This year has been an incredible year for reading. With the unprecedented COVID situation, I have had a lot of time to get more than some extra reading done.
I have really been loving all the quick romances, women’s fiction, and beach reads. Back in the early spring, my summer calendar was all booked up with upcoming releases, but then many of my July books got their release dates pushed back to the fall leaving July wide open.
I decided not to fill up my July calendar too much and instead just keep with the original reading schedule and maybe add a couple of releases that sounded interesting. Enter this book. I thought this one sounded so cute and a quick read plus PARIS—need I say more?
Summary
It’s been seven years since Chelsea Martin embarked on her yearlong post-college European adventure. Since then, she’s lost her mother to cancer and watched her sister marry twice, while Chelsea’s thrown herself into work, becoming one of the most talented fundraisers for the American Cancer Coalition, and with the exception of one annoyingly competent coworker, Jason Knightley, her status as most talented fundraiser is unquestioned.
When her introverted mathematician father announces he’s getting remarried, Chelsea is forced to acknowledge that her life stopped after her mother died, and that the last time she can remember being happy, in love, or enjoying her life was on her gap year. Inspired to retrace her steps–to find Colin in Ireland, Jean Claude in France, and Marcelino in Italy–Chelsea hopes that one of these three men who stole her heart so many years ago, can help her find it again.
From the start of her journey nothing goes as planned, but as Chelsea reconnects with her old self, she also finds love in the very last place she expected. (summary from Goodreads)
Review
About ten years ago, my mom and I visited Paris in the summer for a couple of weeks and it was absolutely wonderful. My husband and I had been the year before but in the early spring and let me tell you, summer in Paris was even better. As I said though, it’s been ten years since I have been back so reading this book during the summer brought back a lot of good memories and the escapism I was looking for.
This book wasn’t just set in Paris though—we got to visit Ireland and Italy as well and I thought that really added a lot of romanticism and excitement to an already charming book. The locations were this story’s finest feature. I could tell the author loved these places and wrote with so much affection and authority on them that it was easy to get lost in and feel like you were ‘on vacation’.
I also liked the premise of Chelsea’s story. She embarks on this journey to Europe to ‘find herself’ but to also find out of the men she found happiness with in these different locations were still a good fit for her. As though she might be able to find happiness again and reconnect with her heart. I loved meeting her old flames and each of the love interests were sexy and charming for different reasons. In the end her HEA fit well with her character and the story.
While this story was predictable at times, I still enjoyed it. It made me feel happy and I felt content with the plot and ending for the characters. There is comfort in predictability and I felt like I got a complete escape in this book which are all the things I expected going into this one. I wanted the romance, the comfort of knowing a HEA was coming, the journey of finding yourself and discovering new places. This was just the book I needed right now and I loved it!
The Lit Bitch 