Paris Never Leaves You — Adreana Robbins

As the daughter of blockbuster author Harold Robbins, Adreana Robbins's childhood was divided between glamorous Hollywood and the picturesque south of France. Like her father's works, Adreana Robbins's debut novel is an exciting page-turner, packed with exotic settings and glimpses into the lives of the wealthy and powerful. Through her own lyrical style, reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald's, Robbins captures the allure of Parisian high society and uncovers generations lost in deceit and betrayal. Shortly before her twenty-first birthday, Djuna Cortez journeys to Paris to claim a mysterious legacy from a grandfather she never knew, Joaquim Carlos Cortez, a world-renowned surrealist painter. Djuna is shocked to learn that he has left her an estate that includes a winery and chateau in Loire, an apartment in Paris, and a priceless art collection, which includes his own works and those of his friends and contemporaries, Miro, Picasso, and Dali. Even more, Joaquim Carlos has made Djuna his literary executor, asking her to see to the publication of his journals. Robbins skillfully relates the parallel comings-of-age of the impressionable Djuna in contemporary Paris and the controversial, hot-blooded Joaquim Carlos in the wild Paris of the 1930s and World War II, both transformed forever by the City of Light. Setting her tale in France, Spain, Morocco, and the seductive Mediterranean, Adreana Robbins carries her readers on a passionate journey. Djuna, overwhelmed by sudden wealth and responsibility and caught up in a jet-set lifestyle, struggles with love, intrigue, and danger. Through her grandfather's journals, Djuna learns of Joaquim Carlos's own struggles: to succeed in the exciting new world of surrealist art, to overcome his obsession with physical pleasure, to survive under Nazi terror. But the greatest shocks come when Djuna uncovers the secrets of her family's painful, mysterious past. Drawing courage from the truths she learns about her family and herself, Djuna strives to recover her freedom and her sanity, and to claim her grandfather's powerful artistic legacy.