It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris

Like all the girls who live at the decaying mansion nicknamed the House of Stars, 20-year-old Lita Del Cielo has come to Paris for adventure. But she’s also different from her fellow “greenbloods,” less interested in shopping and sleeping around than in living a “fluid, creative life.” Engel (Vida) has a knack for showing how Paris’s charms are both real and always verging on cliché; the house’s ancient, noble owner and Lita’s fellow residents, all full of advice, make for fun reading; and the story of Lita’s parents’ journey from poverty in Colombia to running a giant Latin American food distribution company in New Jersey has an appealing fairy tale quality. But what’s meant to be the story’s heart is Lita’s love affair with Cato, who is debilitated by the remnants of a childhood illness and is the son of one of France’s most notoriously anti-immigrant politicians. Despite (or perhaps because of) these difficulties, they fall in love. The problem is that it’s never fully clear why. For all Lita’s insistence that this is true love, readers may agree with the wised-up housemate who tells Lita that no matter how different she and Cato think they are, their romance is just another short-term affair between a resident of the House of Stars and her local boyfriend. Agent: Ayesha Pande, the Ayesha Pande Literary Agency. (Aug.)