Reviews

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

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emilybark02's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

paige87's review

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2.0

I loved the idea, and it started out strong. I loved discovering pieces of Paris and the rest of France. Also enjoyed the camaraderie between the three men while they were travelling on the little boat. The author developed some fantastic characters.

I did not like how every character became a philosophiser. I liked that Perdu had insight into people, and could prescribe a book for each emotional ailment. However, every character seemed to burst at the seems with educational wisdom. This seemed unrealistic. And it began to bog down the reading. This, perhaps, was the fault of the translation?

I am on the fence about my feelings for Manon and the way Perdu dealt with his anger and grief. Twenty years felt far too long to be holding on to old hurts, but who am I to judge how individuals deal with loss? It did seem a stretch though. To still be grieving to that extent. Grief, yes, definitely. Twenty years of fresh grief? Not so sure.

This book had really good points, many pieces of wisdom. To be honest, I wouldn't have picked it up were it not for the title. Though I do wish that little bookshop really was the main character in this story, and not a side character to Jean's grief.

This made a great discussion with my book club. I have also added "travel the waterways of France" to my bucket list.

itsme_bianca's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

melissa_bookworm's review

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4.0

The Little Paris Bookshop is a delightfully morose and funny book. It's compared to Elegance of the Hedgehog and Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (neither of which I have read but would like to) so I knew I was in for a good read. It is a character driven, sometimes rom-com-esque, story following Perdu and his grief. His love left him over 20 years ago but the appearance of a new resident in his unit block means that he opens the door the room which he blocked out of his life for so many years. This sets in motion an adventure on his book barge down the Seine and through to Provence, meeting fantastic characters along the way.

This is definitely a book for Booklovers. When Jean 'prescribes' someone a book it is so fantastic. I wish he was real so he could read my soul and pick my perfect remedy. I found the writing to be quite poetic in the dialogue in some places, I'm not sure if this has something to do with the translation or if that was what George was expessing.

I was lucky enough to be travelling along a similar route through France when I was reading this so I found it so descriptively real.

May tear open some wounds for anyone who has been through a break up recently or lost someone close to them. Ideal for people who just love books, you can tell there is a lot of book love here (booksellers will be a particular joy)

sarahmaiolo's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

3.0

cleothebengal's review

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4.0

I think that there were some really beautiful and insightful bits in this book. The idea was great and the influx of new characters kept things interesting. If I could change one thing, I'd probably make the book about 50 pages shorter: a tad from the beginning and some from the end. I just think that it took a while to get things rolling, but after the first fourth of the book, it really picked up. I think that also, because this was a book that's based around the idea of a literary apothecary, giving more actual titles for books in the story would be nice. Jean only really mentioned a handful, but it would be nice to have more specifics. Overall, I think this was very well-written and intelligent.