Review: The Little Bookshop on the Seine by Rebecca Raisin

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…

Shona's review 3 of 5 stars

This book took a little bit of work to get through, I needed more than one sitting to get through it and there were a few times when I felt like I needed to push myself to pick this up. I'm still not entirely sure why since on paper this sounds like it should be a dream book of mine. Book lover has her own book shop... sounds right up my street.

But Sarah really bugs me, it takes her far too long to stand up for herself with everyone. From the people who are supposed to be working for her, to her friend who basically insisted they swap bookstores for a few months so that she could flee her love cheat, to Sarahs own boyfriend who seems to drop in and out of her life as and when he pleases, stooping so low as to call in the middle of the night when he knows she will be sleeping just so he can leave a message on her voicemail. I know she does stand up for herself and she does push back against all of those people, but it just seems to take such a long time to get there and then suddenly everything was all sparkles and cheer and the book was ended.

In amongst all that there were some beautiful moments, moments when she actually connected with the people she worked with. The very limited time she actually spent exploring the world around her bookshop, or even exploring the bookshop itself. If the bookshop and Paris was the backdrop to Sarahs story, then so too was her romance with Ridge. This felt more like a coming of age novel, one where Sarah finds herself... not one where she finds her love.