Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: The French Way
AUTHOR: Mary M. Wright
PUBLISHER: Sapphire Books
LENGTH: 258 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2017
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In France for her junior year abroad, Sophie wants to learn how to do everything the French way. She soon finds out that making mistakes in a strange culture can exact a painful price. When she falls for a sexy French woman, Sophie is ready to study the biggest lesson of all: love.
Will she end up getting her heart broken— the French way?
Or could this coming-out romance possibly be the real thing?
REVIEW:
The cover for this book made me think it was going to be a pretty soft, traditional romance set in the glamorous Paris we know so well from movies and TV. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a deep look into an American college student’s immersion into French culture and how she finds herself along with her first real love. It’s a warm, rich read that tackles extremely difficult topics while still drawing us into an absolutely beautiful portrayal of a vast, diverse country.
I first wondered why this had to be a historical piece, but as I read further, I realize the time period highlighted Sophie’s sense of loneliness and isolation while traveling. If it was set in today’s world, she’s have friends and family at her fingertips with texting, Facebook, and Skype. But as she struggles with her personal traumas and her newfound sexual awakening, she finds herself terribly alone in a vast new country where she has to find support within herself—and within some unlikely new friends. This makes her romance with Geneviève even sweeter because it develops organically—a glance across a café, a chance meeting at a night club. They seem to keep coming together even as Sophie can barely figure out where she is in the world.
Fair warning—within the first few pages of this book, 20-year-old Sophie is the victim of rape at the hands of one of her first acquaintances in France, and a huge part of the book deals with the aftermath of her trauma. I was originally taken aback, but this book deals with Sophie’s recovery in a really wonderful way. The rape is a huge part of her life and affects her greatly, but she’s portrayed as a realistic survivor who battles tough feelings of guilt and shame even as she recovers. Sophie is a really brave and resourceful character, even when she doesn’t seem to think so herself.
Though I don’t know too much about France or French culture, I was totally charmed by the idea of “anything goes” when it comes to Sophie’s romantic explorations. She probably wouldn’t have had the same opportunities back at home in Minnesota in the 1970’s, free love notwithstanding, and I enjoyed the sense of ease she developed when holding Geneviève’s hand or kissing her in public. There’s a sense of understated sophistication to this portrayal of France—not pretentious, just enough for readers to get a sense of the deep history and culture of the country as well as how different they were from Americans of the same time period.
The only part I didn’t completely love was the very ending. I think it summed up Sophie’s experiences too neatly—she gets a happy ending, of course, but I think the ending itself was a little choppy and could’ve been smoothed out. Aside from this, I really enjoyed this book. The romance was lovely and felt so real and natural. And I was completely immersed in a culture and time period I hadn’t known too much about before.
RATING: 
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