Review: One Paris Summer by Denise Grover Swank

Title: One Paris Summer
Series: a standalone
Author: Denise Grover Swank
Publisher: Blink
Date Published: June 7, 2016

Most teens dream of visiting the City of Lights, but it feels more like a nightmare for Sophie Brooks. She and her brother are sent to Paris to spend the summer with their father, who left home a year ago without any explanation. As if his sudden abandonment weren't betrayal enough, he's about to remarry, and they’re expected to play nice with his soon-to-be wife and stepdaughter. The stepdaughter, Camille, agrees to show them around the city, but she makes it clear that she will do everything in her power to make Sophie miserable.

Sophie could deal with all the pain and humiliation if only she could practice piano. Her dream is to become a pianist, and she was supposed to spend the summer preparing for a scholarship competition. Even though her father moved to Paris to pursue his own dream, he clearly doesn't support hers. His promise to provide her with a piano goes unfulfilled.

Still, no one is immune to Paris’s charm.
After a few encounters with a gorgeous French boy, Sophie finds herself warming to the city, particularly when she discovers that he can help her practice piano. There’s just one hitch—he’s a friend of Camille’s, and Camille hates Sophie. While the summer Sophie dreaded promises to become best summer of her life, one person could ruin it all.

My Thoughts:

*swoons*

I loved One Paris Summer! I hadn't really read any reviews nor heard much about it prior to diving in, and in a way, I'm glad. I almost felt like I went into the story blind, or at least with no expectations. It ended up being such a great book that caught me off guard, and I devoured each page. 

In many ways, I could relate to Sophie, and her feelings towards her father. I could understand her pain and her reluctance to trust again. Denise Grover Swank did a great job of tackling this issue and  did so in a realistic way. Marriage problems and divorce can impact each family member differently. We certainly saw that with Camille, Sophie's step-sister. Yikes, that girl was a mean one. 

The romance was handled beautifully and I felt that there was just the right amount of angst. There just wasn't really any getting around that, especially when the characters had reason to feel helpless at times. Again, I really liked Sophie and how her character drew strength in herself throughout the story. 

One of my favorite things in the story was the setting- Paris, of course! I cherished all of the descriptions of the places the characters went and of the foods that they ate. I also liked learning a bit more about the French culture, or at least in regards to dating.

I would have like just a little more resolution when it came to Sophie's mom. I felt like there were some things that she needed to fess up to her daughter, and we didn't really get that. I would love to read more about these characters or get a short story/epilogue someday. I'm just not ready to let Sophie, Mathiu, Eva, Eric, and the gang go yet.