Title: One Paris Summer
Author: Denise Grover Swank
My Rating: 5/5 stars
Goodreads Summary:
Most teens dream of visiting the City of Lights, but it feels more like a nightmare for Sophie Brooks. She and her brother are sent to Paris to spend the summer with their father, who left home a year ago without any explanation. As if his sudden abandonment weren’t betrayal enough, he’s about to remarry, and they’re expected to play nice with his soon-to-be wife and stepdaughter. The stepdaughter, Camille, agrees to show them around the city, but she makes it clear that she will do everything in her power to make Sophie miserable.
Sophie could deal with all the pain and humiliation if only she could practice piano. Her dream is to become a pianist, and she was supposed to spend the summer preparing for a scholarship competition. Even though her father moved to Paris to pursue his own dream, he clearly doesn’t support hers. His promise to provide her with a piano goes unfulfilled.
Still, no one is immune to Paris’s charm. After a few encounters with a gorgeous French boy, Sophie finds herself warming to the city, particularly when she discovers that he can help her practice piano. There’s just one hitch—he’s a friend of Camille’s, and Camille hates Sophie. While the summer Sophie dreaded promises to become best summer of her life, one person could ruin it all.
“Nothing is impossible with the heart.”
My Review:
One word can be used to sum up this book..AMAZING. I absolutely loved this book from the beginning and I truly can’t express how much I loved it. I will admit that the cover and the title is what first drew me in. I have always been interested in Paris and would love to visit there one day, but I was lucky to live through Sophie’s eyes throughout this story. I thought that this was going to be a super light, fluffy, cotton candy type of read, but you get so much more from it. My review has minor spoilers as far as the characters go, but nothing that would ruin the story for you!
I felt bad for Sophie and Eric at the beginning because you learn that their father walked out on the their family to move to Paris and then they find out just before visiting him in Paris that he is getting married to a new woman who has a daughter, Camille, who is a complete witch (I’ll get to her in a bit). If I were Sophie, I would also feel abandoned and felt like her father just had a new family and she was forgotten. Throughout the story though, it starts to become clear the reasoning behind her father’s departure because there is definitely more to it than him just leaving the country out of the blue.
I don’t want to give too much away about the story because I think it’s more enjoyable to go into reading it without knowing much, but I would like to talk about the characters because that is what truly sold me on this story.
I really liked Sophie, but sometimes, especially in the beginning, I felt like she was being a brat. I also had to take a step back and remember that she’s just a teenager and so her moodiness is kind of expected. I loved watching how much she grew as a person throughout the story and how she was able to come out of her shell, both with her piano playing and her personality as well. She was really able to gain confidence in herself, which I think many, if not all teenage girls struggle with. Mathieu was another main character who instantly stole my heart! He is just a charming French gentleman who was so sweet.
I could not stand Camille for the majority of this book. I understand that she had been through a lot, but the way she treated Sophie was just terrible. She did have her redeeming moments, but she frustrated me more often than not. I also did not like Dane AT ALL. I think his character was an absolute pig. Sophie’s brother Eric was fine as a character. I’m pretty indifferent about him, but I was happy whenever he stood up for his little sister.
This book paints the city of Paris for you so you can easily picture it. Denise Grover Swank does beautiful writing and you’re able to immerse yourself into Sophie’s point of view and see the world through her eyes. This book pulled on my heart-strings and took me on a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but it was perfect.It gives you friendship, family struggles, and swoon-worthy romance.
There was a bit of a twist that I wasn’t expecting, but it really just added to the excitement of this story. I would definitely recommend this book if you like contemporary romantic books. I read this book on my iPad, but after reading it I definitely want to get a physical copy of it because I love the cover of it and would love to have it on my shelf to probably read again later on.
If you would like to read One Paris Summer, you can purchase it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble
*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review*
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