In a book club and starting to plan your reads for next year? Check out our 2025 picks.

Book Summary and Reviews of I'll See You in Paris by Michelle Gable

I'll See You in Paris by Michelle Gable

I'll See You in Paris

by Michelle Gable

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Feb 2016, 400 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

Michelle Gable's I'll See You in Paris winds together the lives of three women born generations apart, but who face similar struggles of love and heartbreak.

After losing her fiancé in the Vietnam War, nineteen-year-old Laurel Haley takes a job in England, hoping the distance will mend her shattered heart. Laurel expects the pain might lessen but does not foresee the beguiling man she meets or that they'll go to Paris, where the city's magic will take over and alter everything Laurel believes about love.

Thirty years later, Laurel's daughter Annie is newly engaged and an old question resurfaces: who is Annie's father and what happened to him? Laurel has always been vague about the details and Annie's told herself it doesn't matter. But with her impending marriage, Annie has to know everything. Why won't Laurel tell her the truth?

The key to unlocking Laurel's secrets starts with a mysterious book about an infamous woman known as the Duchess of Marlborough. Annie's quest to understand the Duchess, and therefore her own history, takes her from a charming hamlet in the English countryside, to a decaying estate kept behind barbed wire, and ultimately to Paris where answers will be found at last.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Plot-master Gable's affection for hidden treasures emerges again in her second absorbing novel. Readers are kept guessing 'til the end in this sweet story of love, mystery, art, literature, and Paris. As complex and moving as Naomi Wood's Mrs. Hemingway and Liz Trenow's The Forgotten Seamstress." -Booklist

"Gable writes an engaging story, and both worlds - Annie's in 2001 and Pru's in 1973 - are easy to slide into. Readers will root for both women as they uncover family secrets and discover hidden aspects of themselves. Readers of Kate Morton and those who enjoy family-centered mysteries will approve highly of this book." -Library Journal

"Gable (A Paris Apartment, 2014) tells an engaging story of a fascinating, largely forgotten historical figure against the backdrop of two fledgling romances." - Kirkus

This information about I'll See You in Paris was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Maggie P. (Mount Airy, MD)

A Trip in Time
This book came at the perfect time. It grabbed me from the beginning and kept me going until the final page. I was embroiled in the mystery of who Mrs. Spencer might actually have been. I was intrigued by who Pru might turn out to be, (I was right!) and how Gus fit into the picture. And then there was Annie's tie to the Grange. I loved the intrigue and the romance. I found this book to be a compulsive page turner and was sad when I had to bid the inhabitants a farewell. I'll See You in Paris was a delightfully enjoyable trip through the 1920s, '30s, and '60s, as well as the present. I've already purchased Michelle Gable's first novel because of how taken I was with this one.

Elaine S. (Boynton Beach, FL)

I'll See You in Paris
A very entertaining read, with laugh-out-loud moments and others of sorrow and loss. The setting is Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, where Annie and her mother, Lauren, are to stay while Lauren conducts some mysterious business. Annie, left to her own devices, discovers that the later years of Gladys Spenser-Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, were spent at the Grange, a decrepit old manse located in Banbury. Annie, intrigued, begins to investigate, even breaking into the Grange, and is shocked by what she discovers concerning her own mother's earlier years. The story takes the reader into a book-within-the-book, regaling the reader with the adventures of Mrs.Spencer, who has no qualms about appearing half-dressed with rifle in hand, in a home filled with spaniels and chickens. The story reaches its conclusion in Paris where Annie learns the truth about her father and leads Lauren to her long-lost lover, who was there all the time. And they find that Mrs Spencer, knew exactly what needed to be done. You will love this character!

Gail L. (Dallas, TX)

Enjoyable, satisfying book
I loved reading this book! The author's writing style is outstanding....both literary and approachable. The characters are well developed and likable and the story is interesting and complex. Set mostly in both 1972 and 2001, the story is historical and contemporary.

It involves wars, romance, and love: between mother and daughter, elderly and young. Love of literature and art also play a role as well as love for the city of Paris.

I highly recommend this book!

Deborah P. (Dunnellon, FL)

I'll See You In Paris
Wow! In this reader's opinion Gable's second novel deserves a strong 5 rating. The author loosely based the story on a real person she discovered while doing research for her first novel. The story develops thru alternating narrative of a mother and daughter. Gable skillfully has the main characters divulge a story that unfolds in present day Paris but has it's roots in Paris of yesteryear. The Author moves the novel along with to the point narrative and short chapters which kept me reading long into the night. In my opinion Ms. Gabel has created a unique storyline. interesting characters and unexpected plot twists which makes for a great read. I am hoping for a sequel !

Susan R. (Julian, NC)

I'll See You in Paris
I will start off this review where I usually end my reviews -- this is a great book and you need to read it! The author does a fantastic job with her main characters and with a story line that keeps you guessing until the very end. I thought that I had it figured out about 3/4 of the way through but I was way off. Its a page turner that is part mystery, part love story with some laughs in between.

The main characters are Annie, a recent college graduate, just engaged to Eric who is deployed to the Middle East and doesn't seem to know quite what to do with her life; her Mom Laurel, a very straight laced lawyer who also teaches horse back riding to handicapped students and Gladys Spencer-Churchill who may or may not be the Duchess of Marlborough. The story takes place in the early 70s, in 2001 and in the late 1800s. As difficult as it may sound to weave those time periods and women together, the author does a fantastic job of doing just that in a very entertaining way. The main setting of the book is not Paris as the title would have you believe but a run down estate in England but Paris plays a very large role in the ultimate outcome of the story. There is so much more that I could say about this novel but I don't want to give anything away so I will just say again - its a terrific book and you're going to love it!

Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews

Elizabeth of Silver's Reviews
What was the intrigue and what was the secret about the book Annie always wanted to read but never did?

Why was her mother so evasive about that book?, The Missing Duchess,? and who was the Duchess of Marlborough?

Why did she and her mother really go to London?

Would the book and their trip to London reveal secrets in Annie's life?

?We follow Annie in present day and Pru, Win, and The Duchess (Mrs. Spencer) in the not so distant past.

Annie meets a British citizen who knew The Duchess, Pru?, and Win. Pru is the caregiver for the feisty Duchess. Win is the author who wrote the book about The Duchess who claims she really isn't a Duchess. Getting the story for his book was difficult for Win because The Duchess kept her life under wraps.

Annie gets the low down about all three characters from a British citizen, Gus, and she also trespasses into the house The Duchess lived in.

I enjoyed Annie's trips into the the house. I always love finding secrets and finding treasures from the past.

I enjoyed the back and forth in time and the "real time" story from Pru, The Duchess, and Win.

The characters in I'LL SEE YOU IN PARIS were quirky and fun. I loved The Duchess...she was a character.

I like this quote that was inside the book:

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." Marcel Proust

I'LL SEE YOU IN PARIS was very light and enjoyable with memorable characters and was well researched. I love the cover and the revelations at the end.

I do have to say the book was a bit confusing at times, but it is oh so good and so very creative.

ENJOY!! 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.

...15 more reader reviews

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Michelle Gable Author Biography

Michelle Gable is the New York Times Bestselling author of A Paris Apartment and I'll See You in Paris. She is also a mom, wife, investor relations executive, Chargers season ticketholder, tennis player, and card-carrying member of the Chickasaw Nation.

After growing up in San Diego, Michelle attended The College of William & Mary in Virginia, where she majored in accounting as most aspiring writers do. She currently resides in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with her husband, two daughters, lazy cat, and one very bitey rabbit.

Link to Michelle Gable's Website

Other books by Michelle Gable at BookBrowse
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more historical fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...
  • Book Jacket
    Something, Not Nothing
    by Sarah Leavitt
    In 2020, after a lifetime of struggling with increasingly ill health, Sarah Leavitt's partner, ...
  • Book Jacket
    A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens
    by Raul Palma
    Raul Palma's debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens introduces Hugo Contreras, who came to the ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

H I O the G

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.