Helpful Score: 1
As with Nina George's first book The Little Paris Bookshop, the premise of The Little French Bistro sounds like it could be a powerful story about a woman finding her independence and finding her voice. Unfortunately, as with Nina George's first book, this one ends up in a place that belies the strong premise. The plot pursues too many directions, and the characters fail to develop, making this not the book for me.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/11/the-little-french-bistro.html
Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers program
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/11/the-little-french-bistro.html
Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers program
Sadly, this was my second attempt to read a book written by Nina George. First was The Little Paris Bookshop. Silly me, I thought it was about a bookshop in Paris. Well, it was for about one chapter, as the bookshop was on a barge and the owner pulled anchor and drifted through numerous canals in France, with changes to the storyline along the way. Couldn't finish that one, too many characters, too many sub-plots, etc. It ended up being a romance novel, not to my liking. So now I try reading Little French Bistro. Starts out in Paris, main character is suicidal, jumps into Seine, is rescued, and again, author adds so many characters that don't get developed. You can't really follow storyline without flipping back to see who and where this new character came in to story. I made it to page 112, just had to give up again. Story now has about 9-10 characters and there still isn't any depth to any of them. I truly hope the next reader enjoys the book.
A wonderful story that just grows in beauty like its main character does. Nina George has an incredible insight into a person's heart and knows how to write about it.
This will appeal to fans of Louise Penny. Here are the parallels: Almost all the action takes place in a small town seemingly cut off from the rest of the world; that small town has a distinctive culture (French in some way); and just about all the characters decide/live according to their emotions. For my taste, there's just too much emotionality in the book, making it more like a fairy tale than a true-to-life novel.
Really liked this book about an older woman who finally breaks out of her meek ways and finds her own voice and follows her own dreams. She was well developed as well as the other characters. A good summer read.
