Fict - A Paris Apartment by Michele Gable

A fictionalized account of a real life 1890s Parisian courtesan holds so much potential. However this debut novel quickly spiraled into melodramatic chick-lit and stretched my personal limit of how bad a book I can finish.  Lots of 4 and 5 stars on Goodreads though, so I am in the minority.
Upon discovering a Paris apartment filled with antiques untouched for 80 years, a high end NY auction house sends their premiere furniture authority to Paris to oversee the cataloguing. She spends her time mooning about her very rich husband vs her newly acquired slouchy, stubbled, french boyfriend and obsessing over the diary of the owner of the treasures.
I stayed with the story to immerse myself via flashback in the historical 1890s Belle Epoque era of Paris, and the courtesan who collected these objects from famous writers & painters; ultimately skimming the last 50 pages only because I wanted to find out the results of the actual auction.