Book Review: One Evening in Paris

[erychan86]

I've finished another book!
Baby I'm on fire! \o/
I have to admit I was in a rush to start and finish this one because, when I've finished Razor's Edge 3 days ago, I already had in my grasp another Star Wars book I really wanted to read (Honor Among Thieves by James S. A. Corey), but I promised myself to interval books for some mysterious reasons, so I picked up One Evening in Paris by Nicolas Barreau because the chapters were very short (short chapters make me read faster) and I was in a romantic mood. (After all that Han and Leia UST). While I was reading outside in the sun, I received a package with Claudia Grey's Bloodline, so now I have to start this one. This puts Honor Among Thieves further from my grasp but I think I can read this book and the next one pretty quickly...

	One Evening in Paris by Nicolas Barreau Originally published: 2014 Author: Nicolas Barreau Genres: Romantic Novel (reading time: May 2 - May 5) ★★★★

This book is a romantic comedy set in guess where Paris in our times, but it has that sense of timeless romance you can probably get only from stories settled in France or in Italy.... maybe it's also because the main character - Alain - is the owner of an old Cinema who loves old movies...

Alain is a desperate romantic who falls in love with a mysterious girl who comes to his Cinema (Cinéma Paradis) every Wednesday night. After 4 months Alain finally asks the girl out and they have a very romantic evening. Mélanie has to go away for a week right after their date, but she promises she'll be back by Wednesday, so they decide they're going to meet there, at the Cinéma Paradis, where everything has started. A couple of days later Alain finds, standing outside his Cinema's door, a famous American Director and a French Actress. They want to shoot a scene from their last movie in Alain's Cinema because Solène, - the actress - when she was young, used to go to that Cinema with her family and she feels a strong connection to the place. Alain accepts the offer and becomes friend with the director and the actress. But you know who always follows around famous people? Yes! Paparazzi. So Alain and Solène end up on the cover of some gossip magazine. Wednesday comes, but Mélanie doesn't show up so Alain start his search for the girl in the read coat. The search goes on and on for weeks, and it seems he's close to find her so many times, until he puts together the pieces of a very complicated puzzle. Mélanie and Solène are sisters and they have some unsolved business. Solène stole Mélanie's first love and seeing the photo of her sister with her new love crushed the sweet girl. But in the end everything ends well... the two sisters are reunited and Alain can be reunited with his love.

A very easy read. I'm surprised it was written by such a young guy. Sometimes I forget there are still romantic souls out there that can actually fall in love at first sight. One of my best friend mrbartleboom , is actually one of them, but I always thought he was the last of the romantics... I'm glad he's not alone in this World and I hope he'll soon find his Mélanie.

If you have a Goodreads Account HERE's mine. Friend me so that I can get some books ideas, because if I keep reading this fast I'll run out of books pretty soon!

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

aw, this sounds like a sweet story! I'll have to remember it next time someone asks me for a bit of a romantic read. :)

[erychan86.livejournal.com]

Glad to help... :) I wish I could help you about your post about book suggestions but I don't have any children/teen book up my sleeve... And you would not want my suggestions in that realm because I would read Neil Gaiman to my kids... xD

I think this book can be read by teens though... There's nothing crazy... No random sex (the guy best friend he's a little bit of a playboy but it just mention he likes to have fun with girls) and in just one occasion he gets drunk but he pays the consequences of his actions... Gosh I'm reading myself and I'm thinking I'm totally going to be a bad mother xD

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I've booktalked Neil Gaiman books! He has "Coraline" and "Graveyard Book" in the children's section. I used to read the opening scene of Graveyard Book, when the parents are murdered, when i would visit schools LOL. Talk about getting the kids on the edge of their seats!

One of the things I like about being a public vs school librarian is I can booktalk the edgier books. I've got the Lizzie Border book on my desk now, hoping to fit that in when I see the 5th graders BWAHAHA! :)

I don't believe in censoring reading anyway, my Mom let me read Stephen King when I was 12, Michael Crichton was my favorite author for a long time around that age too. I just want the kids to read! As much as I can't stand 'Twilight' at least it got kids into the library!

[erychan86.livejournal.com]

Your work sounds awesome!!! After I come back from home in Italy (I'm still in the US but I'm going back to Europe for the summer) I'm planning to apply for a job at Barnes and Noble just to be surrounded by books all day...

Maybe that will somehow improve my English as well... I can read as much as I want but my grammar still kind of sucks...

As for "not censoring" I agree but mostly because I have no filters... XD I don't mind what I'm reading if it's well written but when suggesting a book I always feel like I need to say if there's something that might be controversial in it because I don't want to be blamed later... That's why I think that when in comes to movies, shows and books I'll be a bad mother because I know I will put no filters between them and the things they want to experience ... So I will be considered a bad mom like people considered mine...

It's kind of a complicated thing to explain! XD

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I think the misconception for many people is that kids want to watch things with lots of gore or violence or sex and really that is not the case. If you put on a movie that is not appropriate for a child, most of the time they will get bored and leave. Even more so with a book.

My Mom never censored anything, she trusted me and my decision making and there were plenty of books and movies I walked away from because they were about kissing or whatever and I wasn't into that yet.

My friend Damian was raised on horror movies and he loves them to this day!

My definition of a "bad parent" would be dropping the kid in front of the TV and never talking to them about it. Kids can watch whatever they want if the parent is there to talk to them about it afterwards. One of my favorite websites to recommend to parents is Common Sense Media because it rates movies and talks about how a family can approach them. It doesn't say NO NEVER WATCH THIS, it says "take this opportunity to talk to your kids about X and Y". Even the most over the top comedy can give kids something to think about and help them grow.

[erychan86.livejournal.com]

My definition of a "bad parent" would be dropping the kid in front of the TV and never talking to them about it.
You know... There's a thing that I keep noticing when I go to restaurants... Plenty of parents put a tablet in front of their kid and have dinner pretending he/she doesn't exist. I was at Starbucks the other day an there was this cute little girl sit next to me with an ipad open in front of her and there was an episode of some cartoon she was watching with no audio nor earphones. She didn't care and she wanted to talk with her mom who was too busy texting and kept saying to her to watch her show. She looked at me and I smiled and she was kind of surprised to have met someone's eyes I guess (or I just looked creepy at first) and then she smiled back. Then the mother got up and closed her tablet and left with her. She waved at me through the window with a big smile...

And I see kinds left in front of tablets ALL the time! Even at the Disney Hollywood Studios... A kid was sitting in front of me at the Indiana Jones Stunt Experience and he played all the times with his tablet... That's scary!

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is not parenting. I think sometimes people have kids and they don't think about the sacrifices they need to make for their social lives. I mean, I'm not saying they can't have a life but once you are in charge of a small person's survival and well-being, you gotta put down the phone and interact. At least you got to be a little ray of sunshine in that child's day. It really makes a huge difference. I know I try very hard to interact with the kids one on one at all my library programs or even when I'm walking around the library. If I see a child browsing with a parent, I ask them BOTH if they are finding things okay. The kids are usually shocked and then pleased that I acknowledged their existence.