24 Best Books Set in Paris

Book Summary

In 1870, the Prussians blocked the gates to Paris, trying to starve the city into submission. Wealthy Lisette was waiting out the war in her parents’ grand home, right in the heart of the city. But when she meets revolutionary National Guardsman Theodore Fournier, she is inspired to give up her luxurious life and fight for the people. To help feed an impoverished neighborhood, she opens a bakery.

Seventy years later in 1946, nineteen-year-old Michelle is still reeling from her father’s death and her mother’s disappearance during the war. In their absence, she has to take responsibility for her two younger siblings, despite feeling totally unprepared to be in charge. A well-meaning neighbor enrolls Michelle in a prestigious baking academy, hoping to help secure her future. But it’s a classmate at the academy, Luarent, who helps her begin the journey of healing.

Book Summary

Josephine and Penny are Britain’s most beloved World War II veterans. Despite being in their 90s now, they are still in great demand at red carpets and fundraisers. They love it and are always looking for their next “excitement.”

Now, it’s time to visit Paris to receive the Légion d’Honneur for their part in liberating France. Archie, their gay nephew, is along for the trip. However, not everything is as it seems.

While everyone thinks the sisters worked for the Royal Navy and the nursing corps, they were actually a spy and an intelligence operative. And they might not be in Paris just to receive an award. It’s time for a daring heist and to settle decades-old scores.

Book Summary

When her estranged mother passed away, Stella received a one-way ticket and a note reading, “Go to Paris.” While she is much more comfortable living within her strict routines, her boss encourages her to go on the trip.

In Paris, Stella continues to live as cautiously and frugally as she does at home until she stumbles upon a Dior dress in a vintage store. When the shopkeeper insists that it was meant for Stella, she impulsively purchases the dress, and it launches a new outlook on life.

When Stella meets Jules, an octogenarian art collector, he takes her under his wing and shows her the best of the literary, art, and culinary worlds in 1980s Paris.

Book Summary

Hope once dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but at 36, her life doesn’t look the way she imagined. Her mother died of cancer, her husband left, her bank account is almost empty, her family bakery on Cape Cod is failing, and she’s raising a troubled preteen on her own.

Now, she’s losing her beloved French-born grandmother, Mamie, to Alzheimer’s. But in a moment of clarity, Mamie is eager to share the secrets of her past before they are gone forever. She reveals mysterious bits and pieces of her tragic history in WWII Paris. With little more than a list of names, Hope sets out for France in hopes of piecing together a seventy-year-old mystery.

Book Summary

Shortly after arriving in Paris for her honeymoon, Erin’s new husband, Mark, disappears. The authorities are not taking Erin seriously; and they even try to convince her that her whirlwind romance just led to Mark getting cold feet.

As the hours pass, she gets more concerned. Desperate for help, she reaches out to her ex-boyfriend Lucas, the only other person she knows in Paris. Lucas knows the city well as a former paparazzo, and he also knows how to track down a good story.

Is Erin’s new husband really who she thinks he is?

Book Summary

This mother-daughter story is a dual timeline historical fiction, covering both present-day Paris and Paris of the 1920s-1940s. The main character in the contemporary storyline is Hannah, an American bookworm who escaped a less-than-ideal mother by moving to London to give Jane Austen-themed tours in the peaceful British countryside.

After work on New Year’s Eve, Hannah is shocked to find her mother, Marla, in her flat. Marla has a black eye from yet another bad boyfriend, which is less surprising than the envelope in her hand.

While cleaning out her mother’s attic, Marla found a deed to a Paris apartment, along with a key and a newspaper article about a writer. Hannah isn’t sure of her mother’s motives, so she agrees to accompany her to Paris to look for the apartment.

When they arrive, they’re shocked to find it untouched since 1940. Great-grandma Ivy moved to Florida during the war and never mentioned her previous life in Paris. Hannah and Marla must work together to piece together clues and retrace Ivy’s steps through the city.

Book Summary

To the other women in her hometown of Ahmedabad, India, Nita had the ideal life – a financially comfortable, happy marriage, with a sweet daughter. But Nita felt otherwise. It wasn’t the life she wanted. Instead, she decided to follow her creative ambitions all the way to Paris. But this decision was not without consequences. 

Years later, when Nita’s daughter, Sophie, learns the truth, she sets out for Paris to find the mother who left her behind. The trip threatens to derail Sophie’s upcoming arranged marriage, but she won’t stop chasing leads across the City of Lights until she finds the truth about Nita. Along the way, however, she may find even more than she bargained for.

Book Summary

When Parisian bookseller Laurent comes across a handbag on the street, he feels compelled to track down the owner. Nothing in the bag indicates who it belongs to, but the red notebook inside is filled with her jottings, which makes him want to meet the owner even more.

With just the bag’s contents as clues, Laurent does everything he can to find one woman in a city of millions. 

Book Summary

Londoner and war widow Mrs. Harris spends her days cleaning and polishing the elaborate homes of the rich. One day, while she’s tidying Lady Dant’s wardrobe, she discovers a Dior gown and is quickly enamored by it.

The beautiful dress is completely impractical for her life and well beyond her meager budget, but she can’t stop thinking about it. So, she scrimps, saves, and comes up with enough money to travel to Paris and visit Dior’s atelier. Her time in Paris is more life-changing than she ever could have imagined.

Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old Alice’s grandmother, Adalyn, just passed away, and she left Alice an apartment in Paris – one that’s been locked up for more than seventy years and that no one in the family knew existed.

Now Alice is spending the summer in Paris, and with the help of Paul – a Parisian student – she’s determined to find out why her grandma never mentioned the family that she left behind when she left France during WWII. The more she learns about the past, the more she realizes that her family is also hiding secrets in the present.

This dual-timeline YA novel also transports us back to Paris in the 1940s. It’s a city that sixteen-year-old Adalyn hardly recognizes as the Occupation brings new terrors daily. When she meets a young leader of a resistance group, she sees an opportunity to fight back, but she soon finds herself having to make more and more compromises.

Book Summary

In 2017, Lucille’s adorned grandmother, Sylvie, asks for a favor. Soon, Sylvie is on a train headed to Paris to retrieve a priceless Dior dress. But what Lucille finds in a small Parisian apartment will have her scouring the city for answers to a question that could change her entire life.

In 1952, Alice lived a glamorous and privileged life as the wife of the British Ambassador to France. While her husband buys her jewels and couture dresses, he’s also becoming elusive. When a new face appears in her drawing room, Alice finds herself yearning to follow her heart…no matter the consequences.

Book Summary

Georgia May Jackson has always had one goal – to run her own Paris restaurant. After a decade of work in Parisian kitchens, everything comes crashing down. She loses her sous-chef position, her boyfriend, and even her sense of taste all in one night. She’s always been known for her daring use of bold flavors, so she’s devastated to discover that everything suddenly tastes bitter to her.

With her culinary gift seemingly vanished, Georgia accepts a surprise invitation from her estranged mother and goes to visit her on San Juan Island near Seattle. She hopes that the time away from Paris will allow her to regain her spark in the kitchen, but she’s surprised to find good luck charms appearing in the oddest places.

With the clock ticking on her dream job in Paris, Georgia will first need to unravel the secrets of her family legacy. And she might just discover that the recipe for a charmed life looks – and tastes – differently than she expected.

Book Summary

Caroline wakes up in a Paris hospital with no memory, and is sad to learn that her life is a lonely one as a recluse in a lavish apartment on the Seine.

In a second timeline, a young widow lives in Nazi-occupied Paris with her father, a florist. Everything changes for them when a German officer finds out about their Jewish heritage and blackmails Celine.

The past and present stories intersect when Caroline discovers Celine’s diary tucked away in a closet. A student from the Sorbonne helps her find out what happened to Celine.

Book Summary

This work of historical fiction paints a vivid portrait of the 1920s and the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley. Hadley lived in Chicago and had all but given up on love when she met Hemingway, who would change her life forever.

Together, they set sail for Paris, where they became the golden couple living among such famed friends as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, the couple was not prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of the Jazz Age in Paris, which led to challenges for each individual and ultimately to a marriage in crisis.

Book Summary

In 1925, Chicago reporter Abigail gets to take a dream trip to Paris and is quickly dazzled by Coco Chanel and champagne at the Ritz.

The last thing she expects is to find her estranged stepmother dead on a fitting room floor.

Debonair Inspector Henri Deschamps thinks Abigail is the prime suspect, so she must work quickly with the help of her new friends to figure out what really happened. Young news reporter Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, and the dashing Lord Frederick aid in Abigail’s quest to clear her name.

Book Summary

Anna is an ex-pat from northern England. She worked at a chocolate factory there until an accident changed everything. After being unexpectedly reunited with her French teacher, Claire, Anna is given the opportunity of a lifetime – working in Paris with a master chocolatier.

Her Parisian adventure is the perfect chance to heal old wounds, make new friends, and start life again. Anna’s story is told in parallel with Claire’s, who also travels back to Paris for her own healing as she deals with cancer. Much of Claire’s story is set in the 1970s as she reflects back on her first time in Paris in her younger days.

Book Summary

This historical fiction title reimagines Jacqueline Onassis during her junior year abroad in post-war Paris. Back home, she felt the weight of family pressure to find the right husband amid the rigid social circles of New York. But away from her parents and Vassar, she’s eager to explore an intoxicating new world of champagne and châteaux, art and avant-garde theater, cafés, and jazz clubs.

However, Jacqueline also feels the fragility of the political environment in 1949 France. The city remains a nest of spies, with suspicion, deception, and betrayal lurking around every corner. But even with its flaws, Paris becomes Jacqueline’s true love and one of the most significant influences on her life.

Book Summary

Mia is an actress who always seems to be in love on screen, but she’s stuck with a philandering megastar husband off-screen. She needs a break from her life, so gets a new haircut, fake glasses, and a job as a waitress across the English Channel in Paris.

American author Paul is also in Paris, trying to recapture the fame of his first novel. He meets Mia when his best friend sets them up through a dating website. The ex-pat duo is continuously nudged together by Paris, but they are fighting back with strategies to stay “just friends”. Will fate overcome their efforts to avoid a relationship?

Book Summary

With WWII war closing in on their city, Jacques’ wife is forced into hiding. Desperate to hold onto something, Jacques focuses all of his effort on saving his beloved bookshop. But when a woman and her child show up at his door one night begging for refuge, he can’t say no.

In present-day Paris, Juliette and her husband are supposed to be on a romantic getaway, but instead, she quickly discovers how far they’ve grown apart. When she comes across an abandoned bookshop with a for-sale sign in the window, she thinks it might just be the new adventure she’s craving. But the bookstore hides a lot more than meets the eye.

Book Summary

This 832-page epic follows four families over hundreds of years as their stories are entwined by love, vengeance, and secrets. From nobles to hard-working families with ambition above their station, you’ll see the history of Paris through the eyes of the characters.

Spanning from the 1200s to 1968, Rutherford weaves countless landmark historical events and landmarks into his narrative, from Versailles and the Eiffel Tower to the Spanish Flu & 1968 student uprising.

Book Summary

Grace Monroe doesn’t fit the picture of a London socialite in the 1950s, and her new marriage is already falling apart. When she receives an inheritance from a woman she’s never heard of before – Madame Eva d’Orsey – Grace is compelled to travel to France. She seeks to uncover the mystery of who this woman was and why she left her money to Grace.

The story weaves through both pre- and post-WWII, from New York to Monte Carlo and London to Paris. Grace learns about the extraordinary woman who was the muse of one of the greatest perfumers in Paris. Madame Eva d’Orsay is immortalized in three evocative perfumes. Discovering this history changes Grace’s life, and forces her to choose whether to stay confirmed to expectations or live the life she truly desires.

Book Summary

Ten-year-old Sarah is arrested with her family in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ round up – the most notorious act of French collaboration with the Nazis. But before the police come to take them, Sarah locks her younger brother in their favorite hiding spot – a cupboard in the family’s apartment and holds onto the key, thinking she’ll be back soon.

On the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’, an American journalist is asked by her Paris-based magazine to write an article about that day in France’s past. Having lived in Paris for 25 years, she realizes her ignorance about the event and is shocked by the silence that still surrounds it. She begins to follow a trail that connects her to Sarah and forces her to question everything.

Book Summary

This non-fiction title was written by the former Paris Bureau Chief of the New York Times to pay homage to her favorite Parisian street and the pleasures of living in Paris. She explores both the history of the area and the present day (as of 2015) through both historical research and interviews with long-term residents. This includes a unique mix of points of view – she talks to everyone from the Tunisian greengrocer, the owner of a 100-year-old bookstore, and even a woman who repairs 18th-century mercury barometers!

If you’re looking for a non-fiction book that will bring you the magic of Paris and make you hungry for cheese and wine, this memoir is perfect!