Title: One Christmas in Paris
Author: Mandy Baggot
Publisher: Bookouture
Date: October 7th, 2016
Pages: 394
Format: eARC
Source: from Publisher for a review
Synopsis (from Goodreads): They say Paris is the City of Love, so bring your je ne sais quoiand don’t forget the mistletoe!
Ava and her best friend Debs arrive in Paris just as the snow starts to fall. The Eiffel Tower glitters gold and the scent of spiced wine is all around, but all Ava can think about is Leo, her no-good, cheating ex.
Debs is on a mission to make Ava smile again, and as they tour the Christmas markets, watch lamplight glittering on the river Seine, and eat their body weight in pain-au-chocolat, Ava remembers there’s more to life than men … Until they cross paths with handsome, mysterious photographer Julien with his French accent and hazelnut eyes that seem to see right inside her.
Ava can’t ignore the intense chemistry between them, but her fingers have been burned before and she can’t forget it, especially when her ex, Leo, starts texting again. Can Ava really trust Julien – and what exactly is his secret?
Will Ava go home with a broken heart, or will she find true love amongst the cobbled streets of Paris?
Join Ava and Julien in the most romantic city in the world this Christmas, as they discover the importance of being true to themselves, and learn how to follow their hearts.
Review:
When it comes to books, there’s nothing I like more then to read them on cold days, with a cup of chocolate coffee in my hand, while the Chirstmas (or Disney piano) music is playing.
And you know what kind of books I love to read the most?
Festive reads! They are my favorite, and I could read them all year long.
Now when the Christmas is officially approaching, Christmas books have overtaken my reading schedule.
I have already read more then few books that take part during winter, but One Christmas In Paris is the best festive read I had this year so far.
The story follows a woman called Ava. Her life has not been easy lately. She broke up with her boyfriend, lost her job and fights with her mom who’s dream is for Ava to be a supermodel.
When her best friend Debs invites her to spend Christmas in Paris with her, Ava accepts and they start their wintery adventure.
The story is written in third person and it follows Ava’s perspective, but it also follows Julien, the guy who Ava meets in Paris.
The writing style is really good. At first it took some time for me to get used to it, but after 50 first pages, I was totally invested in the story.
I feel like I have to mention that at the very beginning I found myself resented by some things that characters said.
At one point, there was an argument in which I felt like Ava was shaming rich people for being rich, but the rich guy responded by shaming Ava’s look with sentence (this in not a quote but I’ll do my best to write it as I remember) „By your hair I can tell you are probably interestied in girls.“, but he said it in a mean way, and I thought to myself „What is this, LGBT shaming?“
As it turned out, Ava actually wanted to look like that, but I was a bit put off with those comments.
I have to stress out it was mentioned only that one time, so I decided not to hold on to it.
The story was good, but the setting in amazing.
I love how Paris was present the whole time. By reading the story, the reader explores the city of lights along with characters and there’s no way to forget where the story is taking place.
I happened to be in Paris during Christmas vacation few years ago, so I had no problem imagining streets of that wonderful city during winter, as I saw it mayself and, in my opinion, Mandy Baggot did an astonishing job describing it.
If you’re looking for a festive read that not only will entertain you, but will also show you Paris during winter time, and will make you crave for french food, One Paris In Christmas is a perfect book for you.
Book Dust Magic 
How many Christmas books have you read so far? I haven’t read any yet. I do like that scene with a cup of steaming hot chocolate & piano playing. Sounds very cozy & comfy. I could snuggle up to that environment too! This time of year I also like to visit the mall because there will be lots of pretty lights decorations & Christmas music everywhere 😊
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Oh yes, malls look great at this time of a year. In my town we don’t have any (I live in a really small town 10000 residents), but I always like to go to the mall when I’m in capital city.
I just checked and can tell you that I have read 6 Christmas novels, 1 novella and 1 picture book.
I plan to read more before the year is over! 😀
What can I say, I really love festive reads, and now is the time to read them 😉
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So glad that even you live in a small city, you still have access to the same books we do. 6 is a lot 😊 Enjoy! Only comes once a year hehe
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You’re definitely right, there! 🙂
Oh, as for my access to books, TBD and kindle store are my go to stores, but I also like to go to Algoritam. That’s my favorite bookstore in capital city, Zagreb.
Here in my town we also have amazing library, it has almost every book in croatian, so if there are new traslated releases, my library probably has them. Recently the got The Thousenth Floor, as it was translated this month, and it came out this Summer worldwide.
But I own it in English though…
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Wow! That’s a new book & got translated already? My library doesn’t even have that book yet.
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Yes, I was really surprised. Sometimes publisherstranslate immediately and sometimes we have to wait for years, and sometimes they never translate. That’s why I learned English in the first place – so I could read Bloodlines because they never translated those after Vampire Academy.
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That’s really good! You learned English to enjoy American fiction fantasy 😊 That’s a good motivation!
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Yes, school grades weren’t good enough reason for me.
But now I am sooo glad I learned English, it’s like you’re universal once you learn it.
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You’re right. English is a universal language so it’s amazing to be communicating with everyone from all around the world. If you look at your wordpress stats, it shows the people from different countries who visit your blog is really worldwide. I love seeing that.
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Me too, I even saw some countries I didn’t even know exist. It’s amazing!
Of course, most of my readers come from USA and UK, but I don’t have many readers from Canada.
I’mreally popular in Philippiness though. 😀
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Nice review. Glad you liked the story. I feel like I could enjoy this one too, especially since it’s my favorite holiday and it’s set in Paris. Seems so romantic. It’s cool that you could envision the scenes, and they were reminiscent of your time in Paris. That’s really awesome. I’m curious about that part too, where Ava looked down on rich people and the guy was stereotyping about the way she looked. That’s kind of a turn off, but it seems the story is good for the most part so I still want to give it a shot.
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That part takes place early in the book. It is just a small scene, and it lead to a bigger one, but I wish the scene wasn’t there/that it was replaced with another scene.
But it was a good book! I hope you’ll give it a chance and that you’ll enjoy it.
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OMG!!! I have been wanting to go to Paris my whole life! Hopefully I will be able to do that someday…. And Christmas in Paris sounds SO romantic, so absolutely WONDERFUL!! Falling in love in that beautiful city, at this particular time of the year, is the BEST recipe for reading enjoyment I could possibly think of!
Your review has really made me want to read this book, too, so I’m adding it to my Goodreads shelves! I can’t wait to meet Julien, as he sounds absolutely SWOON-WORTHY!! Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
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I hope you’ll visit Paris some day in the future (and I hope you’ll have better time there then I had).
My honest advice is, if you’ll ever get a chance to visit there: choose time when it’s not that cold (spring or summer), go there with only one person and don’t feel like you have to see everything, choose just few places and relax and enjoy. Otherwhise, you’ll spend all your precious time running trough the city insead of enjoying it.
I hope you’ll like this book when you read it.
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Paris looks great around Christmas, all the lights add to the magic of the city 🙂 I’ve never seen it under a white coat, though! I always miss the snow. I love it when a book captures the atmosphere of a city and almost makes it a character itself!
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Here it was similar to that, but I have to admin that in Anna and the French Kiss Paris has a bigger role then in this one.
But still, I couldn’t forget our characters were in Paris the whole time.
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I love Paris, I love Christmas, and I love romances. This sounds like the perfect book to me 🙂 Great review, Irena!!
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Thank you Lexxie! 🙂
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Sounds like a cute, cozy read!
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I like holiday stories, too. This one sounds great.
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