From a Paris Balcony {Book Review}

I didn’t realize it but I’m on book 11 of my 12 challenge. That’s nuts! Seriously, last I knew I was on book 6 or something. It’s crazy. I’ve read…

1. Just One Year – Gale Forman
2. Just One Day – Gale Forman
3. Just One Night – Gale Forman
4. Fearless Fourteen – Janet Evanovich
5. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen – Janet Evanovich
6. The Time of My Life – Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi
7. My Life in France – Julia Child
8. Royal Date – Sariah Wilson
9. Royal Chase – Sariah Wilson
10. Royal Games – Sariah Wilson
11. From a Paris Balcony – Ella Carey

Now… Just One Night was a Novella so maybe I should do another one that makes 13 to make 12. Just a thought. Earlier this year I got a Kindle Fire. I’ve mentioned before I love love love real books, but I kind of love love love my Kindle Fire too. Can you have it both ways?

If there’s something new I can tell you that you may or may not know… I don’t do well on car rides. I love to travel but put me in the backseat of a car and well… it’s not always good. I’ve never thrown up, but I’ve gotten pretty sick before. With that said, I think mentioning that I can’t read in a car is almost a given. Earlier this month we headed to Dallas, Texas, to watch my uncle get inducted into the NCHA Hall of Fame. 6 hours in a car that I can’t do much in… Luckily I had my Kindle Fire charged up.

I signed up for the 30 Day Trial of Kindle Unlimited which is like $9/month and you have unlimited access to their Kindle Unlimited books. I chose one that had a verbal option and I listened to this book for the most part. I’d never heard of it before like I said, I was just looking for something to listen to since I can’t read in a car.

From a Paris Balcony

Heartbroken and alone, Boston art curator Sarah West is grieving the recent deaths of her parents and the end of her marriage. Ultrasensible by nature, she’s determined to stay the course to get her life back on track. But fate has something else in mind. While cleaning out her father’s closet, she finds a letter from the famous Parisian courtesan Marthe de Florian, dated 1895. The subject? Sarah’s great-great-aunt Louisa’s death. Legend has it Louisa committed suicide…but this letter implies there’s more to that story.

Determined to learn the truth, Sarah, against her nature, impulsively flies to Paris. There she’s drawn into the world of her flatmate, the brilliant artist Laurent Chartier. As she delves deep into the glittering Belle Époque to unravel the mystery, Sarah finds that her aunt’s story may offer her exactly what she needs to open up to love again.

Following Sarah in the present day and Louisa in the 1890s, this moving novel spans more than a century to tell the stories of two remarkable women.

Thoughts

It was a good book. Because I was listening as an audio book, the speaker’s voice annoyed me a little… but that’s what I get… It had nothing against the book.

So, the book. It kept me guessing a little bit. I really didn’t see the mystery panning out like it did and I was a little sad with the final outcome of the mystery. I also felt like the “love” interest of Laurent was a little underplayed even though he seemed to have a final influence on her. The book was good but… it just lacked something. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I could go into a little more detail, but that might give away some of the final endings of the book and I don’t quite want to do that either.

We’ll leave it as Laurent just seemed to be thrown in there a little bit… And the mystery didn’t have quite the outcome I wanted or kept guessing was going to happen. It all made sense and even though it wasn’t quite what I wanted, I didn’t have any loose ends at the end. That’s good. Maybe she could do a follow up with the story of Sarah post finding out details… I don’t know. Maybe not.

I did find out that this was tied to another previous book, so that would help maybe with a few character details for some of the lesser characters in the book. So I’ve since picked up the previous book to see how it all got started. Maybe that’s a good thing. It drew me into another book by this author.

A lot like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, I wasn’t lost with some of the storylines that came out of the previous books. The author gave enough information that reading out of order didn’t leave me scratching my head. Good job.

I give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

Have you read this book? Thoughts?