Muriel Zagha

Fieldnotes:
1 Bubbly London Fashionista
1 Serious-Minded Parisian Academic
1 Year Long Apartment Swap
1 Lost Manuscript of an Unpublished Novel Forming the Basis of A Thesis

1 Good For Nothing Misogynist Jerk
1 Descendant of Pulp Fiction Writer Being Studied
3 Party-Crashers of Dubious Moral Fiber but Charm to Spare
2 Back-stabbing "Friends"
1 Graphic Novel Artist & Writer
1 Insane But Revered Fashion Designer

The Short Version:
A brief fun read that reminded me of the movie The Holiday about a budding fashionista who picks up swaps apartments with a woman she's never met in Paris on a whim for the adventure and the serious-minded methodical Parisian academic who is left living with her uber-gay fashion designer & gloomy Goth musician housemates. While there were threads left hanging, the settings not played up enough and the plot was fairly predictable, it kept me turning pages and I enjoyed rooting for Daisy & Isabelle to each find Monsieur Right.… (altro)

On the whole I liked it, and for a debut novel I would say it's very good.
Daisy, an English fashion writer, and Isabelle, a French academic, swap flats for a year, and at the same time they seem to swap friends and lifestyles.
My issues with the book started on page 1 of the first Chapter, where there is a whole email written in French. As this is an English language book, I would have liked a translation. There are also sentences in French scattered throughout the book, with no translation, which could leave the reader feeling lost.
By about page 200, I was getting bored and almost stopped reading the book. I was having a hard time dealing with the stilted humour and the one dimensional, unoriginal, stereotypical characters. For example, Chrissie, the over-the-top gay fashion designer, and Jules, the depressed Goth. Perhaps a better skilled comedy writer could have pulled these off, but comedy is not easy to write, and in this case most of the book reads like a bad BBC sitcom.
Also, at one point in the novel (probably because the author has not accounted for the passing of time clearly enough) there seemed to quite a lot of bed-hopping, which left me feeling a bit nauseous.

By now, you are probably thinking I didn't like the book, but that's not true. I'm pleased to say, that as the book progresses the quality of the writing does get better, and you can even get used to the odd characters. They grow on you.

On the plus side, there was a good storyline, which kept me interested. I was intrigued by the story about the writer Meredith Quince, who had written a lost, unpublished book, which Isabelle was trying to find. I loved the Epilogue, which in my opinion, was the best part of the book. If I was reviewing that on its own, I would give it 5 stars; it is very romantic and a lovely ending to the book.
All in all, I would say 'Finding Monsieur Right' is quite entertaining, and if you can get past the first half of the book, there's lots to like about the novel.… (altro)