Poetry and romance – both are a couple of my favorite types of reads. And when they both come together, it is a treat. And ‘In Paris With You’ is one such sweet treat.

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In Paris With You:

In Paris with You
A Novel
by Clémentine Beauvais
St. Martin’s Press
Wednesday Books
Teens & YA
Pub Date 08 Jan 2019

Description:

For fans of Eleanor & Park and Emergency Contact, Clementine Beauvais’ In Paris with You is a sweeping romance about the love that got away that #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicola Yoon calls “pure delight.”

Eugene and Tatiana could have fallen in love, if things had gone differently. If they had tried to really know each other, if it had just been them, and not the others. But that was years ago and time has found them far apart, leading separate lives.

Until they meet again in Paris.

What really happened back then? And now? Could they ever be together again after everything?

My Thoughts:

In Paris With You is a love story – very French, and very delightful – like a macaron with a surprise of multiple layers and multiple flavors when you bite into it.

The Characters:

The main protagonists are Eugene and Tatiana – who knew each other when they were teens; she a naive 14 year old, and he an ‘ennui’ed 17 year old. She was infatuated and he was above it all. When they meet a decade later on the Paris metro (serendipity?), the tables are turned; and Eugene can’t stop thinking about Tatiana while she has goals to achieve.

Eugene seems irreverent and not so likable at all, almost throughout the book (he has his cool, sweet guy moments where I did like him!). Tatiana has her flaws and not-so-good moments too; like when she is not above faking a pregnancy to gain a seat on public transportation.

While the characters therefore are not (always) likable, their portrayals also made them more real. Since we are definitely not always nice or good, even the nicest humans have a mean streak that strikes out once in a while, and the goodest ones long to play tricks every so often, don’t you agree?

The Narrator:

Another unique aspect was the narrative style – an unknown narrator tells us the story of Eugene and Tatiana. Who is she/he? That is left unsolved even as we reach ‘The End’. But it lent a charm its own to the story. I truly enjoyed the dialog the narrator manages to get into with both the main characters many times throughout the book.

The Rest:

There were times when I felt the story dragged a bit, and at others I was confused by the ‘me’ – was it the character I was reading about at that time or the narrator?

That said, I do love novels written in verse and fall deeper in love with this idea with each novel-in-verse that I read. It somehow makes it so much more easier to time-travel, go back and forth between day-dreams and real-life (well, as it exists in fiction). Given that this is free verse also lends the author (or is it poet) license to travel between poetic styles, and to foray into prose too.

Excerpts:

A couple of random excerpts from the book: (taken from the e-arc of the book directly to more easily show how the verses were written too)

Rating: 4/5
Reading Level: YA/New Adult

In Summary:

A sweet quick delightful treat of a read that gets over all too soon (remember that macaron I mentioned at the beginning!)

Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

Goodreads ||| Book Depository 
Target|| Barnes and Noble

This book goes towards my Continental Reading Challenge for Europe; and towards the Diversify Your Reading Challenge for romance

And here is a link to (woefully out of updates) book map – simply titled My Book Map

Related Reads I Recommend:

Other novels-in-verse I enjoyed (and I just realized I have read a few already!):

So dear reader, have you read any of these books? If yes, your thoughts on them and if not, have you read any other novels in verse (talking about the more modern novels-in-verse here!)? Let me know which ones you would recommend.