that makes it seems like the rest of the writing wasn't exceptional (and it was).

to be clear, i am still suffering from wanderlust and the sunday scaries, but if i could read books like this every time that happened, then this particular combination of ailments wouldn't feel half-bad

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on the recommendation from Gea, a Goodreads friend. I can see why it was recommended. In her review, Gea compared Engel to the Brontes and Jane Austen, and I can appreciate the similarity in writing styles. Engel is certainly a very gifted writer. The story is set in what is essentially a boarding house in Paris, owned by a shut-in elderly woman, Seraphine, who used to belong to high society. Lita, a young Colombian-American woman, comes to live in the house for a year, during which she experiences new forms of friendship and love. For me, the love story was less compelling than her relationship with Seraphine - who is simultaneously sad, wise, loving and lonely - and her friendship with a promiscuous, detached yet vulnerable waiter who wants to learn to speak English more fluently.

I'd give it a 3 based on my emotional connection to the book, or a five for the quality of writing, so I'll settle for a 4 overall.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Largely forgettable book about a wealthy girl who spends a gap year in Paris pretending to learn about diplomacy but really doing what most people come to Paris to do...gain a story. And fall in love.
I liked the setting of the House of Stars. I liked the development of her friendships, and her relationship with Cato. But all the way through, I failed to CARE. This year is just one notch in the belt of a rich girl so she'll have stories to tell at dinner parties. Overall, a little to self-absorbed for my taste.

Audio.
It appears to be consistent that I like fiction less when experienced via audio than when my eyes read the words. However I was able to stick with the story well in this case, and I still didn't care for it much.

[Doreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reason it took me so long to finish this book is that I didn't want it to end. I wanted to savor its wisdom and compassion, and, by the end, I could barely keep from getting my heart broken by the book in an all too painful echo of a love I lost in real life, too. It's so hard to explain this book without giving too much of the plot away, but it did reinforce in me the belief that to turn your back on love is sheer cowardice, as I believe Patricia Engel intended to tell us. Fantastic, brilliant book that ruminates with sensitivity on the issues of familial obligations, immigration, and love.

I received this book gratis as part of ELLE Magazine's ELLE's Lettres Jurors' Prize program.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book. Beautifully written and filled with many different layers of the human experience. Coming of age, family ties, first romantic love, illness, death, leaving love ones behind, immigrant parents, friendship, relationships.....I could go on and on. As you are becoming more involved with the story line, the incredibly profound yet simply written sayings and quotes are sprinkled throughout the book which leave their mark with you and make it all the more enjoyable to read

[Natalie E. Ramm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is exactly the kind of novel that I love: a doomed romance. Lita and Cato’s love affair is a tumultuous ride. Engel beautifully captures the pain and emptiness and the longing that comes from losing someone you love. Read the full review here.

http://booksarethenewblack.com/2013/0...

[Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never received novel... disappointed.

******** 1 Star - Can't like something I didn't receive. ********

(Have contacted publisher, so I hope to eventually obtain a copy to read and leave a review.

******** NO Response from Publisher on my inquiry as of January 2015 ********

Not complaining, I love the generosity of the authors and publishers on here, and very much appreciate them.

[Elyse Rudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little gem. A 20 year old American girl of Columbian descent moves to Paris to study for a year. She is shy and very attached to her family in the States. She lives in a residence for girls run by a bed ridden woman who gives advice freely to her residents. Paris is a big part of the story and you don't want the year to end.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful description of women living together, of mothering children not their own, and how men can come in and out of that house always remaining outsiders. This is a love story, but one that really highlights how all love stories are really just about being in the moment in a place. How lucky for Lita and Cato that place was Paris.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Nice read about "lost girls" in Paris. It was a bit slow in the middle but by the end I really enjoyed it. Enough Paris references to be interesting. Interesting characters. Good historical research. I could picture the home in which the girls lived, nicely done!

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-done. Globalized. A book for anyone who has ever studied abroad in Paris. Paris lovers will understand it. Liked the bit about choosing to love everyday. And the bit where the pair of them create a cave together, a two person nudist colony.

[Kimber Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart hurts from reading this but i loved it so much. Of course normal things got in the way of me devouring it like I wanted to. The characters are very well developed and the setting is just perfect... I will share it and read it a million more times

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely well written story. Immigrant families. Young love. Cultural and familial expectations on females. The struggle to find ones own voice

[Analia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5⭐

¿Por qué decidí leerlo? Ni idea, estaba en mi lista de pendientes y bueno, había que quitarlo. Al principio pensé que era una novela romántica juvenil cuya portada y título me atraparon, pero luego descubrí que no es tan así porque empezó a generarse en mí la pregunta: ¿Y si en éstas páginas hay algo de la historia de la autora que es colombo-estadounidense?
La historia se empieza a desarrollar cerca de la mitad del libro, al principio tiene momentos que me resultaron un tanto triste porque no es otra cosa que la realidad de muchas personas, que aquí están reflejadas en los papás de Lita: Huérfanos, latinos que tienen que migrar a los Estados Unidos en busca de una vida mejor, que logran pasar de la miseria a la abundancia pero siguen siendo humildes, sencillos, honestos y sobre todo, ayudando a otros inmigrantes.
Lita tiene veinte años y se encuentra en París con la excusa de aprender un nuevo idioma y su alojamiento será en La Casa de las Estrellas, que está llena de gente que dice ser artista, una casa que dirige una antigua señora de familia acomodada en donde viven chicas de distintas edades y países. Lita no sabe cuántos son artistas de forma innata o si por estar en París se les había contagiado eso del arte. Séraphine, la dueña (y condesa) afirmaba ser una auténtica artista. Cuando Lita llega a París los diarios están con la noticia del fallecimiento de la Princesa Diana de Gales, y se hace mención al mundial de Francia en 1998.
Patricia Engel aborda muchos temas en pocas páginas, que son reales y que me han generado dolor y esperanza: Racismo, las diferencias culturales, el valor de las familias (un contraste entre “familias latinas” versus “familias europeas”), la vida moderna y la vida tradicional representada en Séraphine. Incluso aborda brevemente los efectos de los vientos de Chernóbil en uno de los personajes principales.
Una prosa sencilla, que en pocas palabras transmite mucho. Así lo sentí yo en Lita quien, está se está buscando así misma, es introvertida, cerrada hasta que decide salir a una fiesta y conoce a Félix de Manou, “Cato”, un chico también introvertido y con el cual conecta inmediatamente. El silencio que aparece en sus encuentros, los ayuda a conocerse aún más. Cato viene de una familia cuyo padre es reconocido como un político de mente cerrada y tiene un par de secretos, de hecho a él no le gusta París. Pero eso no impedirá que se enamoren.
Mientras Lita está en la búsqueda de sí misma, a su vez, comenzará la búsqueda de una verdadera historia de amor, y será cuando comprenda las verdaderas dimensiones de la palabra “amor” junto a Cato, en cuya experiencia no hay mucha pasión, tiene componentes de amor pero NO ES la clásica historia de amor con final feliz. Es real y… Me dolió dicho final porque soy una romántica empedernida. Su título es tramposo.
Lo más hermoso que se narra: el magnetismo de una ciudad mágica como París.
El que deseé leerlo, adelante.

[Dana Clinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter offered this to me on my last birthday, so it was high up on the to be read list. It is a sweet little novel which, of course, appealed to me first of all because it was set in Paris... and sometimes in Calvados, another place I know fairly well in France. Yet the story was richer than I had anticipated, and the characters as well. Yes, there is a love story, and yes, I suspect Paris does/did have an impact on many of the characters, especially the bevy of young women living as boarders in the decaying majestic old house belonging to Séraphine de la Roque. This elderly bedridden grande dame is one of the characters I liked much. But the bulk of the story is the meeting, slow coming together love story between Leticia (Lita), a young Colombian/American girl spending her year in Paris (her parents were both Colombian orphans yet found their way to a successful life in America) and Cato (nickname for Felix de Manou, a fragile motherless French man with a complicated famous father. This is far from being a sugary tale; in fact, the different emotions experienced by Lita...the impossibility of severing from her family in New York, her role as savior/guardian to her little brother suffering from permanent depression, her growing knowledge of her emotional ties to Cato...as well as to the forays into her parents' past and their own emotional realities...are beautifully laid before the reader. The relationship with Cato takes its time to grow and develop (unlike the multiple and often spontaneous affairs embraced by many of the other boarders). It resonates with me: "... I understood that between us there was a common spore of isolation that grew in my overpopulated home and within his quiet cottage. We were young but we'd both grown well into our loneliness. We were the kind of lonely that wasn't ashamed to be so. A lonely without self-penitence." This loneliness may really just be a chosen solitude common enough to introverts, which doesn't mean there isn't a deep well of possibility for tender love. Séraphine metes out advice, all of which seems studied and intelligent, but sometimes I didn't buy it, as each of us carries within us all our stories, and in Paris one is always creating a story; there simply isn't just one. Like her, though, it might be said of me "...she'd loved so well in her life, passionément, à la folie, which is more than anyone should ever want from a life..."