"Well yeah, there you go: fourteen.

At that age, you're still under construction (pg 16)."

[SN: I won this ARC through a Goodreads giveaway. c:]

STORY:
In Paris with You by Clémentine Beauvais (320 pages), is a highly romantic tale (on the hopeless romantic scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the highest; it's a 4.5)! Sometimes, things have a strong chick-flick feeling, but a touch of realism is added at the end. I enjoy having a fun lighthearted story to read. However, it's a bit unusual to read because everything is in verse and the omnipresent narrator is confusing haha.

I totally get all the imaginary scenarios fourteen-year-old Tatiana dreams up about Eugene. You know, it's like when you go to a store or Starbucks, I guess, and you think hmm... wouldn't it be funny if I fell in love with the barista, and he remembers how I hate coffee but always order tea. Coincidentally he goes to your college and in his 4th year of engineering, he remembers you and asks you on a date, and it's not coffee he promises, amused. Eventually, you two marry with lots of money, no cheating, and 2.5 kids ...

Yes, Tatiana, I get you! That's the same longwinded junk I used to daydream about when I was younger too.

Heads up. There is a suicide, a minor reference to Down Syndrome that's in bad taste, and the male lead could possibly be insufferable to you. Moving forward!

OVERALL:
Is it perfect? No, but no story is.

Does it make sense why Tatiana's still hung up over Eugene? Not entirely.

Is Eugene the best male lead? Nah, he's mad-arrogant and pretentious (yes, they're slightly different: see here), and everything that goes wrong in this story is exactly because of him. He's very sex-obsessed. (In his mind), he calls Tatiana a slut for assuming she's sleeping with a man that she already denied being with. God's gift to women, everyone. Yeah, he apologizes, but he's pressedt about imaginary scenarios where she's with other men. I understand jealousy is a natural reaction (imperfect characters are certainly fine with me), but Eugene's a got a lot of gall. I think he was more eager to have sex with Tatiana than to truly get to know her again. He's more genuine when he was younger.

Still, I give this 5/5. I enjoyed every page of it and will definitely reread it over and over. Also, I like the cover. There are countless passages or quotes to love, and I highlighted my favorite ones. It's quirky and cute.

A fun read for any young or new adult. ( )

This was O.K. but it didn't really capture my imagination. Reading the online reviews, maybe I missed something by listening to it rather than reading it. The main characters meet up after being apart for ten years - will a connection happen this time around? ( )

This is a tough book to review. I thought the poetical format with interruptions from an unnamed narrator was interesting; I liked its inventiveness. I also liked the poetical nature of the novel. There were some lines that were gorgeous, and in the end, the language is what kept me reading. The problem is that, especially for a romance, I didn't like either main character. For example, when we first see Tatiana, she's faking a pregnancy so that she can have a seat on the metro. I almost didn't keep reading because that's appalling. How can a character recover from that? And Eugene? He's sexually obsessed, accuses Tatiana of having an affair with her thesis advisor, calls her a slut, and when she refuses to take his calls or answer his emails, he keeps insisting. He's totally unstable. So, in truth, I didn't care if these two ever got together and, in fact, thought it better that they did not. So, I can't call it a romance. I'm not sure what it is. I just wish the language of the novel wasn't wasted on two such undeserving characters. ( )

Gosh, I really expected to love this book. I kept hearing good things about it. It just left me so confused though. I can’t get past the fact that it was narrated like a play by some character that was never given a name. It didn’t seem to be anyone’s conscience because I think both of the main characters were connected to it. And sometimes it was hard to tell who “me” was in the story. When someone was talking and they said “me” was it the mystery narrator or one of the characters?

I found the writing style unique. It was basically written like a poem or prose. It was long and without punctuation. It was unique but not necessarily something I loved.

About the characters, Tatiana and Eugene met when she was 14 and he was 17. She fell in love with him and he broke her heart by declaring that they could never be together.
Of course that makes sense given their age difference but you can tell that it was more about him being jaded than his age. He thought he knew the way the world worked and that Tatiana was foolish for believing in love.

They meet again ten years later and they are given a second chance. And this time, Eugene pursues Tatiana. I definitely appreciated the karma there, that suddenly he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

That said, I always liked Tatiana more than Eugene. He’s not the most likable guy in the world.

I got to read an early e book edition from NetGalley. I would call this book unique but I wouldn’t say I understood it. ( )

"Well yeah, there you go: fourteen.

At that age, you're still under construction (pg 16)."
[I won this ARC through a Goodreads giveaway.]

STORY:
In Paris with You by Clémentine Beauvais (320 pages), is a highly romantic tale (on the hopeless romantic scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the highest; it's a 4.5)! Sometimes, things have a strong chick-flick feeling, but a touch of realism is added at the end. I enjoy having a fun lighthearted story to read. However, it's a bit unusual to read because everything is in verse and the omnipresent narrator is confusing haha.

I totally get all the imaginary scenarios fourteen-year-old Tatiana dreams up about Eugene. You know, it's like when you go to a store or Starbucks, I guess, and you think hmm... wouldn't it be funny if I fell in love with the barista, and he remembers how I hate coffee but always order tea. Coincidentally he goes to your college and in his 4th year of engineering, he remembers you and asks you on a date, and it's not coffee he promises, amused. Eventually, you two marry with lots of money, no cheating, and 2.5 kids ...

Yes, Tatiana, I get you! That's the same long-winded junk I used to daydream about when I was younger too.

Heads up. There is a suicide, a minor reference to Down Syndrome that's in bad taste, and the male lead could possibly be insufferable to you. Moving forward!

OVERALL:
Is it perfect? No, but no story is.

Does it make sense why Tatiana's still hung up over Eugene? Not entirely.

Is Eugene the best male lead? Nah, he's mad-arrogant and pretentious (yes, they're slightly different), and everything that goes wrong in this story is exactly because of him. He's very sex-obsessed. (In his mind), he calls Tatiana a slut for assuming she's sleeping with a man that she already denied being with. God's gift to women, everyone. Yeah, he apologizes, but he's pressed about imaginary scenarios where she's with other men. I understand jealousy is a natural reaction (imperfect characters are certainly fine with me), but Eugene's a got a lot of gall. I think he was more eager to have sex with Tatiana than to truly get to know her again. He was more genuine when he was younger.

Still, I give this 5/5. I enjoyed every page of it and will definitely reread it over and over. Also, I like the cover. There are countless passages or quotes to love, and I highlighted my favorite ones. It's quirky and cute.

A fun read for any young or new adult. ( )