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A review by beate251
From Provence With Love by Alison Roberts
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for this ARC.
This is book 2 in the One Year in France series. The three Gilchrist sisters Ellie, Laura and Fiona have inherited an old stone house in Provence called La Maisonette from an uncle they never knew, due to their alcoholic father leaving them when they were young. In Falling for Provence, Ellie and Laura travelled to Provence to take a look and start selling the house as neither wanted to live in it. However, something compelled Ellie to stay for the summer and renovate the building for a better sale. Soon she met her grumpy neighbour Julien and his adorable little son Theo.
From Provence with Love is Laura's story and it starts simultaneously to the first book which first confused me because it repeated quite a few things. Ellie is still heavily involved, and we celebrate her wedding to Julien, who has also bought La Maisonette at the end of book 1 / middle of book 2. The fact that she had a child that died at six months old is also still a topic for Laura, who struggles with it in her whirlwind affair with estate agent Noah Dufour.
Ah, Noah, oh la la. He starts out as one of those typical men who relentlessly stalk a woman they like the look of, call her ma chérie and just generally display red flags before they drop their conquests again. We later learn that his beloved sister Elise died from cancer at seven years old, which makes him damaged and not wanting a family, so when Laura discovers she is pregnant, he does not react nicely. This did not endear him to me, pas de tout.
This is a love story that starts out as a holiday romance but never convinced me. It's wishful thinking that we can convert committment phobes into doting family men just by getting pregnant, so I have deducted points for nonsense. I wanted to scream at Laura to at least have her baby in France because with that and a French father it would have a right to a French and therefore EU-wide passport. Did she think about that? You'll have to read it to find out.
Provence with its lavender fields and sunflowers plus the mouth-watering food is described wonderfully, making you want to live there too - if there wasn't that tiny thing called Brexit that romance writers routinely ignore, n'est-ce pas? I found the first book charming but this wasn't for me. It's all about the healing power of love, so if that appeals to you, this might be for you. But if you didn't like me sprinkling my review with French words, you won't like it in the book either.
This is book 2 in the One Year in France series. The three Gilchrist sisters Ellie, Laura and Fiona have inherited an old stone house in Provence called La Maisonette from an uncle they never knew, due to their alcoholic father leaving them when they were young. In Falling for Provence, Ellie and Laura travelled to Provence to take a look and start selling the house as neither wanted to live in it. However, something compelled Ellie to stay for the summer and renovate the building for a better sale. Soon she met her grumpy neighbour Julien and his adorable little son Theo.
From Provence with Love is Laura's story and it starts simultaneously to the first book which first confused me because it repeated quite a few things. Ellie is still heavily involved, and we celebrate her wedding to Julien, who has also bought La Maisonette at the end of book 1 / middle of book 2. The fact that she had a child that died at six months old is also still a topic for Laura, who struggles with it in her whirlwind affair with estate agent Noah Dufour.
Ah, Noah, oh la la. He starts out as one of those typical men who relentlessly stalk a woman they like the look of, call her ma chérie and just generally display red flags before they drop their conquests again. We later learn that his beloved sister Elise died from cancer at seven years old, which makes him damaged and not wanting a family, so when Laura discovers she is pregnant, he does not react nicely. This did not endear him to me, pas de tout.
This is a love story that starts out as a holiday romance but never convinced me. It's wishful thinking that we can convert committment phobes into doting family men just by getting pregnant, so I have deducted points for nonsense. I wanted to scream at Laura to at least have her baby in France because with that and a French father it would have a right to a French and therefore EU-wide passport. Did she think about that? You'll have to read it to find out.
Provence with its lavender fields and sunflowers plus the mouth-watering food is described wonderfully, making you want to live there too - if there wasn't that tiny thing called Brexit that romance writers routinely ignore, n'est-ce pas? I found the first book charming but this wasn't for me. It's all about the healing power of love, so if that appeals to you, this might be for you. But if you didn't like me sprinkling my review with French words, you won't like it in the book either.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Sexism, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Abandonment