My second book by this author.

I’ll start off by noting that I’d give this one 3.5 if I could. I think. Then move on to note that this had a rather fantasy like feel to it. Without actually having fantasy elements.
And by that I mean many things.

For one example, right at the beginning of the book a lonely woman heads to France. She has a vague idea slip through her mind that now that things are the way they are, she might actually find a French woman to play with (wording better than I’m putting it). But she thinks that that would be unlikely; that the more likely outcome of her going to France would be her living in the country, like a hermit, sealed up in her place by distance and lack of language skills. Since she only knows English.

You know what happens? The first person she meets is a taxi driver. Right at the international airport. He either pretends or actually does not know English. Has to actually resort to drawing to convey that the villa she’s going to is a great distance away. I mention that part more to note that, hey, maybe she isn’t wrong about the language barrier. She sees no one at the villa. Lets herself in, falls asleep in a bed she finds.

Vida, the main character, wakes up, or is awoken. I forget now if she woke up naturally or not. Well, she wakes up and the fantasy element begins. Standing over her, leaning over, poking her, is a woman speaking English. A gorgeous woman. Vida is about 50% aroused and 50% what the fuck is going on. Apparently Vida fell asleep in that woman’s bed.

So, not only did she not have to go out of her way to find a hot young thing to chase, their connection begins with Vida having already gained access to and have actually slept in the other’s bed. Hmm. That sounded different in my mind but doesn’t look the same on the screen. No matter.

So, to back up – Vida was raised by a French woman who had fled from France to Chicago. Had to work many jobs at the same time to raise her baby. She had fled France while pregnant, so Vida was born in the USA. She’s so closed off from her past, the mother I mean, that she won’t even let Vida learn French. Forces her to learn Spanish instead. Well, ‘miraculously’ Vida gets a scholarship that would pay for school and medical school. So, even though it isn’t really of interest to her, she does that. Goal being to support her mother. Mother, though, dies shortly after Vida got the medical degree.

Time passes. Out of the blue a message arrives from a French lawyer. Some unknown aunt has died and left a villa and vast amounts of money to Vida. Vida, naturally, immediately quits her job and flies to France to attend the aunt’s ‘funeral’.

Once in France, Vida meets a taxi driver who doesn’t speak English, a gorgeous young woman of roughly 33 who does speak English (and is named Renée – French born but spent part of her childhood in England), a woman of roughly … 58? who also speaks English (Effie – ‘she was taught by Renée’). Toss in someone in a café, who Vida speaks French to, and by the 74% mark that’s the sum total of everyone Vida had meet and talked to in France. She went straight from the airport to the country villa.

There’s a specific reason why she’s sticking close to the villa – her mother, apparently, was raised there, found love there, fled from there – it’s both a connection to her dead mother and a chance to investigate her own, and her mother’s past. This is what she does throughout the book. Walking around, seeing a tree that have her mother’s initials on them, and investigating a church her mother went to, and later, investigating the school her mother attended (whereupon she again meets people speaking English, well one, Sister Wendy. Sister Wendy had just transferred, along with another Sister, to the school a year ago. Possibly from Ireland. This is why both know English).

So, she’s in France, she learns French, but she barely scratches the surface of the country. The story is more about her explorations of the past, and finding/pursuing romance, rather than a vacation/travel/trip to a foreign local.

A mystery is unraveled, a romance is pursued, betrayal . . . occurs. And the book ends on a cliché. Which the main character actually mentioned long before – that she should just turn her adventure into a book, and have it end in a cliché in Paris.

It was an interesting book. Even though I knew how the little tricks and hidden things before they occurred . . .. Hmms. I’m trying to word this a certain way but can’t think of a way that isn’t incorrect, and/or reveals too much. The hints were a little heavy about whom and what was going on. So I knew who and what, for the most part. I didn’t specifically know how everything would unravel. The point I was attempting to make, though, is that – even though I ‘knew’ certain things, from the evidence left in the book, that didn’t help me when the book went into ending mode. I’m not wording this correctly so I’ll just say that everything kind of fell apart near the end. To a certain extent.

Okay, I wrote a lot while I was reading; let me see if any of that can be brought into the actual review. Oh, right, the sweetie. That annoyed the hell out of me, how Renée kept using that word over and over again. Brand new person you meet, naturally you call her sweetie. Sweetie is used 29 times in this book. I despised it the very first second I saw it tremble out of Renée's lips. That's something you say to a dog. Or a small child. Or an elderly person whose mind has gone. Or, grudgingly I say this, to a sweetheart. Vida is none of these things to Renée - at first usage of the word. The time Effie uses the word, sarcastically towards Renée, was good. And somewhere along the way Renée and Vida became vaguely sweetheart like to each other, so during that period using sweetie was slightly less annoying.

Let’s see . . . language – I’ve mostly already noted this part. Vida meet 4 people by the 74% mark, and about 7 people total in the book. Taxi driver (didn’t really know English), Renée (spoke English and French), Effie (English/French), café person (Vida talked to person in French), Sister Wendy (transferred in, is not from France – they spoke English), inn worker (barely knew English), taxi driver (barely spoke to each other – and, if I recall correctly, in French). So, go to France, meet, barely, seven people.

Oh. Heh. At 68% I had written as a status update: ‘I'm oddly quite happy at the moment. For an odd reason. Vida finally cleaned herself. I thought she might have tossed hygiene when she left her medical career. There were many occasions wherein she is described as changing her clothing. Waking up in the morning, putting on clothing, going to do stuff outdoors. Arriving in her room. Changing her clothing. Etc. But she finally actually took a shower. See, odd happy.’

Well, that’s the sum total of what I got from the book. Wasn’t bad. Just a little thin. And easy. Seriously, waking up and finding the love of your life just there bending over you? Shesh. ( )