Invitation to Provence
Elizabeth Adler
St. Martin's, Sep 2004, $24.95, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0312308116

Southern California veterinarian Franny Marten is stunned to learn that her long distance romance with Atlanta-based Marcus Marks is over as he not only has a wife, he sent her to break it off with her. The spouse Clare and Franny hit it off and the former persuades the latter to take up her Aunt Rafaella Marten des Sauvages' invitation to spend three weeks in Provence at a family gathering although she never even knew this aunt existed.

Franny, accompanied by Clare, goes to France where she is shocked by her dysfunctional relatives who seem at war with one another in spite of the warm welcome from her elderly aunt. Worse, someone wants Franny to remain in the dark on family secrets and will go to great lengths to achieve this objective; Franny wonders if her nasty cousin Alain would harm her. However, the biggest emotional roller coaster is Jake Bronson, whom she falls in love with, but wonders if she can trust him with her heart and her life, though she wants to.

No one does travelogues inside terrific contemporary romances better than Elizabeth Adler does. Her latest tour of the Mediterranean is superb as readers obtain a taste of Provence while also reading an interesting family drama. Franny is a wonderful protagonist and the support cast shines a light on her and on the region. As she has done with A SUMMER IN TUSCANY and THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, Ms. Adler provides a delightful tale for armchair travelers to enjoy.

Harriet Klausner