Book Review - One Summer in Monte Carlo by Jennifer Bohnet

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Title: One Summer in Monte Carlo

Author: Jennifer Bohnet

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 12th January 2021

Rating: 5 Stars

Monte Carlo means different things to different people; a billionaires playground, overflowing with glitz and glamour but also where dangerous secrets hide.

For Nanette Weston, and her then fiancé, F1 racing driver Zac Ewart, their dream life came to an abrupt halt 3 years ago following a car accident which Zac walked away from, but left Nanette being airlifted back to the UK, never to return and never to see her fiancé again.

Monte Carlo was a place she wanted to forget, not revisit. But when her friend and employer, Vanessa asks Nanette to look after her children in the Principality for a few months, Nanette knew she had no choice but to return.

As the F1 circus once again comes to town, with Zac in pole position, mistakes of the past, leave legacies for the future...

This book was previously published as Follow Your Star by Jennifer Bohnet.

Almost certainly the best Jennifer Bohnet book to date, and certainly my favourite. 

I was expecting there to be a romance, and a French setting, both of which delivered in spades, but it's the rest of what is containing within the pages that had me completely hooked. 

But where to start, so much I could talk about but really if the blurb remotely grabs you then take me word for it, it's a book worth reading. 

For there isn't just Monaco, and that's Monaco predominately in the run up to the Grand Prix (which is always my favourite to watch, and I could picture some of the streets and turns so clearly just because I know the race circuit!).  

However there is very little F1 detail, or car detail at all, so if you aren't keen on the sport then don't worry this isn't a book about F1, although having an F1 driver as Nanette's ex-fiance there are mentions of it, and it does provide part of the back drop. 

Nanette had never wanted to return to Monaco but her friend basically begged her to go back, along with the twins, to spend months with Mathieu the twins father. Nanette has been working as their Nanny, and Vanessa wanted to make sure someone consistent was in the twins lives, while she and new hubby go away for a few months. 

The chapters from Vanessa's point of view, were completely unexpected, and their setting covers very important issues for the world.  It's also not the most usual of locations for a book (although second one I've read with it in a few months!).  They took me completely by surprise, so I'll leave that as a surprise for you too! 

Then there is Mathieu who when we first meet him, has been arrested, but he isn't saying why but it soon becomes apparent that he may not have completely legit business partners. But what he is wrapped up in I can't say! 

This is fast paced, and completely enthralling, seeing Nanette face up to the past and some very unexpected surprises and turns along the way. Just simply wonderful, and definitely my sort of book! 

Thank you to Boldwood and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily,