Lost and Found in Paris

A Novel

By: Lian Dolan

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

The thinking woman’s ultimate escapist adventure in Paris, told with wit, style, and a touch of intrigue, by the popular and dynamic author of The Sweeney Sisters.

Joan Blakely had an unconventional childhood: the daughter of a globe-trotting supermodel and a world-famous artist. Her artist father died on 9/11, and Joan—an art historian by training—has spent more than a decade maintaining his legacy. Life in the art world is beginning to wear on her—and then one fateful afternoon her husband drops a bombshell: he’s fathered twins with another woman.

Furious but secretly pleased to have a reason to blow up her life, Joan impulsively decides to get out of town, booking a last-minute trip to Paris as an art courier: the person museums hire to fly valuable works of art to potential clients, discreetly stowed in their carry-on luggage. Sipping her champagne in business-class, she chats up her seatmate, Nate, a good-looking tech nerd who invites her to dinner in Paris. He doesn’t know she’s carrying drawings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But after a romantic dinner and an even more romantic night together, Joan wakes up next to her new lover to discover the drawings gone. Even more shocking is what’s been left in their place: a sketch from her father’s journals, which she thought had been lost when he died on 9/11, and a poem that reads like a treasure hunt.

With Nate as a sidekick, Joan will follow the clues all over Paris—from its grand cathedrals to the romantic bistros to the twisty side streets of Monmarte—hoping to recover the lost art, and her own sense of adventure. What she finds is even better than she’d expected.

©2022 Lian Dolan (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Now I really want to see Paris.

We can feel every possible emotion with Joan as she experiences them in her far from normal life. Delightful details are shared about each character. Helen, Elizabeth, the sisters Sweeney, Joan, who will Lian Dolan bring us next? I'm anxious to meet them.

Great escape

A lovely adventure for arm chair travelers that is artsy, adventurous, and stylish. With a hint of rock and roll.

Wonderful Escape

This story was a wonderful escape and adventure across Paris. It was entertaining and I liked the details with the art and locations. This story made me want to go to Paris.

Wonderful story!

Whether you listen or read, this is definitely worth your time! It has mystery and intrigue as well as romance and adventure, guaranteed to be a great summer read you won't want to put down.

Love This book

I have listened to it twice. Great reader and a fun story. If you know and love Paris you will like this.

Super easy read

I was looking for a light hearted book that would let me escape for just a little while, one full of descriptions of surrounds and feelings. This one did a nice job. Joan, named after Joan of Arc, has just had a bombshell dropped on her lap. Her husband has a second family including kids. This first domino falls trying to help Joan find her true meaning. Her father was killed on the plane on 9/11. Her mother has become almost a recluse because of it, she has out all of her dreams in hold and now her husband wants her and his other family to be one big happy family. It’s all too much. She’s given an opportunity to travel back to Paris to see her best friend and to help in the sale of some sketches being sold to a private investor through the museum she works for. But the sketches are stolen. Now, trying to find them leads her on a little life journey, helping her understand those closest to her and herself. I loved the characters the author added like Polly and Nate and Mason. They really helped make the book even better.

Pasadena to Paris!!

Lian’s novel is the perfect summer getaway—hot romance, art history treasure hunt, and Paris!!

Good story, nice Paris images.

Narrator had no clue how to pronounce French which was very annoying. Wrong narrator for this story. Otherwise okay but not great.

Not all bad but…

This book had a little fun stuff interspersed with a lot of pretty annoying stuff. The narrator didn’t help. There was a thread of imaginative storyline but it ultimately got lost.

Swept away

Loved all of the historical and art world references as Joan’s story unfolded. For those of us old enough to remember the 80’s and the events if 9/11, there were many references that hit home. I enjoyed the story and the narration was excellent.