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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
2.5 / 5 Stars
(before i start, is it just me or is this book really jarringly typeset? Like its not bad it just feels off?)
I wanted to love this. I kept picking it up while I was sorting through the shelves. It wasn't one I'd heard of, so it kept getting pushed until I finally picked it up properly this week. The premise is so unique - a teenage girl, burned by an Art History Scholarship rejection and her boyfriend's disinterest, is spending the summer in Paris with her parents. She meets a young, handsome descendent of Alexandre Dumas and they go on a research adventure, attempting to piece together the story of a missing Delacroix painting. Along the way she discovers the story of Leila, a young Muslim woman who is the subject of Byron's Giaour, and uncovers parts of her lost story. This sounds like an excellent premise for a book, because it is, but I wasn't in love with the execution.
Essentially, what you've got here is a Da Vinci Code style Arts and Humanities mystery. It's silly - very silly. The book doesn't quite lean into that enough, and feels like it presupposes an understanding of who Byron, Dumas and Delacroix are. I reckon you could get along okay without that knowledge but it would certainly help. Chunks of the language feel a little over-academic, leaning on texts like Said's Orientalism to construct a political and feminist argument for the book. Again, the argument is great - women's stories, particularly those of WOC, have been neglected and lost to time, so we must do what work we can to reconstruct them. Great, I'm all on board. However, at times the repeated stating of this thesis statement throughout the novel made it feel a bit ham-fisted. This seems to have the biggest impact on the dialogue, which often feels like reading a thinkpiece instead of reading about two teenagers talking to each other. I feel like the message could be executed just as well without the need to keep referring back to it constantly.
The romance was a bit damp too - I didn't feel the chemistry with Alexandre, nor were the stakes there enough with Zaid for me to really connect with it. Khayyam's lack of a moral leg to stand on with the boys was also frustrating. It just needed more.
There were also just huge plot points that strained my suspension of disbelief to breaking point. You're telling me that you found a whole salon left basically untouched for 150 years, left almost exactly as described in a specific letter? It just felt awfully convenient. If you're going to be that silly, lean into it more.
All being said, the writing and construction of the story itself was good, vivid and well-paced. Paris really came to life in this book in a way that felt very Parisian but not too self-indulgent. I liked Khayyam a lot, even though I thought her fixation on one specific scholarship was a bit odd, and weirdly unresolved at the end. I'd be interested to read Ahmed's other books to see if they stick a bit better than this with me.
(before i start, is it just me or is this book really jarringly typeset? Like its not bad it just feels off?)
I wanted to love this. I kept picking it up while I was sorting through the shelves. It wasn't one I'd heard of, so it kept getting pushed until I finally picked it up properly this week. The premise is so unique - a teenage girl, burned by an Art History Scholarship rejection and her boyfriend's disinterest, is spending the summer in Paris with her parents. She meets a young, handsome descendent of Alexandre Dumas and they go on a research adventure, attempting to piece together the story of a missing Delacroix painting. Along the way she discovers the story of Leila, a young Muslim woman who is the subject of Byron's Giaour, and uncovers parts of her lost story. This sounds like an excellent premise for a book, because it is, but I wasn't in love with the execution.
Essentially, what you've got here is a Da Vinci Code style Arts and Humanities mystery. It's silly - very silly. The book doesn't quite lean into that enough, and feels like it presupposes an understanding of who Byron, Dumas and Delacroix are. I reckon you could get along okay without that knowledge but it would certainly help. Chunks of the language feel a little over-academic, leaning on texts like Said's Orientalism to construct a political and feminist argument for the book. Again, the argument is great - women's stories, particularly those of WOC, have been neglected and lost to time, so we must do what work we can to reconstruct them. Great, I'm all on board. However, at times the repeated stating of this thesis statement throughout the novel made it feel a bit ham-fisted. This seems to have the biggest impact on the dialogue, which often feels like reading a thinkpiece instead of reading about two teenagers talking to each other. I feel like the message could be executed just as well without the need to keep referring back to it constantly.
The romance was a bit damp too - I didn't feel the chemistry with Alexandre, nor were the stakes there enough with Zaid for me to really connect with it. Khayyam's lack of a moral leg to stand on with the boys was also frustrating. It just needed more.
There were also just huge plot points that strained my suspension of disbelief to breaking point. You're telling me that you found a whole salon left basically untouched for 150 years, left almost exactly as described in a specific letter? It just felt awfully convenient. If you're going to be that silly, lean into it more.
All being said, the writing and construction of the story itself was good, vivid and well-paced. Paris really came to life in this book in a way that felt very Parisian but not too self-indulgent. I liked Khayyam a lot, even though I thought her fixation on one specific scholarship was a bit odd, and weirdly unresolved at the end. I'd be interested to read Ahmed's other books to see if they stick a bit better than this with me.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I've been putting this book off for about 3 years and now I've finished it in just over 6 hours!
I tend to shy away from contemporary writing but this one was SO good and very different than the contemporary fiction and romance that I normally read. The plot follows two young adults uncovering the mystery of a woman erased from history (I throughly enjoyed the feminist lens of this novel). The bases of many romance poems and some 19th century art, this woman was not exactly as she seemed. The novel is dual perspective but gives you only small vignettes of this historical woman's life. It's fascinating and pulls at the heart strings. It's much different than any other modern romance that I've read lately. I liked it a lot and highly recommend it to anyone!
Bonus: it was written buy a Muslim author, features a Muslim main character, features a biracial main character, and has a fun history focus with a feminist lens. The story shifts settings from France (modern day - they mentioned the notre dame burning which surprised me!) and in Turkey (I believe) during the Ottoman Empire.
I tend to shy away from contemporary writing but this one was SO good and very different than the contemporary fiction and romance that I normally read. The plot follows two young adults uncovering the mystery of a woman erased from history (I throughly enjoyed the feminist lens of this novel). The bases of many romance poems and some 19th century art, this woman was not exactly as she seemed. The novel is dual perspective but gives you only small vignettes of this historical woman's life. It's fascinating and pulls at the heart strings. It's much different than any other modern romance that I've read lately. I liked it a lot and highly recommend it to anyone!
Bonus: it was written buy a Muslim author, features a Muslim main character, features a biracial main character, and has a fun history focus with a feminist lens. The story shifts settings from France (modern day - they mentioned the notre dame burning which surprised me!) and in Turkey (I believe) during the Ottoman Empire.
medium-paced
Graded By: Brian
Cover Story: Summer in Paris
Drinking Buddy: The Three Musketeers
MPAA Rating: PG-13: Violence, Sexuality, Alcohol Use
Talky Talk: French Connection
Bonus Factors: Alexandre Dumas, Paris
Bromance Status: One For All
Read the full book report here.
Cover Story: Summer in Paris
Drinking Buddy: The Three Musketeers
MPAA Rating: PG-13: Violence, Sexuality, Alcohol Use
Talky Talk: French Connection
Bonus Factors: Alexandre Dumas, Paris
Bromance Status: One For All
Read the full book report here.
A good, quick read for all those who want to accomplish their reading goal for the year.
It took me more than a year to finish this book which might make you think I didn't like it but... surprise, I actually liked it quite a lot.
I’d give this 3.5 stars if that was an option.
I loved the culture clash: American, desi and French, as well as the language shifts and interweaving of art history. And I appreciated how the emphasis wasn’t actually on the female protagonist’s romantic relationships. But I felt there was undue focus on a scholarship that turned out to not be fully relevant and the side mentions of the best friend felt unnecessary.
This book read like Anna and the French Kiss meets Chasing Vermeer. Don’t get me wrong, I loved those books and tore through this one but I think I’ll have to give it a reread to truly appreciate the layers and connections that were uncovered.
I loved the culture clash: American, desi and French, as well as the language shifts and interweaving of art history. And I appreciated how the emphasis wasn’t actually on the female protagonist’s romantic relationships. But I felt there was undue focus on a scholarship that turned out to not be fully relevant and the side mentions of the best friend felt unnecessary.
This book read like Anna and the French Kiss meets Chasing Vermeer. Don’t get me wrong, I loved those books and tore through this one but I think I’ll have to give it a reread to truly appreciate the layers and connections that were uncovered.
I love what this book was saying about the power of finding one's voice and the need to dig deeper to find the unremembered stories in history. So many voice in history have been forgotten, but new trends in historiography have meant that new stories are coming to light. It also helped that both timelines were perfectly romantic and Khayyam was such a believable and fascinating lead character. I zipped through this book in two days because I couldn't get enough of the story. Its delicate handling of important topics in the historiography of marginalized voices was an added bonus.