Review: One Paris Summer
One Paris Summer
Denise Grover
Swank
Paperback, 272
Pages
Young Adult, Contemporary
Publisher: Blink
Release Date: June
7th 2016
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Most teens dream
of visiting the City of Lights, but it feels more like a nightmare for Sophie
Brooks. She and her brother are sent to Paris to spend the summer with their
father, who left home a year ago without any explanation. As if his sudden
abandonment weren't betrayal enough, he's about to remarry, and they’re
expected to play nice with his soon-to-be wife and stepdaughter. The
stepdaughter, Camille, agrees to show them around the city, but she makes it
clear that she will do everything in her power to make Sophie miserable.
Sophie could deal with all the pain and humiliation if only she could practice piano. Her dream is to become a pianist, and she was supposed to spend the summer preparing for a scholarship competition. Even though her father moved to Paris to pursue his own dream, he clearly doesn't support hers. His promise to provide her with a piano goes unfulfilled.
Still, no one is immune to Paris’s charm. After a few encounters with a gorgeous French boy, Sophie finds herself warming to the city, particularly when she discovers that he can help her practice piano. There’s just one hitch—he’s a friend of Camille’s, and Camille hates Sophie. While the summer Sophie dreaded promises to become best summer of her life, one person could ruin it all.
Sophie could deal with all the pain and humiliation if only she could practice piano. Her dream is to become a pianist, and she was supposed to spend the summer preparing for a scholarship competition. Even though her father moved to Paris to pursue his own dream, he clearly doesn't support hers. His promise to provide her with a piano goes unfulfilled.
Still, no one is immune to Paris’s charm. After a few encounters with a gorgeous French boy, Sophie finds herself warming to the city, particularly when she discovers that he can help her practice piano. There’s just one hitch—he’s a friend of Camille’s, and Camille hates Sophie. While the summer Sophie dreaded promises to become best summer of her life, one person could ruin it all.
When I heard about
this book I was interested in reading it and man was I right to be. Sophie has
the chance to spend the summer in Paris, what person wouldn’t want to go there?
But the trip is anything but fun for her. Her parents divorced and her father
literally left one day and never came back. So Sophie and her brother Eric are
spending the summer with the man who left them and his soon-to-be new family.
Sophie has to deal with Camille the stepsister from hell who seems to hate
Sophie for no reason and her equally mean friends. And the worst thing might be
that Sophie should be practicing on the piano so she can get a scholarship but
she can’t because her dad lied when he said he would have a piano for her.
One Paris Summer
was everything I didn’t know I needed. I honestly can’t believe how much I enjoyed
the book. I was worried that there would that annoying main character you tend
to get in a lot of YA books, but what you got was a girl who deeply hurt by the
one man in life who is supposed to love, protect, and never hurt her. You got a
girl who is belittled and made be to miserable in a foreign country where she
was didn’t speak the language any only knew two people. My heart went out to Sophie
and Eric, they were hurt by their father when he left and they never got a
chance to really address that.
Then there was Mathieu, Camille’s friend who helps Sophie out when she needs a piano. From there the two talk and get close. He becomes someone Sophie can talk to, he becomes a good friend to her. The story between the two seems natural and not rushed like you tend to get in YA books, there was none of that insta-love crap.
What I enjoyed
most about this book was growth of Sophie as a character and as a person. Within
the book she grew up and learned who she was a person. There was a gradual
build of her confidence, her self-esteem and self-worth. It was great to see Sophie stand up for herself
and fight for what she wanted but she reminded you that she was just a young
girl who was lost. That’s what made her character so great, she was human.
Denise Grover
Swank told a wonderfully written tale, one that felt real and relatable. You identify
with Sophie on a personal level because at one point we all have felt scared and
lost. One Paris Summer is a
satisfying read with pain, lost, love, romance, anger, and laughter. This book
was full of real emotion. 10/10 would recommend. This is a book you shouldn’t
miss.
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