A review by shannismcewen
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, although I can't quite grasp why -- the writing, I suppose. Because the characters all kind of annoyed me. And I get it: I get that there are women out there in the world who just marry men because it's expected of them, and proceed to live lives that they aren't super fond of because that's what life is to these people. But I don't actually KNOW any of these women, so it's just really super difficult to read books about them and convince myself that what I'm reading about is realistic in some way. These people are more like a depressing fantasy to me. And that's how I feel about main character Madeleine and her family and her husband -- it's just incredible to me that even in 1999, when the action in her part of the story takes place, that women like this existed (also, let's not harp on too much about the fact that the 1999 of the story felt no different than 2016 -- is there that much of a difference, really?).

ANYWAY. I enjoyed it. I promise. The woman (Madeleine's grandmother) running away to Jazz Age Paris felt like a cliche but it was well written enough that I had to see if it panned out in the (rather predictable) way I had guessed early on. It's a nice story and Eleanor Brown writes it well enough that it felt fresh. And maybe you've never heard a similar story and it will be completely new to you!