Review: The Little Bookshop on the Seine

Review at a Glance

• Title: The Little Bookshop on the Seine
• My Rating: 4
• Genre: Contemporary Romance
• Format: eARC*
• Publication Date: January 7, 2020
• Author: Rebecca Raisin

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Book Blurb

It’s The Holiday on the Champs-Élysées in a great big love letter to Paris, charming old bookstores and happily-ever-afters!

When bookshop owner Sarah Smith is offered the opportunity for a job exchange with her Parisian friend Sophie, saying yes is a no-brainer—after all, what kind of romantic would turn down six months in Paris? Sarah is sure she’s in for the experience of a lifetime—days spent surrounded by literature in a gorgeous bookshop, and the chance to watch the snow fall on the Eiffel Tower. Plus, now she can meet up with her journalist boyfriend, Ridge, when his job takes him around the globe.

But her expectations cool faster than her café au lait soon after she lands in the City of Light—she’s a fish out of water in Paris. The customers are rude, her new coworkers suspicious and her relationship with Ridge has been reduced to a long-distance game of phone tag, leaving Sarah to wonder if he’ll ever put her first over his busy career. As Christmas approaches, Sarah is determined to get the shop—and her life—back in order…and make her dreams of a Parisian happily-ever-after come true.

My Thoughts

The Little Bookshop on the Seine is a contemporary romance set in Paris about a bookshop owner who needs to fine her confidence and her reignite her passion for life. It was a cute, light hearted story about a book lover and shop owner who finds herself and her happily ever after in the City of Lights.

The Little Bookshop on the Seine is a book for book lovers and dreamers everywhere, and is literally the bookish version of The Holiday. Given the state of the world right now, this was the perfect book for me to read because I got to travel back to Paris in my mind.

Sarah goes almost everywhere in Paris that I can imagine and some that I can’t. She starts the book unsure and insecure, but soon find her voice and her spirit while deciding what is important in her life.

The only criticism I have of this book is the pairing up. I don’t understand why almost every character needed pairing up, or why finding The One was so important for everyone’s happiness. Especially with one of the chracters, who is vibrant and fool of life, Rebecca Raisin essentially turns her entire existence into a farce when she falls in love. I wish that character had been left to stand alone and her life given value without a significant other. She had affairs and flings but she also had this beautiful free spirit that gets taken away in the end. It was taken away, not by deciding to settle down, but because it felt like everything she did before was valued as meaningless in the book.

Otherwise, I sincerely enjoyed this adorable book. The small town that Sarah leaves seems idealic and her friends made me want to join their group just to sit in on the skype calls.

*Special thanks to Rebecca Raisin, Harlequin, and Netgalley for providing a copy of The Little Bookshop on the Seine in exchange for an honest review.