valencia Writes

A Review of Romi Moondi’s “24 Hours In Paris”
By Valencia Turner

I’ve never seen the movies “Before Sunrise” or “Before Sunset,” however this book seems to pay homage to those films. The plot centers around two co-workers who are on a business trip in Paris. Mira Attwal is a woman reeling from her decision to break from South Asian tradition and cancel her upcoming wedding. She wants to make decisions based on what is best for her future – whatever that may be.

Jake Lewis is a salesman at her company. He is immediately portrayed as a ladies man who doesn’t care much for relationships that last longer than one night. Jake is attractive and he knows it. He’s not ready for a long-term relationship. He’s interested in enjoying as many women as possible, starting with a beautiful French waitress.

Through a twist of fate, Mira and Jake end up being stuck in Paris for an additional day, while the rest of their colleagues fly home. In that time, these two people learn a great deal about one another.

Mira is drawn to Jake, but she doesn’t think that anything will come of her attraction. She is more focused on completing her Paris Bucket List. She’s mapped out several places to visit in the romantic city and she plans on ticking off as many boxes she can. She never expected to have company during her tour of the city. Jake only plans to spend a few hours with Mira until he meets up with his French waitress. Things quickly change for both characters.

Mira finds out that spending time with Jake is getting much more pleasant than she expected. The more they talk, the more they uncover about one another. Jake is starting to feel the same way about spending time with Mira. Although he had other plans for the evening, he eventually decides to spend all of his time with Mira. Their conversations are intriguing to him.

Along the way they experienced food, fun, a lot of pastry and a good amount of wonderful conversation. Their love story plays out over the course of one amazing day. Mira is learning more about herself and her needs, while Jake is learning that being with one woman might not be so bad after all.

This book is well written. It gives you a solid sense of how these two people came to feel about one another. It is a slow burn romance. It does take its time to get to the romantic part of it, but you do enjoy the flirting. You enjoy the banter between the two. You see gestures between Mira and Jake that demonstrate their growing feelings for one another. These two unlikely individuals who didn’t know one another the day before, end up finding something wonderful in the other person.

I have to say that I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did, however I was pleasantly surprised. The narrative did seem to drag on for a little while and there were times when the action slowed down. Nevertheless it was worth the wait. There are several swoon-worthy moments. It is a good read and I would recommend this book to people who enjoy romance.
(Note: Jake Lewis is going on my Book Boyfriend list.)