Guest Review: The Little Paris Patisserie by Julie Caplin

In a cosy corner of Paris, a delicious little patisserie is just waiting to be discovered. And romance might just be on the menu…

As the youngest of four, Nina Hadley has always had her big brothers telling her what to do. So, when she’s given the chance to move to Paris and help run a patisserie course, she can’t say au revoir quick enough!

There’s just one problem: high-flying chef Sebastian Finlay is the owner of the patisserie. He’s also her brother Nick’s best friend – and the man she has secretly been in love with since forever.

Amongst the mouth-wateringly delicious eclairs and delicate macaroons, Nina’s culinary creations aren’t the only tempting thing she’s working with…

Review: This is the third book in an ongoing series of currently 10 ‘Romantic Escapes’ by Julie Caplin, an author new to me. Although part of a series, it was possible to read this story, and I assume the others, as a standalone. I was looking forward to being taken on a trip to Paris, with hopefully some delicious patisserie products to sample; I was not disappointed.

The story centres on Nina, the youngest in a family of four, with three well-meaning elder brothers to look out for her, although she sometimes felt she would like to get away on her own for a while. She has been floating from job to job but has not found one that is just right. When her brother’s best friend and successful chef Sebastian needs help running a patisserie course in Paris, she jumps at the opportunity to grab some independence for a while, and perhaps expand her cooking skills at the same time. The only drawback is that she had a teenage crush on Sebastian and is still secretly in love with him although he displays no romantic feelings towards her.

I very much enjoyed this book and would recommend it to other readers, particularly if you like the idea of visiting Paris and have a taste for fine patisserie. There are some eminently likeable and interesting characters in this book, but I’m afraid that, for me, Sebastian was not one of them. He was the archetypal moody and bossy chef, not at all appreciative of what Nina was doing for him. However, Sebastian’s behaviour did not cure Nina’s amorous feelings towards him and I kept hoping that he might see her as someone other than his friend’s little sister. On the other hand, the people who Nina met through the course were all friendly and supportive of her efforts to learn to produce fine pastries. My mouth was watering at the descriptions of the eclairs and macarons she produced. Having enjoyed this book, I will be looking out for some of the other titles in this series, all of which seem to involve a visit to somewhere new and interesting.

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