Lunch in Paris, by Elizabeth Bard

Has a meal ever changed your life?

Part love story, part wine-splattered cookbook, Lunch in Paris is a deliciously-tart, forthright and funny story of falling in love with a Frenchman and moving to the world's most romantic city. Not the Hollywood version, but the real Paris, a heady mix of blood sausage, pains aux chocolats and irregular verbs.

From gutting her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen) to discovering the French version of Death by Chocolate, Elizabeth Bard finds that learning to cook and building a new life have a lot in common. Peppered with recipes, this mouth-watering love story is the perfect treat for anyone who has ever suspected that lunch in Paris could change their life.

Every chapter contains several recipes that had me longing to dash into the kitchen and whip up a few treats, from cassoulets to croqembouches.

But it was the fresh fig and goat's cheese salad that had me salivating.

It's written with a great deal of verve and charm - and, if you didn't end up liking the author so much, it might well be a recipe for jealousy.

The Paris of which she writes is the real thing, too. Not some romantic turn-of-the-century affair. But a modern, gritty capital that has its fair share of grime and crime. It's a well-deserved New York Times bestseller; and I completely see why.

Delicious, tender and quite sexy. A bit like Paris.