A sweet almost fairytale romance. Samantha reunites with a Frenchman she met twenty years before and decides to find out what could have been. It's light and funny, but she keeps it real, detailing all her fears and doubts and difficulties. A feel-good story that'll make you believe in love again. ( )

This should have been titled, "Seven Letters from Paris: A Fairy Tale." I guess I am not very romantic, but if this is based on a true story, it is being retold through VERY rose colored glasses. Sam is the most beautiful and beguiling California girl God ever created. She meets Jean-Luc, the most handsome and perfect and romantic Frenchman, while traveling in France. They spend 24 hours together, after which Jean-Luc was besotted with this princess for life. She returns home and he pines for her. Never have seven such romantic letters been written! But Sam never answers a single one, although she kept them all. (I have to confess, I didn't find the letters romantic - they were so over the top they came off as creepy and stalker-y to me. I wouldn't have responded either.)

Twenty years later, Sam's first marriage crumbles. She is approaching middle age; she is facing bankruptcy. She has no job or money or prospects and is living with her parents. She decides to contact Jean-Luc and he is of course DELIGHTED to have his princess back in his life and solve all her problems for her. He whisks her around France, taking her to beautiful, romantic castles; eating wonderful food; drinking wine, assuring her every moment how beautiful and perfect and special she is. He introduces her to his friends, family, and young children, all of whom of course immediately LOVE her because she is so beautiful and perfect and special. Sam and Jean-Luc have mind-blowing sex, because they have PASSION, without which Jean-Luc keeps assuring her, life is not worth living and which will never die between the two of them. They never fight or even have disagreements.

I realize this review is cynical but honestly I have never met people like this. I guess if they exist and they are happy, more power to them. I sincerely hope that Jean-Luc and Sam were everything they seemed to be, and Sam never found human remains when digging in the perfect garden behind their perfect townhouse; or that during one of their never-ending romantic getaways in the south of France Jean-Luc never pushed her off a cliff to collect the insurance money. ( )

A love story 20 years in the making. Samantha is in a loveless marriage and remembers letters written to her 20 years ago from a man she met on a trip to Paris. She takes a chance and writes to him and so begins their love affair. ( )

This is Samantha Verant's memoir of overcoming a bad marriage, debt, and starting over. She decides to reconnect with an old beau who wrote her seven letters 20 years earlier. Together they begin over again together.

I enjoyed this story. She's a likable person who has hit bottom. She's afraid of the future but knows she has to go back into her past for closure so she can move on. She meets the obstacles in her way, handles them, and moves on. The story flows nicely. I wanted to know what happened to her. I wanted to see her succeed. I loved the wedding cake. That is when I knew she would make it. A fun story full of courage and hope. ( )

Reading Seven Letters from Paris is like traveling to France with a good friend — the journey revolves around laughter and angst, food and wine, new and cherished connections. Throughout this memoir, I laughed and cheered our brave heroine on.

Here’s the set-up: Twenty years, seven letters, and one long-lost love of a lifetime

At age 40, Samantha Verant’s life is falling apart – she’s jobless, in debt, and feeling stuck… until she stumbles upon seven old love letters from Jean-Luc, the sexy Frenchman she’d met in Paris when she was 19. With a quick Google search, she finds him, and both are quick to realize that the passion they felt 20 years prior hasn’t faded with time and distance.

Samantha knows that jetting off to France to reconnect with a man she only knew for one sun-drenched, passion-filled day is crazy – but it’s the kind of crazy she’s been waiting for her whole life.

Samantha Verant is a women who had the courage to take a chance in life; she took the proverbial lemons and made French-pressed lemonade. Her witty writing is in a similar vein as Peter Mayle, in A Year in Provence (Mayle also endorsed the book, too).

Seven Letters from Paris is a delightful look at a woman who rebooted her heart and created the life she deserved. In addition, this charming tale is certain to inspire legions of letter writers bent on romance.

Five stars for this courageous writer; I’m certainly hoping for more from Samantha Verant as she continues her life adventures. ( )