Thank you to HQN/Harlequin for the complimentary advance review copy of this book and including me on the blog tour. All opinions are my own.
About the Book:
When bookshop owner Sarah Smith is offered the opportunity for a job exchange with her Parisian friend Sophie, saying yes is a no-brainer—after all, what kind of romantic would turn down six months in Paris? Sarah is sure she’s in for the experience of a lifetime—days spent surrounded by literature in a gorgeous bookshop, and the chance to watch the snow fall on the Eiffel Tower. Plus, now she can meet up with her journalist boyfriend, Ridge, when his job takes him around the globe.
But her expectations cool faster than her café au lait soon after she lands in the City of Light—she’s a fish out of water in Paris. The customers are rude, her new coworkers suspicious and her relationship with Ridge has been reduced to a long-distance game of phone tag, leaving Sarah to wonder if he’ll ever put her first over his busy career. As Christmas approaches, Sarah is determined to get the shop—and her life—back in order…and make her dreams of a Parisian happily-ever-after come true.
My Thoughts:
I gave this book three stars.
This is a sweet tale about a bookshop owner in the US named Sarah who does a bookshop exchange with her friend Sophie in Paris in order to figure out where she is stuck in her life.
I liked the romance, but I felt like Sarah was way too much of a doormat for too long. She didn’t stand up for herself, didn’t figure out what she was actually getting herself into taking on the responsibilities of this giant, frantically busy bookstore in another country. I felt like the emotions of the book stayed on the surface and didn’t get deep enough, even with Sarah’s love of books.
One of the things that I learned after I finished this novel, which would explain a lot, is that there are a large number of books in a previous series that introduce all of these characters. Jumping into The Little Bookshop on the Seine without reading the earlier books made me feel like I was thrown into a story without knowing the characters or their backgrounds, and not much recap was ever given. I didn’t completely buy into the romance between Sarah and Ridge or understand at all why they stayed together because I didn’t experience their relationship before this book. Those who have read this whole series will undoubtedly love this one, I highly recommend starting at the beginning rather than just jumping in like I did.
Overall it is a sweet tale and I felt good when I finished, I just thought I was missing something and I was.
