Nine Americans in Paris. Seven intertwined love stories. One City of Light.
Love Actually meets The Notebook in a tale of love, loss, and finding your way home, all set over the course of one life-changing week in Paris.
Julia Glover has brought her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Piper, to Paris for the first time—but they know it will also be their last trip here together. Julia is dying, and as the mother and daughter desperately try to make memories together as the clock ticks down, the world opens up around them. Piper meets a cute French waiter, who might just understand her better than anyone she’s ever met, and Julia meets a man at a dive bar and struggles with how to tell him the truth about her future.
Rock star Jackson Quick’s glory days are behind him. He had a handful of hit songs thirty years ago, but he hasn’t toured in a decade. This week, he’ll launch his reunion tour in Paris, the city where it all began. But he wants more out of life than being defined by fame. When he meets a woman who finally sees him for who he is at his core, the ground shifts beneath his feet.
Henry McGee has been writing hit songs for decades—including Jackson Quick’s biggest hit, City of Light. But his secret is that every love song he’s ever written is for a woman named Celeste, whom he loved a lifetime ago, when they were both teenagers in Paris during World War II. He has spent eighty years believing she died—but when a letter arrives telling him the opposite, he’s on the first flight to France. Can he break through the haze of her dementia, using the songs he’s written all these years, to remind her of who they once were to each other—and to tell her he came back for her?
Henry’s granddaughter, Melody, has just discovered that her husband of twenty years, Gilles, a French cosmetics executive, is having an affair. When she confronts him, he tearfully apologizes and begs her to forgive him. But can she? And, perhaps even more importantly, does she want to? Or is there a different kind of life out there for her if she chooses to be alone?
These intertwining stories—plus several others—unfold over a few breathtaking spring days, as an unforgettable group of Americans in Paris must find their way to their own versions of happily ever after in the City of Light.
Softcover, 368 pages
Expected publication July 28, 2026
by Gallery Books
4/5 stars
If you know Kristin Harmel from her World War II historical fiction, be prepared, this one is something quite different. Meet Me in Paris is a modern day story following several Americans whose lives intersect in the City of Light, all converging on a single concert and each carrying their own story of what brought them there.
With multiple storylines comes a large cast of characters, and it does take some attention to keep track of everyone and their situations. But stick with it, because the emotional payoff is worth it. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, others uplifting and often both at once. Harmel clearly has a gift for writing characters whose lives feel real and whose journeys has stayed with me.
Harmel's attention to Parisian detail is extensive. Streets, coffee shops, restaurants, what people order and where they sit. I've never been to Paris, it's on my bucket list, so I absorbed it all.
A departure from what longtime fans might expect, but well worth the read.
My thanks to the Simon & Schuster CA for a print ARC in exchange for an honest review.
