I’ll be posting my TBR for September today (at some point) but, first, I wanted to make sure I was up to date with reviews. I managed to read 10 books this month, including Out of Love by Hazel Hayes, The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon, Madam by Phoebe Wynne and Clap When You Land .
This month, I’ve focused on reading books I wanted to read and this next one I’ll be reviewing is one I’ve wanted to read for ages.
Blurb
Hannah and Si are in love and on the same track – that is, until their train divides on the way to a wedding. The next morning, Hannah wakes up in Paris and realises that her boyfriend (and her ticket) are 300 miles away in Amsterdam!
But then Hannah meets Léo on the station platform, and he’s everything Si isn’t. Spending the day with him in Paris forces Hannah to question how well she really knows herself – and whether, sometimes, you need to go in the wrong direction to find everything you’ve been looking for…
My Thoughts
The Uncoupling is an interesting, if slightly anxiety-inducing debut novel. I say anxiety inducing because it begins with Hannah not only losing her boyfriend but losing her train tickets and belongings, which I’m pretty sure would be my worst nightmare!
Hannah as a protagonist was pretty good. Not only did I find us pretty similar due to our general clumsiness but I think I – and probably other people as well – could relate to the fact that she isn’t entirely sure about where she’s going and what she wants in life. At first, probably down to her being similar to myself, I didn’t gel with her. As the story picked up, though, I actually really appreciated the growth and — although I was convinced it’d just be a book about romantic trips abroad — I was actually glad it was more about Hannah figuring herself out.
The romance was both expected and unexpected. The initial exchanges between Hannah and Léo are frosty, though the banter continues on as they spend more time together (at first reluctantly), and — whilst Hannah is an open book — Léo is a bit more closed off and mysterious. It’s one of those romances you don’t think will work but, in the end, it does.
I might have been on holiday when I read this but, even still, it was the escapism I needed. The descriptions of the cities and areas they visit as so vivid that even those of us that haven’t visited these places will be able to visualise. It really made me want to immediately book a city break or two (if only Covid wasn’t still around).
The Uncoupling is nothing we haven’t seen before but it is a dazzling debut full of beautiful places, people and you can’t really argue with a romance set in Paris, can you?
You can find Lorraine Brown on her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram .
You can buy this book here.
Jen Rose Writes🌹 
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