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A review by cupcakes_and_coffee
The Light of Paris by Eleanor Brown
3.0
Just ok. The story didn't stand out for me. A woman finds her grandmother's journals packed away in the attic and discovers that she was once a very different woman than the one she'd known. Who hasn't read that before?
A love story in Paris during the Jazz Age ...of course I was drawn to that! But I found the main character of modern day, Madeline, to be almost pathetic at times. She is "trapped" in her rich girl, loveless, and controlling marriage. Her mother's disapproval & her acceptance of it seems outdated & unbelievable. In the author's attempt to make her appear in sync with her 1920's counterpart, Margie her grandmother, she instead looked like she was plucked from that time and just dropped into 1999. Maybe 1959 would've been more believable. I almost expected a description of her outfit to contain a corset because that's how outdated her traits & interactions appeared. Her relationships are complete emotional abuse. Still, her internal talk is simply annoying. "What will I do?, who will I be? No one will marry me, I can't eat cake or someone will say I'm fat.." Can you sense my eye rolls? Neither female character seemed to think much of herself so it was difficult to connect. My overall feeling toward them was frustration.
The setting and story itself, although nothing new, kept me reading. But it is a tired storyline, with only moderately interesting characters with what I consider questionable likability.
A love story in Paris during the Jazz Age ...of course I was drawn to that! But I found the main character of modern day, Madeline, to be almost pathetic at times. She is "trapped" in her rich girl, loveless, and controlling marriage. Her mother's disapproval & her acceptance of it seems outdated & unbelievable. In the author's attempt to make her appear in sync with her 1920's counterpart, Margie her grandmother, she instead looked like she was plucked from that time and just dropped into 1999. Maybe 1959 would've been more believable. I almost expected a description of her outfit to contain a corset because that's how outdated her traits & interactions appeared. Her relationships are complete emotional abuse. Still, her internal talk is simply annoying. "What will I do?, who will I be? No one will marry me, I can't eat cake or someone will say I'm fat.." Can you sense my eye rolls? Neither female character seemed to think much of herself so it was difficult to connect. My overall feeling toward them was frustration.
The setting and story itself, although nothing new, kept me reading. But it is a tired storyline, with only moderately interesting characters with what I consider questionable likability.