THE ART OF FRENCH KISSING

A young woman working in media struggles to find love and fulfillment. Sound familiar?

Twenty-nine-year old Emma hardly has a dream job: She’s a publicist for a Florida-based boy band. But never mind, because she’s getting married to the all too perfect Brett in a couple of months. That is until Brett unceremoniously breaks off their engagement, asks her to leave their shared house and takes up with her best friend one week later. Thankfully Emma is rescued by her old friend Poppy, a publicist living in Paris who just happens to need an assistant. When Emma arrives in the City of Lights (there are many romantic descriptions of Paris—the kind you’d find in a third-rate travelogue), she’s introduced to the firm’s only client, rock star Guillaume Riche. Poppy and Emma are in charge of launching his career in the English-speaking world, but it turns out that their real job is damage control. Dashing Guillaume is not so much a rock ’n’ roll bad boy as slightly deranged, and Emma and Poppy need to create plausible stories as to why their soon to be international superstar is, for instance, found hanging by his ankles from a 13-story building. Keeping the press at bay proves to be a challenge, especially when it comes to Gabriel, a hunky journalist who seems to know everything about Guillaume. The two fall for each other, but the required misunderstanding drives them apart. Do you think Emma will have a happy ending?

Harmel (The Blonde Theory, 2007, etc.) hits all the required marks, and the novel may appeal to those readers who want a location change from the usual New York, but the predictability of the plot renders the book forgettable.