Bookworm in the City

Book review – The Little Bookshop On The Seine / Rebecca Raisin

Boy-oh-boy, do I have things to say about this book.
After all the happy-sigh reviews, and, I admit, the pretty covers for the different editions, I had such high hopes. Bookshops. Paris. Christmas. What could go wrong?
Unlikeable characters, that is. You can have the nicest settings but if the main characters aren’t appealing, it drags down the story. And not be a total grinch, but the minor characters didn’t win me over either as they never really seemed more than stereotypes.
Ye be warned: I’m in no mood to hold back so spoilers ahead.

The story goes as follows: Sarah is the owner of a bookshop in small-town America.
Her best friend runs the café/bakery across the road, which is used as the hangout spot for their friend group (I cannot remember the others). Sarah doesn’t really step beyond the two locations, but she does have a boyfriend about whom I learned two things: 1) he’s superhot and 2) he’s a freelance journalist and away ninety per cent of the time, chasing stories in Indonesia, Russia, and anywhere in between.

Rant: it wasn’t until I finished the book that I learned that the second book in the binding was actually the first book story-wise. Who does that?! Seriously, I wish non-stop papercuts to the person who came up with that.
I thought this was a standalone and so annoyed that I never even bothered to read that second-but-chronologically-first book (“The bookshop on the corner”). So yes, it’s entirely my own fault that I have no idea what on earth brought Sarah and her boyfriend together in the first place, but based on the book I read, they didn’t seem to have compatible lives or even that much in common, aside from the fact that they seemed equally hot for each other. I didn’t root for their happily ever after, and was too chagrined to continue with the prequel to figure them out.

Then there’s Sophie, who is the owner of a bookshop in Paris, and not just any bookshop in Paris, but the one from the title. She’s heartbroken because her ex-boyfriend has a new girlfriend who owns a shop on the same street as Sophie’s bookshop, and she has to see them together all the time. She’s so desperate to get away from it all, that she contacts her online friend Sarah, and proposes they swap shop, and fast. It seemed a tad extreme, especially the hurry with which this all had to happen, but this happened within the first chapter and I was still on board.
The women have a couple of video calls to figure stuff out and three days later, Sarah is on her way to Paris, while Sophie is jetting the opposite direction.
Sarah’s enthusiasm for a change of scenery isn’t shared by family and friends, who aren’t as supportive as one would think, and they all seem Very Worried about her ability to deal with stepping out of her comfort zone. It’s explained that Sarah went through a traumatic event when she was young and this is why she grew up to be a shy introvert who is afraid of anything new and just wants to spend her days reading.
Having people in your inner circle that keep reminding you that you are scared of things and don’t like to do much, is not helpful. Sarah deserved therapy, instead of this borderline gaslighting.
Once she has touched down in Paris, Sarah needs to take the metro into town and acts like she’s never been on a busy mode of public transportation. Even if she hadn’t before, she just travelled from one international airport to another, so she must at least have been on an airport shuttle or something? In any case, she needs two tries to get on board which has her completely stressed out.
It felt like such a cliché way to describe the fish-out-of-water situation and did not establish Sarah as the most capable person. But, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and blamed jetlag.
When she finally makes it to the bookshop, she promptly has her luggage stolen there. Because no, you shouldn’t leave your luggage unattended anywhere, least of all not in a busy shop in a big city. As quickly as Sarah was annoyed with Paris, I was annoyed with her.

So many stereotypes are thrown around that it’s almost insulting: the French are arrogant and eat weird food. Nobody wants to help lost tourists. Of course, the shy guy sitting in the corner all day, every day, turns out to be Sarah’s favourite author. Of course, the haughty employee who steals money turns out to be a loving single mom, struggling to make ends meet. None of it was surprising or original.
Sarah is disappointed when none of the staff jumps up to become her new best friend right away. Sarah is disappointed about life in Paris because she had pictured herself reading in the parks, walking along the Seine and sipping wine in cafés. Sarah sure is great at moping around and doesn’t do much self-reflection: building a life in a new place, requires some actual input. And Sarah is not investing time in making friends or exploring the city because she’s too flustered about the bustling shop, and the disorganized mess it all is. The staff is giving her a hard time and her doormat personality has them walking over her schedules and plans.
When one of the shop girls finally feels sorry for Sarah and starts taking her out for lunches and shopping trips, she also provides her with some much-needed insider information, but basically tells Sarah to put on her big girl pants and get on with it.
Then on top of everything, Sophie, all the way over in the US, gets mad because the reports indicate sales numbers are dropping every month. While understandable, this anger seemed weird to me because she decided to leave a shy, timid, woman in charge, one who barely manages to keep her own little shop afloat. At the same time, Sarah is surprised to learn that Sophie managed to turn her shop around because yes, that’s what happens when you stop reading behind the register and actually run a business.
Sophie came across as a bit of a ball-buster and not particularly friendly, but I think that’s mostly caused by the story being told from Sarah’s opposite-personality perspective. These women had an online friendship and are quickly learning that they might not have known each other all that well after all.
Sarah’s big solution for the shop is bringing Christmas into it. Because when didn’t a string of pretty lights solve all problems?
Although everyone is dragging their feet, they do get into it and that is how she somehow saves the shop from nearly going under and all problems are wrapped up with pretty bows.
The problems felt petty to begin with, and the ending was too easy.
In between the bookshop drama, there is boyfriend drama for Sarah because while her superhot boyfriend had promised to stop by in Paris regularly, he doesn’t, and is instead continuing his Amazing Race-style chase around the globe, going from one news story to the next. His carbon footprint is not little.
(I kept forgetting his name, and can’t be bothered to look it up now. It’s something soap opera-y.)
Sarah feels abandoned but instead of telling him that, she pouts and passive aggressively ignores his calls and messages for a couple of days. Guess what: that actually gets his attention, and he travels to Paris right away to apologize and jump into bed with her.
A relationship involves talking, even if that is or gets uncomfortable. This relationship felt very immature and unbalanced and they didn’t come across as a couple at all.

Oh, and there’s a second storyline about love letters Sarah and her favourite author find hidden in the shop but that did not create the intrigue it seemed designed to do.
All in all, it felt like this book wanted to be more than it ended up being.
As mentioned, I only realized this book was a follow-up and maybe that’s why things felt off and unbalanced in some places. It might be better to digest for those who read and liked the first book, but as a stand-alone this one, for me, was a big disappointment.