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holsarmstrong's review
4.0
This was super cute! Definitely a beach read.
What did I like?
I don't even know where to start. The writing was beautiful, witty and fun. I was obsessed with the characters. They were well thought out, deep and had substance. I loved France as the setting and it was so nice to read it from an authentic point of view. You can really tell the author has grown up there.
The plotline - although not revolutionary - was sweet. I enjoyed the hunt to find the clues and I liked seeing the dynamics between Valentin and Jamie and Jamie's parents as a comparison. I think the ending was well done and I felt satisfied closing the book.
I think the only thing that didn't make this book a solid five stars for me was that I wanted to see more from Jamie's grandmother and their relationship. I felt some of their encounters were forced and I don't understand some of the things she was saying and why she was reflecting that on her granddaughter.
Overall, a solid read with a happy ending. I am glad I invested my time in this book!
4 stars.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
What did I like?
I don't even know where to start. The writing was beautiful, witty and fun. I was obsessed with the characters. They were well thought out, deep and had substance. I loved France as the setting and it was so nice to read it from an authentic point of view. You can really tell the author has grown up there.
The plotline - although not revolutionary - was sweet. I enjoyed the hunt to find the clues and I liked seeing the dynamics between Valentin and Jamie and Jamie's parents as a comparison. I think the ending was well done and I felt satisfied closing the book.
I think the only thing that didn't make this book a solid five stars for me was that I wanted to see more from Jamie's grandmother and their relationship. I felt some of their encounters were forced and I don't understand some of the things she was saying and why she was reflecting that on her granddaughter.
Overall, a solid read with a happy ending. I am glad I invested my time in this book!
4 stars.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
liralen's review
3.0
Basically cute, and it's nice to see Jamie end up sort of all over Provence. The plot elements are not unusual for YA (girl feels guilty about [b:accident|4570768|Willow|Julia Hoban|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1428890977l/4570768._SY75_.jpg|4620119] that [b:wasn't|42116422|The Year After You|Nina de Pass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550674452l/42116422._SY75_.jpg|65705818] her fault; there's a treasure hunt involving [b:letters|17020|13 Little Blue Envelopes (Little Blue Envelope, #1)|Maureen Johnson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375030179l/17020._SY75_.jpg|1008846]; there's a boy; etc.), but Provence is relatively unexplored territory for YA lit, and I'm very fond of travel YA lit.
I struggled with Jamie's uneven knowledge of French—sometimes she can get along just fine, while sometimes she doesn't know how to say merci beaucoup (129) or copain (135), and can't conjugate avoir (151) which are absolutely things she should have learned in school by now, considering that she's had a year of French. (Later in the book, she apparently manages to read a 300-page novel several times in an afternoon, comparing French and English versions to make sure she doesn't miss anything.)
The other thing: I'm not sure if this was self-published—I couldn't find a site for Seabreeze Books, so probably—but if not, the publisher did the author a big disservice in the lack of proofreading: peeks instead of peaks (97), parent's instead of parents', random shift into the present tense (141), many many many instances of incorrect capitalisation and punctuation in dialogue tags (e.g., "Everybody ready?" Asked Hazel, "it's going to be a tough one." (239)), etc. All little things, but they made it harder for me to stay in the story.
However! Since we're talking language, here's a thing I enjoyed: I was hit in that moment with a feeling I had no words for, though the Germans probably had an incredibly long and complex one to describe it. (77) Yes. Yes, the Germans probably do.
Do I believe the treasure hunt? Well...no. It's an awful lot of luck, she's awfully quick at deciphering clues and tracking things down, and I guessed the twist from the first letter. But it's somewhere I'm willing to suspend disbelief, because the letters are cute and lively and they keep Jamie moving throughout Provence. Someday travel will be a thing again...
I struggled with Jamie's uneven knowledge of French—sometimes she can get along just fine, while sometimes she doesn't know how to say merci beaucoup (129) or copain (135), and can't conjugate avoir (151) which are absolutely things she should have learned in school by now, considering that she's had a year of French. (Later in the book, she apparently manages to read a 300-page novel several times in an afternoon, comparing French and English versions to make sure she doesn't miss anything.)
The other thing: I'm not sure if this was self-published—I couldn't find a site for Seabreeze Books, so probably—but if not, the publisher did the author a big disservice in the lack of proofreading: peeks instead of peaks (97), parent's instead of parents', random shift into the present tense (141), many many many instances of incorrect capitalisation and punctuation in dialogue tags (e.g., "Everybody ready?" Asked Hazel, "it's going to be a tough one." (239)), etc. All little things, but they made it harder for me to stay in the story.
However! Since we're talking language, here's a thing I enjoyed: I was hit in that moment with a feeling I had no words for, though the Germans probably had an incredibly long and complex one to describe it. (77) Yes. Yes, the Germans probably do.
Do I believe the treasure hunt? Well...no. It's an awful lot of luck, she's awfully quick at deciphering clues and tracking things down, and I guessed the twist from the first letter. But it's somewhere I'm willing to suspend disbelief, because the letters are cute and lively and they keep Jamie moving throughout Provence. Someday travel will be a thing again...
charlotte_bryceson's review
5.0
I absolutely adored this tour of Provence in witty fiction. It made my sicken for the place I called home for 2 incredible years. The addition of words and phrases scattered throughout in French helped to embed the setting. The storytelling was wonderful and the tour around Aix had me fondly remembering my own time there. I became so invested in the characters, especially the budding relationship of Jamie and Valentin, and the ending had me in tears. Love love love this!!
kylielovesbooks's review
4.0
I am a complete sucker for any book that takes an American girl and sends her to France. My enjoyment of this book was high. I really surprised myself by understanding almost everything Jamie said in French and even some of what the actual French people said in French (at 2x speed too) despite not having a French class in like 10 years!
Jamie's desire to find the "treasure" she thought her father had left her mother 17 years ago gave me definite 13 Little Blue Envelopes vibes and I was totally here for it. I loved her struggle to talk to people and their struggle to talk to her because I could 100% imagine myself acting the exact same way if I were to jot over to France right now. While this was kind of the main plotline of the book, I liked that other things happened as well. The romance (of course), the barbecue was such a cute scene, Jamie's home life.
A lot of this book had to do with people communicating to one another (or not). Learning how to listen to other people, how to move past specific events that have happened and communicating through them to be able to heal and come out the other side. The fact that Jamie had a hard time communicating some things was kind of annoying at times. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to shut up. After finishing the book though, I really think that was the point, and really made her turning point very powerful.
The ending was so satisfying and just made me feel so good.
Thank you to the author for providing me a copy of this audiobook!
Jamie's desire to find the "treasure" she thought her father had left her mother 17 years ago gave me definite 13 Little Blue Envelopes vibes and I was totally here for it. I loved her struggle to talk to people and their struggle to talk to her because I could 100% imagine myself acting the exact same way if I were to jot over to France right now. While this was kind of the main plotline of the book, I liked that other things happened as well. The romance (of course), the barbecue was such a cute scene, Jamie's home life.
A lot of this book had to do with people communicating to one another (or not). Learning how to listen to other people, how to move past specific events that have happened and communicating through them to be able to heal and come out the other side. The fact that Jamie had a hard time communicating some things was kind of annoying at times. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to shut up. After finishing the book though, I really think that was the point, and really made her turning point very powerful.
The ending was so satisfying and just made me feel so good.
Thank you to the author for providing me a copy of this audiobook!
bookswithmichellee's review
4.0
Thank you to the author for providing me with a free digital copy of this book for exchange for an honest review.
Jamie was sent away to spend the summer with her grandmother, Mamie, in Provence, France after her mother is recovering from an accident. Stuck inside with her grandmother who doesn't talk to her and no Wi-Fi finds a letter in one of her father's old books. The letter, which is older than Jamie, details a treasure hunt for his and her mother's 6-month anniversary. The problem? Jamie doesn't know where the clue is telling her to go and wouldn't be able to ask anyone with her lack of French knowledge. In comes, Valentin, a cute French boy she meets in the market that knows English. The two decide to take on the hunt for the treasure but run into problems along the way.
This was such a great summer read! Anderson's writing was great. She did a great job of describing the scenery and setting so well, I wish I was in Provence. I really enjoyed learning about France through the adventures Jamie and Valentin went on while trying to find the clues. I enjoyed the intermingling of French throughout the novel but wish that there was a bit more of a translation, at least for first time it was said. I do know some French but at times I was a little confused, but it helped me find the translation feature on Kindle LOL. I really liked how this used second-person POV style at points, it's unique and hard to do right but it was done right here.
The storyline was really cute. It was great to see the struggle between Jamie and Mamie and Jamie's parents. Family conflict can make an interesting plot. I really loved to see the friendship bud between Jamie and Valentin. He was there for Jamie when she needed him but was also not afraid to tell her when she's wrong or something she needs to hear. The ending was a perfect wrap to the story.
Jamie was sent away to spend the summer with her grandmother, Mamie, in Provence, France after her mother is recovering from an accident. Stuck inside with her grandmother who doesn't talk to her and no Wi-Fi finds a letter in one of her father's old books. The letter, which is older than Jamie, details a treasure hunt for his and her mother's 6-month anniversary. The problem? Jamie doesn't know where the clue is telling her to go and wouldn't be able to ask anyone with her lack of French knowledge. In comes, Valentin, a cute French boy she meets in the market that knows English. The two decide to take on the hunt for the treasure but run into problems along the way.
This was such a great summer read! Anderson's writing was great. She did a great job of describing the scenery and setting so well, I wish I was in Provence. I really enjoyed learning about France through the adventures Jamie and Valentin went on while trying to find the clues. I enjoyed the intermingling of French throughout the novel but wish that there was a bit more of a translation, at least for first time it was said. I do know some French but at times I was a little confused, but it helped me find the translation feature on Kindle LOL. I really liked how this used second-person POV style at points, it's unique and hard to do right but it was done right here.
The storyline was really cute. It was great to see the struggle between Jamie and Mamie and Jamie's parents. Family conflict can make an interesting plot. I really loved to see the friendship bud between Jamie and Valentin. He was there for Jamie when she needed him but was also not afraid to tell her when she's wrong or something she needs to hear. The ending was a perfect wrap to the story.
audreykerr's review
2.0
Edit: After thinking about it I knocked another star off
This was hard to rate because of my dislike of the mc, so 2.5 rated down.
I really enjoyed the setting and reading about Provence. It is an immersive love letter to Provence. It made me want to back there (it's been 12 years?!). I liked the spattering of French throughout the book, most of which is not automatically translated in the next line like many YA books with Spanish in seems to do. I also liked the treasure hunt and past romance aspect of the story (the current time romance seemed quite forced and would have been better as a friendship). I love Valetin, his mother, his friends - I wanted to read more of those scenes! This is probably due to the fact that I could not stand the main character Jamie. I could write a short essay on how awful she is as a person and she does not change but. I didn't like the constant reiteration of "I caused the accident" when it wasn't a part of the plot, it just kept get repeated
Okay, in quick bullet points so I can get this HATE out of my system (really, I started highlighting lines about how awful she was about halfway through).
- she's 17 and acts 14 at times with the melodramatic ~my parents hate me~
- she tried to punch her ex and the only reason she didn't was because she was so drunk she missed. violence isn't okay no matter the gender (:
- after this she decided she was going to drive herself home, the only reason she didn't is because she didn't have her keys. It's a shitty thing to even CONSIDER to do.
- she's so selfish and ungrateful
- she's nearly unbelievably narcissistic, there's a point where another character tries to tell her she doesn't listen and makes everything about her....just for her to prove their point in the next sentence
- she constantly puts down France and French people but gets pissy when people complain about loud Americans because ~I'm also American~~ do you think that about me~~ WAHHH.
- Calling all French people whiny when all she does is whine.
- she seems to have serious anger issues...like she goes from 0 to 100 about nothing at all. It would be understandable if her mother was dying like you are led to believe...but she's learning to walk again, hardly on her deathbed?
- Gets pissed off (see anger issues) when her grandmother wants her to learn French and buys her a dictionary while she just expects her to learn English, hell she expects everyone to try and speak English for her?! You are living there for the summer, at least try?!
- she's so ignorant of French culture despite her dad being French, both her parents being French lit professors, and both her parents reminiscing and telling stories about meeting in France
- I just don't really get why her parents wouldn't have raised her bilingual tbh.
And as a parting note the last letter was weird because
Give me more books set in France/Provence svp!
This was hard to rate because of my dislike of the mc, so 2.5 rated down.
I really enjoyed the setting and reading about Provence. It is an immersive love letter to Provence. It made me want to back there (it's been 12 years?!). I liked the spattering of French throughout the book, most of which is not automatically translated in the next line like many YA books with Spanish in seems to do. I also liked the treasure hunt and past romance aspect of the story (the current time romance seemed quite forced and would have been better as a friendship). I love Valetin, his mother, his friends - I wanted to read more of those scenes! This is probably due to the fact that I could not stand the main character Jamie. I could write a short essay on how awful she is as a person and she does not change but
Spoiler
gets a happy ending?!Spoiler
and then for it to be she got drunk so her parents had to come get her and then got into an accident and not she was drunk driving and hit her mother, or crashed with her mother in the care or whatever?? nahhOkay, in quick bullet points so I can get this HATE out of my system (really, I started highlighting lines about how awful she was about halfway through).
Spoiler
- she's 17 and acts 14 at times with the melodramatic ~my parents hate me~
- she tried to punch her ex and the only reason she didn't was because she was so drunk she missed. violence isn't okay no matter the gender (:
- after this she decided she was going to drive herself home, the only reason she didn't is because she didn't have her keys. It's a shitty thing to even CONSIDER to do.
- she's so selfish and ungrateful
- she's nearly unbelievably narcissistic, there's a point where another character tries to tell her she doesn't listen and makes everything about her....just for her to prove their point in the next sentence
- she constantly puts down France and French people but gets pissy when people complain about loud Americans because ~I'm also American~~ do you think that about me~~ WAHHH.
- Calling all French people whiny when all she does is whine.
- she seems to have serious anger issues...like she goes from 0 to 100 about nothing at all. It would be understandable if her mother was dying like you are led to believe...but she's learning to walk again, hardly on her deathbed?
- Gets pissed off (see anger issues) when her grandmother wants her to learn French and buys her a dictionary while she just expects her to learn English, hell she expects everyone to try and speak English for her?! You are living there for the summer, at least try?!
- she's so ignorant of French culture despite her dad being French, both her parents being French lit professors, and both her parents reminiscing and telling stories about meeting in France
- I just don't really get why her parents wouldn't have raised her bilingual tbh.
And as a parting note the last letter was weird because
Spoiler
after the first letter I assumed it was Jamie's mother who wrote it...I don't know why but weird that my first instinct was correct?Give me more books set in France/Provence svp!
brenda4346's review
4.0
This book was a cute read. Jamie is sent to France due to a family accident. She feels like her grandmother doesn’t like her and she’s falling for a French guy. This book is definitely chalked full of teenage angst, love, family secrets, and adventures around France. I would definitely recommend this book if you’re looking for a quick read.
seventhchariot's review
4.0
Expected Publication Date: June 16th, 2020
My review: S.E. Anderson has a wonderful way of writing that transports the reader into the story! I felt like I was in France while reading Aix Marks The Spot, and I felt like I could understand the main character, Jamie.
My only critique about this book is that at the beginning, it felt kind of insta-lovely (although I think it served a purpose throughout the novel), and the use of second-person point of view throughout the story (which also served a big purpose for the emotional punch at the end). So I wouldn't consider these to be "problems" with the story considering they served a purpose, I still wanted to mention them because it threw me off once I had first picked up this novel.
Now back to some good things about this book! I really enjoyed the ratio of French that was and was not translated throughout the conversations in this book because it made the story and dialogues more realistic. I also was surprised by the plot twist at the end which didn't feel unnecessary but also didn't change too much of the story that we had already gotten to know.
If you are looking for a cute, summery, YA contemporary book set in France than this is the book for you!
*Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for providing me with an eARC to review! This did not impact my rating!*
My review: S.E. Anderson has a wonderful way of writing that transports the reader into the story! I felt like I was in France while reading Aix Marks The Spot, and I felt like I could understand the main character, Jamie.
My only critique about this book is that at the beginning, it felt kind of insta-lovely (although I think it served a purpose throughout the novel), and the use of second-person point of view throughout the story (which also served a big purpose for the emotional punch at the end). So I wouldn't consider these to be "problems" with the story considering they served a purpose, I still wanted to mention them because it threw me off once I had first picked up this novel.
Now back to some good things about this book! I really enjoyed the ratio of French that was and was not translated throughout the conversations in this book because it made the story and dialogues more realistic. I also was surprised by the plot twist at the end which didn't feel unnecessary but also didn't change too much of the story that we had already gotten to know.
If you are looking for a cute, summery, YA contemporary book set in France than this is the book for you!
*Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for providing me with an eARC to review! This did not impact my rating!*
cj_readsbooks's review
4.0
(I LOVE a good play on words) this story follows Jamie, a teenager sent to live with her estranged grandmother for a summer in the french countryside after a car accident with her family that left her mother re-learning to walk. seeing this trip as a punishment and determined to make things right, she sets off on a 17 year old treasure hunt her dad had set up for her mom before she was born. She enlists the help of a local boy named Valentin and together they roam southern France, following in the footsteps of her parents relationship. on the journey Jamie begins to form an important relationship for herself and also learns a lot about family and forgiveness along the way.
.
.
.
This book gave me all the wanderlust (take me to France asap please) and did such an incredible job at making you feel like you were truly right there. this was a cute coming -of-age, summer romance story and reminded me a lot of #LoveandGelato & #LoveandLuck, however #AixMarksTheSpot was a little heavier. there is a lot of family strife in this book and a huge aspect of feeling like you don't belong anywhere. I found Jamie to be a little dramatic, then again what teenage girl who feels like the whole worlds against her isn't? Overall I really did enjoy this book and now I feel like I need to plan a trip to southern France immediately after this pandemic ends. 3.5⭐️
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.
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This book gave me all the wanderlust (take me to France asap please) and did such an incredible job at making you feel like you were truly right there. this was a cute coming -of-age, summer romance story and reminded me a lot of #LoveandGelato & #LoveandLuck, however #AixMarksTheSpot was a little heavier. there is a lot of family strife in this book and a huge aspect of feeling like you don't belong anywhere. I found Jamie to be a little dramatic, then again what teenage girl who feels like the whole worlds against her isn't? Overall I really did enjoy this book and now I feel like I need to plan a trip to southern France immediately after this pandemic ends. 3.5⭐️
margomccoy2's review
2.0
**2.5 stars**
I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley!
This book was alright for me. On one hand, I'm a sucker for a YA romance in a foreign country, especially during the summer. On the other hand, I found myself struggling to like Jamie at all. I was constantly irritated by her, as she continuously said things about her parents sending her away because they hated her. Despite not knowing what had really happened up until the end, I knew right off the bat that they did not, in the slightest, hate her; it felt extremely childish and overdramatic to me. Not to mention, I hated how she treated Valentin at times (and I even hated how he acted sometimes. I can't say I didn't understand her frustrations, but the way she reacted to things made me want to stop reading at some points.
HOWEVER(!!), I LOVED the setting. Does it get much better than the countryside of France? I could truly tell where the author's personal experiences living in France pulled through; at parts, it felt like I was there with Jamie because of the sheer detail that Anderson used. I thought the setting was extremely well done, and it was definitely my favorite part of the book. I felt like I was sightseeing with them!
While the letters didn't do much for me (I found it a bit absurd that they were able to find the letters after 17 years without much difficulty at all), I did like the idea of the treasure hunt allowing Jamie to see France from her mother's eyes. It felt really special that she got to recreate some of her parents' favorite adventures and see the reasons why they loved it there so much. I really started to get more invested in the story at the end, but the ending was so abrupt and quick. I wish there had been more of an explanation about what happened after the initial reunion, as the ending felt too rushed to successfully conclude 17 years of not speaking.
Overall, it was enjoyable, but there were some things that I personally wasn’t a fan of. However, if you are looking for a fun, summer YA contemporary featuring a foreign romance, I definitely suggest checking it out.
I received a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley!
This book was alright for me. On one hand, I'm a sucker for a YA romance in a foreign country, especially during the summer. On the other hand, I found myself struggling to like Jamie at all. I was constantly irritated by her, as she continuously said things about her parents sending her away because they hated her. Despite not knowing what had really happened up until the end, I knew right off the bat that they did not, in the slightest, hate her; it felt extremely childish and overdramatic to me. Not to mention, I hated how she treated Valentin at times (and I even hated how he acted sometimes. I can't say I didn't understand her frustrations, but the way she reacted to things made me want to stop reading at some points.
HOWEVER(!!), I LOVED the setting. Does it get much better than the countryside of France? I could truly tell where the author's personal experiences living in France pulled through; at parts, it felt like I was there with Jamie because of the sheer detail that Anderson used. I thought the setting was extremely well done, and it was definitely my favorite part of the book. I felt like I was sightseeing with them!
While the letters didn't do much for me (I found it a bit absurd that they were able to find the letters after 17 years without much difficulty at all), I did like the idea of the treasure hunt allowing Jamie to see France from her mother's eyes. It felt really special that she got to recreate some of her parents' favorite adventures and see the reasons why they loved it there so much. I really started to get more invested in the story at the end, but the ending was so abrupt and quick. I wish there had been more of an explanation about what happened after the initial reunion, as the ending felt too rushed to successfully conclude 17 years of not speaking.
Overall, it was enjoyable, but there were some things that I personally wasn’t a fan of. However, if you are looking for a fun, summer YA contemporary featuring a foreign romance, I definitely suggest checking it out.