Ingredients of Love

"These are The Ingredients of Love a delightful heroine, a mysterious hero, romance, Paris, and beaucoup de charme!" --Ellen Sussman, New York Times bestselling author of French Lessons "I loved every moment of being transported to Paris in this charming, disarming novel about matters of the heart. A gem of a novel, sparkling with surprises." --Melissa Senate, author of The Love Goddess' Cooking School and See Jane Date "A frothy expos of the perils of book packaging, seasoned with a soupcon of culinary courtship...Lovers of Paris and voyeurs of the French publishing scene will find much to relish." --Kirkus Reviews

There are no coincidences. Aurelie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, is sure of this truth. On a gloomy Friday in November, when Aurelie is feeling depressed after a breakup, she discovers a novel entitled "The Smiles of Women" in a quaint bookshop on the Ile-St.-Louis. Astonishingly, her restaurant and she herself are featured in its pages. After reading the entire book in one night, Aurelie wishes more than anything to meet the author of the novel because she is convinced that, without even realizing it, he has saved her life. However, her wish proves to be a difficult, almost impossible, endeavour. All attempts to contact the attractive but shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company's gruff editor-in-chief, Andre, who only with great reluctance forwards Aurelie's enthusiastic letter. But Aurelie refuses to give up. One day, a response from the reclusive author actually lands in her mail box, but the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined.