When the city of love initially starts as the city of healing heartbreak

Synopsis

Can the city of love mend a broken heart?

Romance author Tessa Elliot has writer’s block, and worse – she isn’t sure she still believes in love. To heal her broken heart, she decides to go on the romantic break in Paris she’d booked before her world fell apart.

But when she arrives at the Airbnb, Tessa is stunned to find someone is already there. Her ex’s best friend Ethan has made himself at home, being told that the place would be empty.

As it’s Paris Fashion Week, and with no other options, they agree to share the apartment. Neither will be in the place much after all, with Ethan taking a cookery course and Tessa on a hard deadline to finish her novel.

But sharing close nights in a one bed apartment, there’s an undeniable pull towards one another.

Will Tessa be able open her heart, and her laptop, ever again?

A gorgeous romance set in the city of love, perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Christina Lauren

My review

After her break – up with her boyfriend, romance author Tessa Elliot has a severe case of writer’s block. And all because she doesn’t believe in love anymore. To find inspiration and also heal her broken heart, with some persuasion of her best friends, Tessa decides to go on the planned romantic break to Paris, on her own. As she paid for it all, it for sure seems a waste of money not going.
However, when she arrives at the Airbnb, she is shocked to find the place already inhabited. Because her ex didn’t see any issue in letting his best friend Ethan staying at the place, as it would be empty anyway.
As Paris is completely booked, for the Paris Fashion Week, Tessa and Ethan agree to share the Airbnb, as they won’t be spending much shared time together, with Elliot focusing on his cookery course and Tessa working on her deadline.
However, time is spent together, and the both of them realize that their first impressions of each other were way off, thanks to Tessa’s ex…
Will Paris be able to make Tessa believe in love again, and let her open her heart again? Or will Paris be something Tessa and Ethan will always have, but nothing more?

Paris is the city that many people have romantic ideas of. And while I absolutely love the city, having been there several times, I cannot say that I link personally Paris with love. Of course it doesn’t help that each time I went, I just went with friends or my brother 😊.

So in a way, I was happy to read that Paris would be “used” as a healing medicine, and not a place with too many expectations.

Because when Tessa head off to Paris, she goes with the lowest romantic expectations. She goes there to find inspiration for her book, not looking for romance herself at all.
And I cannot blame, reading how her ex treated her. Perhaps the stages of her relationship came too quickly, but it’s all circumstantial…

Right from the start, the more I read about that relationship, the more red flags  started to appear. So to see how it ended, wasn’t a complete surprise for me, but I could understand Tessa’s devastation. And I cannot blame her for giving up on love. Getting hurt by the person that supposed to love you, is just terrible. And the way Tessa learned the truth, just even more terrible!

I was happy to read that Tessa is surrounded by loyal friends, who are even able to persuade her to go to Paris, despite everything. It saddened me to read about her writer’s block and it made sense to me for Tessa to head of to the City of Love, looking for inspiration.

Now, I have to say, the moment Tessa finds Ethan in the Airbnb, I found it hilarious. Of course it scared the sh*t out of Tessa, as she wasn’t expecting anyone at the place. But then finding someone there, and how she finds Ethan, well, sorry for truly laughing out loud! 😊

It is rather quickly clear that the discomfort between Tessa and Ethan is not because they truly dislike each other, but it’s rather of the picture that infamous ex, Joe, painted to the other. And with what we know about him…

The moment Ethan enters the scene, there was something about him that says that he is the good kind of guy. He has dreams of his own, and him staying in Paris has a purpose. And even if he and Tessa didn’t get along, or got the chance to know each other well while Tessa was with Joe, he doesn’t hesitate to show Tessa around in Paris. What I liked even more, was that beside all the famous landmarks, he shows Tessa the more special, captivating places that not all tourists know about.

And of course it was lovely to see how the more time these two great characters spend together, the better they get to know each other (obviously), but also start to truly like each other. The attraction just keeps growing between them, and while at moments I just wanted them to take things further, I also liked the decency they both have. They don’t want to rush things, they both want to be sure about what they would be doing, but also they don’t want to take advantage of each other when there may or may not be some alcohol involved.

What I liked even better, is that I got surprised by the behaviour during the very heated moments. Talking about still waters! 😊

Of course I have to talk about Juliette, Ethan’s Parisian friend. What a force of nature she is! And how genuine! When she likes you, she *likes* you, and once a friend, there isn’t a thing she wouldn’t do for you! Everyone needs a Juliette in their life! 😊

Too bad that the book also has an act where things seem to fall completely apart… I was almost screaming loudly at Tessa…

Luckily in this book we see that Tessa has had a lot of growth in it. Not only does she find her self-confidence back, but she also speaks out her mind. She dares to dream again, she dares to love again.

All the above made me just read this book at a pace that perhaps was unhealthy. But I found it truly impossible to just put it down, and continue with my own life, while Tessa and Ethan (and Paris) were waiting for me…