One Summer in Paris – Sarah Morgan

Book blurb

One charming Left Bank bookshop, two unlikely friends, and a summer in Paris that will change their lives forever…

Grace can’t believe it when her husband of twenty-five years announces he doesn’t want to join her on their anniversary trip to Paris – instead, he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock, Grace makes the bold decision to go on this holiday of a lifetime alone.
Audrey leaves behind heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. A job in a bookshop is her ticket to freedom, but with no money, and no knowledge of the French language, her summer adventure seems doomed to fail. Until she meets Grace, and everything changes…
Living in neighbouring apartments above the bookshop, Grace and Audrey form an unlikely friendship. They came to Paris to find themselves, but finding each other might be the best thing that’s ever happened to them. 

My thoughts

There are so many things I could say about this book. The superb opening that had me glued to the page from the very start. The amazing Paris location. The main characters of Grace and Audrey, one young and strong, the other middle-aged and damaged – both fighting a darkness… But the only thing you really need to know is that this is Morgan’s best novel to date.

Morgan is in my top 5 of romantic writers. There’s just something about her books that strikes a cord, maybe because we’re both nurses, I don’t know but I’ve read pretty much everything she’s written. But recently there’s been a shift in her writing since How to Keep a Secret. it’s different, stronger, more traumatic. Yes, there’s the guaranteed HEA but the route to that end has so many twists and loops to give any Satnav a power surge. 

One Summer in Paris follows the intricate and complex lives of two strangers, destined to meet on a Parisian boulevard. Two strangers who, in the normal way wouldn’t give the other a look. But something binds them together, a past history that weaves in and out of the storyline. Morgan plays on Grace and Audrey’s differences (age, looks, social circumstances) and yet manages to untangle  the thread that makes them almost mother and daughter. All this set in one of my favourite places in the world and with the backdrop of a dusty treasure-trove of a bookstore. 

Now all I need to do is add A Wedding in December (her Christmas, 2019 offering) to my TBR pile – I have a funny feeling it’s going to be amazing…

10 stars 

Available to pre-order here 

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