A little light reading is always welcome so when TLC Book Tours offered me The Paris Wedding by Charlotte Nash at no charge for my honest review I was happy to accept.
About The Paris Wedding:
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (June 12, 2018)
In Australian bestselling author Charlotte Nash’s U.S. debut, a young woman attends her ex-boyfriend’s Paris wedding and discovers more than she ever dreamed in the ultimate city of love.
Imagine you are invited to Paris, the City of Love, to witness the wedding of your first love to a woman you’ve never met. Would you go?
It’s been ages since Rachael West has seen the man she once believed she couldn’t live without. Receiving his wedding invitation was bittersweet—she was oddly touched he’s asked her, but knows that facing him on this day would be the hardest thing she’s ever done.
But her friends and family convince her to attend. After all, it’s an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris! Surely she can get through that one day, and discover all the delights of that magical city the remainder of the time.
So Rachael leaves her small town, setting off for the City of Lights with her best friend, two feuding neighbors, and a suitcase full of home-sewn couture in tow. She’s determined to let Paris work its magic—and it does by way of a handsome photojournalist. And before her adventure is over, Rachael will be faced with yet another choice. But this time, hers isn’t the only happiness at risk . . .
About the Author:
Charlotte Nash began stealing her mother’s Jilly Cooper novels at the age of thirteen and has been enthusiastic about romance ever since. She started writing after graduating from medical school, and her romantic stories set in amazing places are now published around the world. She lives with her family and chickens in a cozy cottage on the east coast of Australia.
Find out more about Charlotte at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.
My Opinion:
Rachael has spent the last ten years caring for her mother on the family farm. After her mother dies she is not sure what she wants to do with her life. Then she receives an invitation to a wedding – but not just any wedding. Her old love Matthew is getting married to the daughter of a very wealthy man and the invitation comes with tickets to Paris as well as a week full of fun in the city. Does she really want to go and see him walk down the aisle? Or will it help her get him out of her system?
Rachael invites her best friend to accompany her on the trip and they head to Paris to explore and experience a world they’ve not seen before. Rachael is an exceptionally talented seamstress so she creates a series of stunning dresses to wear to the parties and to the wedding. She is completely unaware of how she appears to the sophisticated crowd. They all think she belongs.
Her unassuming manner endears her to a variety of people and they see her true worth and a number of opportunities open up to her but she is lost in her grief and in the past and only wants to go back to the way things were. She refuses to see what could be only what might have been.
The premise of the book had me very intrigued ’cause who wouldn’t love to find an envelope with an invitation to a week in Paris in the mail? Paris is a magical city and everyone should see it. As to the characters and their actions – I had some struggles with understanding motivations but I am old. That does not mean I haven’t experienced loss of both a parental and romantic nature. I have always been a forward looking type so the looking back part baffled me. That doesn’t take away from what was an interesting and well written story with some quirky sub plots and lots of hope.
Rating:
4
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