Wednesday 9 December 2015

Book Review - From Paris With Love This Christmas by Jules Wake - #HarperXmas

Amazon UK
Title: From Paris With Love This Christmas
Author: Jules Wake
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Harper Impulse
Publication Date: 29th October 2015
Rating: 5 Stars


Just until Christmas…

That’s what Paris socialite Siena keeps telling herself. She’ll hide away in her sister Laurie’s cottage near London to escape her hot-tempered fiancé.

However, when Jason – gorgeous but a bit of a Grinch – picks her up from the airport, he reveals that Laurie hasn’t lived there for months, complicating Siena’s holiday getaway.

At first, Jason and Siena don’t see eye to eye. But after a weekend in the most romantic city in the world, experiencing all it has to offer – from the magic of a fir-lined Champs-Élysées, lit up by thousands of sparkling fairy lights, to the swoosh of skates on ice at the Eiffel Tower – Siena shows Jason her Paris, and a whole other side to herself. Suddenly Siena’s December deadline seems far too close…

This Christmas, jet off to Paris with Siena and Jason and experience the magic of the holiday season

Another cracker of a book from Jules Wake. I was absorbed in this story right from the beginning, and the second my memory kicked in fully to remind me of the meeting between Laurie and Siena in From Italy with Love, it became even better. As I did remember Siena, I just couldn't fully place her at first. 

Although this does feature small parts by characters featured in From Italy With Love, this is definitely a standalone book, with a whole new cast, and is set predominately in England, but there is a trip to Paris in the run up to Christmas that is brilliant. 

Seeing Siena guide Jason around Paris is superb, and she is full of surprises throughout the book. Siena shows Jason some of the big sights, some excellent views, and also some of the bits of Paris that she knows well. 

As I say Siena is surprising, not only was she continually making Jason rethink his initial opinion of her, but I was becoming more and more impressed by her, by ever passing chapter. The development of Siena's character reminds me a lot of Rachel from Friends, over the 10 series, going from reasonably clueless about the world outside the privilege she grew up in, to becoming a well rounded determined young woman.

I loved how Jason slowly changed too, and as a reader you are probably a few steps ahead of either of  them, with their feelings for each other. You can see the connection deepening and the changes in Jason towards Siena are lovely. 

Wonderful story set in the run up to Christmas, with some great festive touches including glittery pine cone Christmas decorations, and Siena's ability to keep cool in a crisis, once she has found a job she can do is inspiring,.  We slowly learn the reason for Siena's appearance in England, at short notice, and I can't say I blame her.

I think I preferred From Italy With Love, but this comes a very close second to me, in the books I  have read by Jules Wake. It may have been missing the cross-Europe road-trip but it features Christmas, and so much more, that I didn't mind. 

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Harper Impulse for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.

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