Review: In Paris With You – Clementine Beauvais (Translated by Sam Taylor)

My rating: 3.5/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Eugene and Tatiana had fallen in love that summer ten years ago. But certain events stopped them from getting to truly know each other and they separated never knowing what could have been. But one busy morning on the Paris metro, Eugene and Tatiana meet again, no longer the same teenagers they once were. What happened during that summer? With their lives ahead of them, can Eugene and Tatiana find a way to be together after everything?

My thoughts

I have been putting off writing my review of this novel for a few days because I was really struggling to give this book a rating. I think you end up either loving or hating this novel and I wasn’t sure what side of this I fell on.

In Paris With You is written in verse and is actually the first novel that I have read that is a poem. When I ordered this book I didn’t realise it was written in verse but after finishing it I am glad I didn’t know as I think I might have found that intimidating. I loved the way in which this novel was written and it has definitely made me more open to reading novels written in verse. Sam Taylor, in my opinion although I haven’t read the French original, did a fantastic job of translating this novel as the humour was still present, as where the rhyming couplets.

The story of Tatianna and Eugene is told from the first person perspective of a narrator. I think this was such an interesting way to write a love story as you were constantly on the outside of their romance looking in at it, almost like watching a film. Although this was different, I really enjoyed this way of describing their romance and the voice of the narrator added the humour to the novel.

The novel flips between their present meetings and when they first met as teenagers. I liked this and I love the idea of “the one that got away”. I did find that I preferred reading about their teenage years purely because I preferred their characters at that age. I found that their teenage characters had more character development and it seemed to me like they had a bit more about them. Whereas as adults their actions are the focal point rather than their personalities.

The novel was paced really well at the start and the rhymes dotted through the verse also helped with the rhythm. The storyline matched this pace and I found myself reading it very quickly, desperate to find out how their romance originated. However, personally I found that the novel began to slow down in pace towards the end and I become less interested in Titianna and Eugene’s romance. I think this was because at the start I was under the false impression that there had been a romance between when they were teenagers so when I realised there hadn’t been I was confused as to where the supposed intensity for their feelings came from.

I absolutely loved that the version of In Paris With You had an extracted from the poem with the same name by James Fenton. This is one of my favourite poems and had such an honest outlook on relationships that I think it set up the novel well. Tatianna and Eugene’s relationship, though not the most exciting, was honest and real. They had normal hurdles in their relationships and it was filled with emotional truth.

This story was clever and funny. It was very well written and the verse was well thought out. The younger characters, in articular, were dynamic and developed with emotional complexity. I would recommend this novel to those who want to try a poem story as I felt it really added to the story and has made me want to read me novels in verse.

Do you have a suggestion for the next book to add to my bookshelf? Let me know in comments.