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evawondergem's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
chloemakesbooks's review
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Enjoyable beach read. Lots of unfinished story threads, and a forced/overly convenient love story. Love that the descriptions of food were very real and period accurate. As with all historical fiction, you can't think too hard when all the famous people show up. Clearly very autobiographical. As usual, the wide eyed ingenue routine was fairly irritating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death of parent and Sexism
michelles_books9's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Pedophilia
aflann's review
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
clarelou612's review
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
There were some things I absolutely loved about this book and some things that completely did not work for me. The good: the food writing was unsurprisingly excellent. It was a mostly lighthearted and relaxing read. There were a few little mysteries over the course of the book that kept me engaged.
What I didn’t like so much: there were a lot of side plots and extra characters that felt unnecessary. The inclusion of some real historic figures as main characters along with some purely made up ones felt odd - the real chefs and artists mentioned made sense, but having the fictional Stella interacting with some real and some fictional figures didn’t work for me. (Although I certainly can’t come up with a better way to tell the story haha)
Overall I recommend it because it’s a fun story, but you do have to suspend your disbelief a bit.
What I didn’t like so much: there were a lot of side plots and extra characters that felt unnecessary. The inclusion of some real historic figures as main characters along with some purely made up ones felt odd - the real chefs and artists mentioned made sense, but having the fictional Stella interacting with some real and some fictional figures didn’t work for me. (Although I certainly can’t come up with a better way to tell the story haha)
Overall I recommend it because it’s a fun story, but you do have to suspend your disbelief a bit.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Child abuse
jansreading's review
Child abuse described early on. Some Mommy Dearest vibes here ruined what I thought was going to be a fun and light novel
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia and Child abuse
vidotson's review against another edition
This book summary needs a trigger warning! Graphic child molestation scene in the second chapter. WTF.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia
librarybribery's review
The main reason I didn’t finish the book was the large role that the main character’s suffering from repeated childhood sexual assault played in her actions. It’s described in a decent amount of detail right at the beginning, and I was hoping to get past it but like others have said it is a driving part of her character. Which to me leads to a weird juxtaposition, between this horrific thing that happened and the lighter, touristy travel novel that the book is advertised and otherwise reads as. The touristy stuff seemed superficial, the coincidences that drove the plot became eye-rolly, and the mom didn’t need to be as cruel for the plot to still work. It just didn’t work for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
genuine_sarcasm's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Trigger warning. There is pedophilia in this book and it is part of the catalyst for the character. They don’t have a warning about this in the beginning of the book.
That aside the main character is afraid of living life and hates her mom. She lived her life to spite her mom. After her mom died, her mom sends her to Paris and she “finds herself.”
The whole time she doesn’t trust anyone and second guesses them. It was irritating to read. So maybe it was well written from that perspective : person incapable of making decisions learns to finally make one / some.
It’s not until the end of the book where a character says “ehhh… you ever notice you look for reasons to be unhappy?” It quite literally takes the main character until the end of the book to realize this and it’s someone else telling her.
So the book is well written. I did not like the main character. But the story, the concept of it, is nice.
That aside the main character is afraid of living life and hates her mom. She lived her life to spite her mom. After her mom died, her mom sends her to Paris and she “finds herself.”
The whole time she doesn’t trust anyone and second guesses them. It was irritating to read. So maybe it was well written from that perspective : person incapable of making decisions learns to finally make one / some.
It’s not until the end of the book where a character says “ehhh… you ever notice you look for reasons to be unhappy?” It quite literally takes the main character until the end of the book to realize this and it’s someone else telling her.
So the book is well written. I did not like the main character. But the story, the concept of it, is nice.
Content Warnings
Minor: Pedophilia
idesofmarch's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Vomit