WIP Me Inspired: Nora James

 

WIP Me Inspired: Nora James

 

My WIP, Paris by Heart, is about Paul Fontaine, a delicious, dark Frenchman who cooks the way he loves: with unbridled passion and a sense of fun. He’s certainly not mild-mannered and quite capable of being rude in the right circumstances. And the circumstances are perfect for an outburst when he meets gorgeous Elise Reid. She’s only just set foot in Paris when, despite his attraction to her, Paul gives her a piece of his mind.

I spent half of my childhood in Paris, and studied and worked in France. I’m also happily married to my own delicious Frenchman and have been for much longer than it took to build the Eiffel Tower, and so the question I’m constantly asked is whether my husband was the inspiration for this book.

As you’ll appreciate, that’s a tricky question for someone in my position. Paul Fontaine is definitely hero material and I wouldn’t want my husband to become overly confident about his own attributes. Even more to the point, Paul has his faults: he can be grumpy, occasionally rude, and quite pig-headed. Imagine my fate if my husband were to believe that those qualities stemmed from an in-depth analysis of his personality!

Then there’s the issue of the love (and sex) scenes: it could be problematic in so many ways if I claimed any of those were based on personal experience – not just for my husband this time, but also for me!

So please forgive my vagueness when I say that the inspiration for the book is nothing more than my love of France and French food. The sexy, charming hero lives only in my imagination and the imagination of the readers who, I hope, will enjoy Paul and the city of love as much as I did!

Paris by Heart is out on 8 December and on pre-order from 8 November.

 

 

Paris by Heart
Nora James

She came to Paris to forget men, but the city of love has different plans for her…

Elise Reid wasted years on a bad relationship, dreaming when she could have been doing. Now she’s making up for lost time – taking all of her savings and heading straight for Paris and the Cordon d’Or cooking school, the first step in her café dreams.

No dream is without its roadblocks, and Elise’s come in the form of a dark, delicious, decidedly rude Frenchman who works in the café below her studio apartment. Forced to tutor Paul in exchange for reduced rent, Elise finds herself laughing, teasing, and sharing her dreams.

But there’s more to this story than mixing together two people and adding a dash of spice. Elise has been hurt before, and Paul has problems of his own. There are 14 000 kilometres between Australia and Paris, but that may be nothing compared to the emotional distance two people have to cross – losing their baggage along the way.

 

Escape Publishing  |  Nora James’ website