One of those books that takes you to another place, like your room as a child sitting on your bed in your favorite pajamas with the smell of the already eaten dinner lingering from the kitchen. Those feelings books give you is the reason why we read them. We like to feel as if we can understand each character and how we would see their lives from our eyes. Have you ever done that? Put yourself in the character shoes and say OK this is me, these are my friends and this is the situation. The way you can comprehend their visions and their ideas when you pretend their feelings are yours. Much more simple to put our feelings into words, make them see this way or that way without all the complications in the middle. Then as you read on you realize their emotions aren’t actually simple, you learn the characters complications. You feel them, you practically know the characters by now as if they were your closest friends and you’re just on for the roller coaster ride.
This is how Paris Is Always A Good Idea made me feel. At first when I was getting to know each character which they divide by chapter and everything seemed so simple. Rosalie owns a little postcard shop in Saint-Germain called Luna Luna, she is very optimistic, not in favor of activities it takes to get fit, has a boyfriend the complete opposite as her and loves the color blue. Seems simple right? But then the book takes you on a whirlwind of an old man taking an interest in her, a few break ups and a crazy adventure that changes everything.
After you are walked through Rosalie’s world Nicholas Barreau takes you through Max Marchais’ which take you through the eyes of a successful children’s author who hasn’t written in years, his agent trying with all his might get Max to write something new. The author meets Rosalie after stumbling into her postcard store which then happens again when we meet a meticulous Robert Sherman with his stunning blue eyes. Everything still seems humble as this point. That is until Robert accuses Max (Rosalie’s now good friend) of being and thief and stealing his story and explaining that the story is actually his.
However, Robert is visiting from New York and Max and Rosalie live in Paris. How would this story have gotten out to only these two men in such great distances? Who should Rosalie believe? Her now almost boyfriend, or this great old man? She has grown an attachment to both and can no longer stand in the middle. She is finally able to get these two to meet and that’s when the real story begins. Max and Robert find out they are closer than they could have ever imagined and Rosalie is in shock. She also learns that the man she is beginning to fall in love with has a girlfriend, or is it his fiancé? Has Rosalie completely ruined a possibly marriage? Her gut is turning and your mind will be to, until the very end.
Needless to say, I loved this book. It kept me interested all the way through, having me think anything could possibly happen at this point and I was completely unsure of where it might end. Nicholas Barreau has a way of explaining the characters to a point where you feel you are in their thoughts completely and it is so detailed you feel as if you are this person, each person. Which pulls you into the story even stronger.
