Book review of Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin

Turn a tumbledown Paris hotel into a perfect boutique, bookish retreat, and have it open for Christmas? What could possibly go wrong?

When Anais receives a near-derelict Paris hotel in her divorce settlement, her first thought is to tidy it up and sell it immediately. All she wants is to move on and forget her disaster of a marriage ever happened.

But selling it proves impossible, so she has only one option: to make it gorgeous and open by Christmas… when her funds will almost certainly run out.

She’s not counting on the grumpy American bar-owner next door, Noah, coming and interfering at every moment though. Nor is she expecting to find a mysterious room – which holds the key to a one-hundred-year-old secret – about a woman who chose love against the odds.

One thing’s for sure… as the fairy lights twinkle all over the city of lights and the first snowflakes start to fall… this will be a Christmas in Paris to remember.

A totally gorgeous, escapist romantic comedy, with an unforgettable mystery! A perfect festive read for fans of Emily Henry and Sarah Morgan to curl up with this winter.

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin

My review

Romance author, Anais is well shot of her phoney ex-husband, but the only thing she has walked away with in the divorce settlement is a run-down boutique hotel in Paris and a simmering anger towards overbearing men. With her cousin Manon by her side, she is determined to get the hotel partially renovated and open before Christmas, with her ultimate goal being to show others it has potential, sell it and finally move on from a few traumatic years. 

The hotel, however, has other ideas. As the renovations begin, it slowly reveals secrets from its past, including a literary mystery that needs unravelling and solving. With a little help from her friends, Anais begins to heal her broken heart, bring the hotel back to its former glory and discovers a romance or two along the way. 

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin

This book was an absolute delight for a literary nerd like me, containing references to some of the great Parisian novels from the past as well as cameo appearances from the characters in A Love Letter to Paris, one of my favourite books this summer, also by Rebecca Raisin – but that is not all. Two of my favourite ‘new life in Paris’ memoirs also get a starring role; Paris Letters by Janice Macleod (that I read and reviewed on the blog in 2014) and the emotionally honest Meet Me in Paris (2015) by Juliette Sobanet (whose romance novel Sleeping with Paris just happened to be my first introduction to kindle ebooks a very long time ago).  It was a stroke of genius and I can’t describe how wide the grin was on my face as I read this book.

With local knowledge of the Christmas hotspots and Parisian literary must-sees, I am sure anyone who loves the magic of Paris will fall under the spell of this book like I did. My only disappointment was that I couldn’t get straight on to Booking.com and reserve a suite for a romantic weekend away this winter. 

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French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

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Rebecca Raisin

Author Bio  

Rebecca Raisin writes heartwarming romance from her home in sunny Perth, Australia. Her heroines tend to be on the quirky side and her books are usually set in exotic locations so her readers can armchair travel any day of the week.

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You can read my reviews of some of Rebecca’s previous novels here:

A Love Letter to Paris 

Elodie’s Library of Second Chances 

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin

Book review of The Resistance Bakery by Siobhan Curham

The Resistance Bakery by Siobhan Curham

The Resistance Bakery by Siobhan Curham

Paris, 1943. The scent of fresh baguettes hangs in the air as Coralie unbolts the door to her bakery with trembling fingers. She must get out of the city. Hiding her precious leather recipe book inside her coat, she promises never to let the secret locations of the people she worked tirelessly to save fall into German hands…

Present day. Raven is unhappy about being shipped off to the other side of the country for the summer to stay with the mysterious French grandmother she barely knows. And discovering a tattered, leather-bound book with yellowed pages full of handwritten recipes and coded numbers, she is stunned.

Her grandmother has never baked for her. And she refuses to talk about Paris, or the past. Flipping through the book, a faded photograph of a laughing couple falls out. As Raven scans the writing on the back she can scarcely believe her eyes…

What really happened in that tiny French bakery all those years ago? And could this forgotten recipe book finally bring healing to a woman still haunted by wartime secrets? Or has Raven’s discovery shattered any chance of bonding with her grandmother, before her time runs out?

The Resistance Bakery is an unforgettable page-turner about forbidden love and family secrets in World War Two. Fans of The Letter, The Nightingale and Fiona Valpy will be totally hooked.

The Resistance Bakery by Siobhan Curham 

My review

The Resistance Bakery is another moving, historical fiction from Siobhan Curham that made me think about the dark days of the Occupation in a different light. Having read several books set during this time, this is the first fiction book I’ve encountered to acknowledge the horrific economic situation the Germans had to endure in the inter-war years, something that undoubtably had a huge part to play in the second world war.

We know from the prologue what Coralie does as she bakes her last patisseries for the Germans occupying the prestigious Lutetia Hotel in Paris. The dual timeline then guides us tantalizingly slowly, through what led her to make such a risky move, as she looks back on her war story with granddaughter Raven, a troubled teenager in 1980’s America. This happens forty years after she fled the hotel kitchen and is the first time she has revealed the horrors she witnessed during the Occupation.

The Resistance Bakery by Siobhan Curham

Coralie and Raven were both free-thinking, outspoken women who were braver than they imagined, and I enjoyed watching the relationship between them develop. As they learned about each other, they were able to break down some of the barriers they had both been hiding behind and ultimately help each other navigate the future.

Food played an important role in this novel and I loved the idea of Coralie folding emotions and feelings into her baking, and how food connected so many of the characters, despite differences of generation or nationality.

I think my favourite character had to be Madame Monteux, Coralie’s benefactor in Paris. She was colourful, positive and almost always full of optimism despite the desperate situation they found themselves living in. The vivid image of her Madame Butterfly Metro performance will stay with me for a long time.

This isn’t just another novel set during the Occupation, Siobhan has once again come up with something refreshingly different, emotional and thought-provoking. There were some things I thought might happen as I was reading, but there were also surprises and twists, that turned out to be the icing on the cake. 

As I finished reading, I looked up the Lutetia Hotel online, feeling such a connection to it from this book, and wanting to make sure it really did exist – it does and looks to be just as majestic as it’s described. I’m just not sure I’ll ever be lucky enough to book into a suite there for the night though.

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French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

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Siobhan Curham

Author Bio

Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, Breathe magazine, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, and Spirit & Destiny. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including the BBC, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Bath Festival, Ilkley Festival, London Book Fair and Sharjah Reading Festival.

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You can read my reviews of some of Siobhan’s previous books here:

The Secret Keeper 

The Paris Network 

Beyond This Broken Sky 

An American in Paris 

Book review of Falling for Provence by Alison Roberts

Falling for Provence by Alison Roberts

Falling for Provence by Alison Roberts

She came to Provence in the hope of a fresh start, she never expected she would fall in love in and find herself along the way.

Inheriting an old stone house in Provence, along with her sisters is the catalyst Ellie Gilchrist needs to put some distance between her and her grief. But when she arrives at the run down ‘La Masionette’ hidden amongst overgrown Lavender and Ivy, she wonders if she’s made a mistake?

That is until she meets her guarded neighbour Julien and his adorable little boy, and she’s surprised by the flutters of excitement she never thought she’d feel again. Add in rescuing a stray dog and she has the much needed distraction she needs. Ellie decides to stay temporarily and work on bringing the little house back to life again. If only she can ignore the fireworks that explode every time she’s around Julien. They both have hearts they want to protect, but a little temporary affaire can’t be too dangerous, especially when Ellie has stated she will be leaving after the last summer market of the season. But something in the alchemy of what she discovers in this part of France seems to be casting an irresistible spell making it difficult to walk away.

Falling for Provence by Alison Roberts

My review

Alison Roberts is a new writer for me, but it didn’t take long before I was looking her up to see what else she has written, and it came as no surprise to read that she had spent some time living in France. Her experience, love and passion for French life was evident from the beginning of the book.

Within the first few chapters we had a heroine suffering from a personal trauma - who desperately needed the healing only a dose of France can provide, a moody, troubled Frenchman who I couldn’t wait to learn more about, plus a shiny red bicycle with a basket, a stray dog and two donkeys, to say nothing of the olive grove and lemon orchard in Provence. Needless to say, I was so happy in this book, I didn’t want it to end. 

Falling for Provence by Alison Roberts

Ellie’s task of breathing new life into a forgotten Provencal house that she and her sister’s had unexpectantly inherited, was the perfect change of scenery she needed at a difficult time in her life. There were plenty of emotional situations, trauma and heartache in this book, but they were always treated sensitively and with care. As the characters created new memories, they began to heal hearts broken through no fault of their own. Ellie’s time in France ultimately changed not only her life, but the lives of many of the characters.

There was nothing I didn’t enjoy in this book. It was colourful, healing, hot and calming all at once, as well as being a little crazy at times too. It truly was a feast for all my senses as Alison’s exquisite descriptions of food, place and emotions came to life. I can’t wait to read more from Alison.

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French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

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Alison Roberts

Author Bio  

Alison Roberts is the author of over one hundred romance novels, joining Boldwood to write ‘wish you were here’ fiction set in the South of France.

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Falling for Provence by Alison Roberts

Book review of A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet

A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet

A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet

A fresh start in the beautiful Brittany countryside is what dreams are made of...

Buying and relocating to the Château du Cheval in rural France has fulfilled one of Peter and Ingrid Chevalier’s lifelong ambitions. Despite never being able to trace a missing link in Peter’s French ancestry he feels he has finally come home. Now they must renovate the Château to its former glory and make it pay for itself…

With money getting tight, they take the decision to sell a couple of cottages on the estate. Can the Château begin to pay for itself and be sustainable for the future?

Divorced Sasha Heath and her brother Freddie decide to sensibly invest their mother’s inheritance into property and buy the two rundown cottages on the Château’s estate. Putting the past behind them, a new life in France beckons, but will it live up to their dreams?

As they relax and settle into their new idyllic lifestyle, their new lives throw up several surprises, and all they can do is cross their fingers and hope everything will turn out well in the end.

An uplifting tale of new adventures and second chances. Perfect for the fans of Jill Mansell and Fern Britton.

A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet

My review

As always, being back between the pages of a Jennifer Bohnet book is like a comforting hug from an old friend, as well as a fizz of excitement and anticipation about discovering new characters, whose lives will be forever changed with a touch of magic only France can provide.

A French Country Escape didn’t disappoint and one of the first things I loved about this book were the strong family links between the characters. From brother and sister, Freddie and Sasha, making the move to France together at a difficult time in their lives, to Ingrid and Peter, doing everything they could to support their daughter Penny but also determined to solve a family mystery from the past. 

As the book progressed, we learned that both Sasha and Penny have taken bold steps to free themselves of troubled pasts and I enjoyed witnessing them create the next chapters of their lives. Sasha blossomed through her art, Penny through her love of food, but they both soon found the Breton village community, with the château at its heart, a welcoming and healing place to be.

A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet

There were unexpected twists, plus the romance of bringing old buildings back to life, creating new possibilities for everyone involved. I smiled a lot whilst reading this book, and not just at the antics of the various animals, who play as important a role as any of the other characters.

If you are looking for an escape to France, with plenty of humour, but that doesn’t shy away from difficult emotional situations, then I am sure you will enjoy A French Country Escape.

Purchase links

French Village Diaries is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk at no extra cost to you.

Amazon UK purchase link  

Jennifer Bohnet

 

Author Bio  

Jennifer Bohnet is the bestselling author of over 14 women's fiction titles, including Villa of Sun and Secrets and A Riviera Retreat. She is originally from the West Country but now lives in the wilds of rural Brittany, France.

Here are some of my reviews of Jennifer’s previous novels (all of which I recommend).

A French Adventure 

Summer on the French Riviera 

Christmas on the Riviera 

Villa of Second Chances 

Summer at the Château 

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A French Country Escape by Jennifer Bohnet