Libby swiftly draws up a proposal for an exhibition, persuades the NAG director, impresses the visiting French ambassador and the MQB, and is soon on her way to Paris to work at the ‘Musée du Crème Brûlée’. Libby promptly falls in love with the City of Light. However, falling for the right man proves more difficult; she encounters sleazy artists, flirtatious bakers, nude poets with revolutionary aspirations, and the thin-lipped first secretary from the Australian embassy.

Anita Heiss writes well-researched, politically aware contemporary romantic fiction. Her four novels – Not Meeting Mr Right (2007), Avoiding Mr Right (2008), Manhattan Dreaming, and Paris Dreaming – all feature strong, socially engaged, independent Indigenous heroines working successfully in high-powered jobs. Paris Dreaming will inspire many readers to want to visit the places, watch the films, read the books, think about the issues, and enjoy the works of art that Heiss cites.

Unfortunately, the novel is unengaging and surprisingly dull, laden with clunky sentences, endless exposition, heavy-handed narration, and unconvincing dialogue. The subplots – one involving a chauvinistic colleague and another a Roma gypsy – lack depth, and it is hard to care about the self-absorbed protagonist. Ultimately, Heiss appears more preoccupied with educating readers than with engaging and entertaining them. Good books can do both.