When you’ll always have Paris…

Synopsis

Ten years. Two people. One last visit…

Sophie and Tom first visited Paris together as students. During their weekend away in the world’s most romantic city, falling in love – with the place, and each other – was simply inevitable.

They resolved to return every summer and kept their word, until something happened that changed their world forever.

Five years on, Sophie’s travelling to Paris alone to meet Tom again in their special place, on the Pont du Carrousel at midnight.

Because life has torn them apart. And now Sophie has something to tell Tom. Something that will change everything…

The most heartbreaking, uplifting and powerful novel you’ll read all year. Perfect for fans of David Nicholls, Kristin Hannah and The Notebook.

My review

Years ago, Sophie and Tom went as students to Paris. Even with their many differences, they fell in love, and with a shared love for Paris, they decided to return each summer to the place that stole their hearts.
And for years they have managed to stick to their resolution, hell or high water. No matter what was happening in their lives together, summer meant a weekend in Paris.
But then life happened, and pulled Sophie and Tom apart….
This year, Sophie goes to Paris on her own, meeting Tom at their special place. Because Sophie has something to tell Tom, and that will change everything once again, and for once and for all this time…

There are stories where you start reading, where you think you know beforehand what will take place. Only while reading, you realize that your initial thoughts were wrong and then at the end you find yourself into tears… And this book was exactly that…

I know this author for a while now, and yet she managed to completely surprise me with this book. Not only because we see what happened to Sophie through the years since meeting Tom, but also what her current situation is.

It’s often in a book that when a couple gets together, we have reached the end of the book and their story. But I found it great to read what happens in the following years between Sophie and Tom, as we get a better insight of who the characters really are. And it gave us also the opportunity to not only see the highs but also the lows of a couple.

As Sophie and Tom had different upbringings, it makes sense that once in a while they also clash. The more I was reading about their lives together, and their trips to Paris, the more I started to believe that perhaps it was those differences that would have been the cause of them not being together anymore.

So I also have to admit, I wanted to like Sophie from the start, but the way she goes to Paris on her own, for the last time to meet with Tom, gave me mixed feelings. I was rooting for this couple from the start, but as their lives took different directions, Sophie going to Paris to meet Tom also felt some kind of betrayal to the life she is building on her own…

The more I progressed in the story, the more I saw much reality in it. Life isn’t always a walk in the park, and for sure there are several hurdles we all have to overcome. And those hurdles can come in quick succession, and one hurdle can be easier to overcome than another…

And then suddenly, for me the penny dropped… even before it was written clearly black on white… and everything fell into place, everything made even more sense than it already did. Of course I am not going to say what exactly, but you’ll get it…

Of course, I loved walking alongside Sophie and Tom in Paris, as I have been there several times too. It was easy to recall whatever they were seeing. But I also loved having those sweet and important moments with them, even on that bridge that means so much to the both of them…

To let me cry in a book, you need to write one heck of a book. And throughout the whole book, there were no tears. And then those last few chapters… They just broke me completely… It was so beautiful, so perfect to have those snippets in it. Of course I felt a bit stupid, letting chapters affect me like that, but it was just stronger than myself. 

I absolutely loved reading this book, seeing how relationships evolve trough the years, how there are many happy moments but also difficult moments. We see how difficult it can be to let go, but that sometimes we must in order to move on…

For me personally, it felt like the best book this wonderful author has written at the moment. And yes, that also means that there are now extreme high expectation, Gillian! 😊