The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin
Published: 16th October 2015
Publisher: Carina UK
Available on Kindle
Blurb
Le Vie En Rose
Bookshop owner Sarah Smith has been offered the opportunity to exchange bookshops with her new Parisian friend for 6 months! And saying yes is a no-brainer – after all, what kind of a romantic would turn down a trip to Paris? Even if it does mean leaving the irresistible Ridge Warner behind, Sarah’s sure she’s in for the holiday of a lifetime – complete with all the books she can read!
Picturing days wandering around Shakespeare & Co, munching on croissants, sipping café au laits and people-watching on the Champs-Elysees Sarah boards the plane. But will her dream of a Parisian Happily-Ever-After come true? Or will Sarah realise that the dream isn’t quite as rosy in reality…
Bookshop owner Sarah Smith has been offered the opportunity to exchange bookshops with her new Parisian friend for 6 months! And saying yes is a no-brainer – after all, what kind of a romantic would turn down a trip to Paris? Even if it does mean leaving the irresistible Ridge Warner behind, Sarah’s sure she’s in for the holiday of a lifetime – complete with all the books she can read!
Picturing days wandering around Shakespeare & Co, munching on croissants, sipping café au laits and people-watching on the Champs-Elysees Sarah boards the plane. But will her dream of a Parisian Happily-Ever-After come true? Or will Sarah realise that the dream isn’t quite as rosy in reality…
Review
Once again Rebecca Raisin has manged to charm and enchant us
with another brilliant story. The Little Book Shop on the Seine is Rebecca’s
first novel which has partly being set away from her lovely town of Ashford. In
this book Sarah, owner of The Bookshop on the Corner agrees to a six month book
swap with her online friend Sophie who runs Once Upon a Time in Paris.
Sarah heads off believing that Paris will be just as
romantic as it is in her books and is hoping to spend some much needed quality
time with boyfriend Ridge. However things don’t turn out quite the way she
expected and she finds things fairly tough going.
The Little Bookshop on the Seine seems to be a more serious
and realistic novel from Rebecca, the characters in this novel aren’t all warm
and cosy like the residents of Ashford and I enjoyed this new direction Rebecca
has taken. Some of the characters in this book are snappy and rude such as
Beatrice and I really enjoyed wondering what exactly her problem was.
Life in Once Upon a Time is busy, disorderly and at times
too much for Sarah to deal with after the peace and quiet of her own shop. In
this book we see her character develop as she gains more confidence, stands up
for herself and takes control of the Parisian shop for Sophie.
As with her previous novels Rebecca has done a fantastic job
of creating beautiful scenes from her wonderful descriptions of places in
Paris. I loved visiting Anouk in her antique shop and all the quaint hidden little
places Oceane introduced Sarah too. One of my favourite scenes was when Oceane
took Sarah out for lunch and ordered her steak tartare, I think I would have
acted exactly as Sarah did!
I did find that this wasn’t quite as Christmassy as I
expected and for that reason I’m glad I’ve read it as one of my first Christmas
reads this year. Christmas is only really featured in the last few chapters of
the book. However it does do a wonderful have a lovely wintery glow about it,
making it perfect to read in front of log fires with hot chocolate and start
your Christmas dreams.
As with all previous Rebecca Raisin novels I loved
everything about this book. I loved that Rebecca has given us a little bit more
depth and mystery to her story but still kept that warm and cosy feeling at the
heart of her writing. Although this follows on from previous novels it can be
read completely as a stand-alone and make total sense. Definitely a book to add
to your winter reading this year, I rate it 5 out 5!
Thank you to Carina UK and Netgalley for my review copy.
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