Rating- 4/10
After reading a super intense but awesome book, I was after a summery easy breezy novel and remembered I had this cute covered book on my shelf. It sounded like it would be a good light read so I thought, why not. Also the lovely Nadine gave me this book along with a few other books that I've loved reading in the past. Hi Nadine!
The Little Paris Bookshop is set in Paris on a beautiful restored barge on the seine. The boat is a bookshop referred to as 'A literary Apothecary', because the owner has a special gift of sensing which books will soothe their issues and troubles souls. It is run by the main character Monsieur Jean Perdu. Unfortunately, he can't seem to be able to cure himself. For 21 years, Perdu has had a broken heart. The love of his life fled Paris and left him a hand written letter which he never dared to read until now. Upon reading the letter, he meets an exiting young writer named Max. Perdu decides to leave his eccentric crazy neighbors and apartment on Rue Montagnard and unlocks his boat to set off for Provence in search of his long lost love, joined by the eager writer. From then on the story begins to unfold.
I won't give too much away as I hate spoilers. In some ways The Little Paris Bookshop is actually kind of nice, it has some meaningful phrases and quotes but beyond that, it just didn't do it for me. I actually was really bored reading this book, it took forever for me to get into it, I only enjoyed the last 100 pages of the book the most. The rest of it was a bit meh.. and struggled to get through it. I did like the idea of the book, having a bookstore on a barge, packing up and sailing off into the unknown, trying to find a long lost love and the meaning in life typa thing. Those aspects were okay. I also liked that the characters were a bit older, as in not in their 20s/30s like every other romance book, but in their 50s, a love story for the older generation. The scenic routes they took were good too. Also the cover of the book is really really pretty!
Having said that, I found it hard to connect with the style of writing of the book, and didn't feel like the words flowed well in my mind. It didn't really reach into the depths of my soul or anything, and I'm pretty sure I'll forget about this book in about a week. It's one of those books where you'll either love it, or hate it. No in between. Obviously for me, it's more on the hate side...but that's not to say that it's a terrible book. It just wasn't for me. I also think that the story could have been told in about 150 pages lol 340 pages was a little much. But I had to finish it.. I cannot leave a story hanging!
If you are into books set in France or enjoy a book about books then you may well love this! Also it is a love story for an older generation which is lovely to read, it gives me hope for when I get older :) That's the message that I took from this.
Anyways, y'all can check it out for yourselves. Click Here for The Little Paris Bookshop on Amazon books.
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