I’ve been saving Paris for when I can either go with my sis, with a single girlfriend, or a special someone. But, given that my sis is married and with child now and most of my girls are in relationships and/or broke, that leaves a special someone. So in preparation for whenever that happens, I plan to devour Hungry Woman in Paris (Grand Central Publishing, $12.99), Josefina Lopez’s debut novel (Lopez is best known for co-penning the screenplay for Real Women Have Curves).

The story follows a young, L.A.-based journalist named Canela, who, in addition to feeling stagnated in her career, is engaged to a control freak. When her best friend and cousin Luna takes her own life unexpectedly, Canela decides to leave it all behind, sublet an apartment in La Ville-Lumière (aka the city of lights) and enroll in culinary school. If the plotline sounds familiar it’s because Elizabeth Gilbert proved there’s a market for it with her best-selling 2006 book Eat, Pray, Love. With Hungry Woman in Paris, Lopez proves she’s ready to join the ranks of my fave women writers (Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Sandra Cisneros).