A review by unapolojaytic
Aix Marks the Spot by S.E. Anderson

4.0

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
When I was looking through NetGalley’s Read Now selection, I was immediately intrigued by the title of this book. You see, I’m French, so when I see people talking about France without it being centred on Paris, I’m pleased. Not that I don’t like Paris, but the country has some much more to offer than the Eiffel Tower. And this is one of the strongest messages I got from this book.

Jamie’s dad is French and he and her mom met in Aix en Provence while going to university. But neither of them has been back since before Jamie was born and they moved to Philadelphia. Her dad hasn’t even spoken to his mother in seventeen years. But when Jamie’s mother gets in an accident and needs space to go through Physical therapy, Jamie is sent to spend her summer with her French grandmother, whom she has never met and can’t even communicate properly with. As she readies herself for the worst summer of her life, Jamie meets Valentin, a local French boy who agrees to help her retrace the steps of her parents falling in love.

If you’re looking for a book that will make you leave reality to go traipsing around the south of France, this is it. In it, you’ll find family drama, language confusion, south of France scenery, falling in love, a treasure hunt, and most of all, a lesson on the importance of communication.

All in all, this was a pretty good book. I loved getting to see a bit of my own country through the eyes of a newcomer, it made me want to plan a trip with friends to see all the place mentioned in the story (maybe that’ll happen once this whole covid thing is over, who’s with me?). Anderson’s writing sucks you in and makes every landscape extremely vivid, I could hear the cicadas chirping in my head and smell the lavender all around me.

This might be the perfect book if you’re longing for summer adventures and a lovely love story spanning two generations.