Book Review | After Paris by Nicole Kennedy

Thank you to Aria and Squadpod for sending me a copy of After Paris in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Three best friends. A weekend away. And a whole lot of baggage.

Alice, Nina and Jules have been best friends for twenty years. They met in Paris and return there once a year, to relive their youth, leave the troubles of home behind, and indulge in each other’s friendship and warmth. But this year, aged thirty-nine, the cracks in their relationships are starting to show…

After their weekend together in Paris, the three women never speak again. Each claims the other two ghosted them. But is there more to the story?

Review

After Paris is a complex tale of friendship and secrets, filled with emotion and a whole lot of history!

The novel starts in Paris in 1999, with the beginning of their friendship and how all three girls met. We are then taken forward twenty years and meet Nina, Alice and Jules in present day and finally After Paris, ending with a year later. In between this are dates in their history which flesh out their friendship and provide details of how it’s developed over time. I feel like I got to know them as a collective and really understood their reasonings which made them feel more realistic.

All three characters are dealing with their own issues, hiding things from each other and it’s interesting to see how they interact with one another as adults. Their relationships altering into adult ones with adult problems, but they still have an ease with one other which comes with decades-long friendship.

There are a tonne of secrets lingering between them across the years, with the women attempting to hide some of them away but the others picking up on their strange behaviours or, usually, dismissing them all together. They’re each wrapped up in their own issues which are pretty complex! These are, however, relatable issues and between the three of them there will no doubt be something you will find yourself having experienced or having felt similarly at some point.

Getting drip fed information and details on each of the women’s histories across the span of the book was fascinating. It was nice to have some kind of explanations of their actions and understand them better as characters.

The French words and phrases that were present throughout were a nice touch. It was a test to my GCSE French days! I enjoyed the challenge and it made the novel feel much more authentic.

An original and emotional read, After Paris is out today from Aria. You can order a copy using the link below and also help to support independent bookstores.

Bookshop.org

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Until next time,