20180801_200742.jpgToday I have a review of Goodbye, Paris, publishing on August 7 by Touchstone Books. This one has been compared to Eleanor Oliphant and the writing of JoJo Moyes, and while I have not yet read the former (it’s on my shelf, though!), I can see the comparison to JoJo Moyes’ in Harris’ also emotionally-resonant writing.

My Thoughts:

Wow, Grace, the main character in Goodbye, Paris is leading a complicated life. She had once been a prominent cellist, but something happened in college that has kept her from playing in public since. Grace leads a somewhat hidden life while she has a long-distance affair with a man named David who is married with children. She is tied to David and waiting for him to leave his marriage for her, but he openly refuses until his children are grown. And until that time, Grace waits………

David gains unplanned public attention when he heroically saves a woman on the Metro. However, the fame comes at a cost: his privacy. Grace is left broken-hearted and is considering bowing out of the her cello-making competition into which she has put all of her energy. 

Grace’s saviors come in the forms of two unlikely friends, an eighty-year-old man and a teenage girl. How will this quirky pair help Grace put the pieces of her shattered life back together?

Goodbye, Paris is a charming, comforting story of overcoming obstacles and pain through friendship and how a heart can mend itself with the bolstering of steadfast companions. 

Thank you to Touchstone for the complimentary ARC. All opinions are my own. 

Synopsis:

Jojo Moyes meets Eleanor Oliphant in Goodbye, Paris, an utterly charming novel that proves that sometimes you have to break your heart to make it whole.

Grace once had the beginnings of a promising musical career, but she hasn’t been able to play her cello publicly since a traumatic event at music college years ago. Since then, she’s built a quiet life for herself in her small English village, repairing instruments and nurturing her long- distance affair with David, the man who has helped her rebuild her life even as she puts her dreams of a family on hold until his children are old enough for him to leave his loveless marriage.

But when David saves the life of a woman in the Paris Metro, his resulting fame shines a light onto the real state of the relationship(s) in his life. Shattered, Grace hits rock bottom and abandons everything that has been important to her, including her dream of entering and winning the world’s most important violin-making competition. Her closest friends–a charming elderly violinist with a secret love affair of his own, and her store clerk, a gifted but angst-ridden teenage girl–step in to help, but will their friendship be enough to help her pick up the pieces?

Filled with lovable, quirky characters, this poignant novel explores the realities of relationships and heartbreak and shows that when it comes to love, there’s more than one way to find happiness.

Have you read Goodbye, Paris, or is it on your TBR? Have you read any uplifting reads lately?  Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR