Vivienne Wilson is a successful author writing under a pen name. She books a trip to Antibes on the French Riviera so that she can finish her upcoming book. It also won't hurt to have some time away from her husband. Hopefully absence might make the heart grow fonder. However, he blindsides her at the airport when he tells her that he wants a divorce as he has met someone else. And then, cheeky beggar that he is, he wants Maxine to be the one to tell their grown up children.
Despite being somewhat shell shocked, Vivienne still gets on the plane. When she arrives she meets Maxine Zonszain, a woman who recognises emotional pain when she sees it. She also meets Olivia Murray who lives in the downstairs apartment.
Maxine found her great love later in life, and was devastated when her husband Phillippe passed a year before. She is definitely still grieving but she is also trying her hardest to still live life. But she too is shocked when she receives a letter from a solicitor which brings back the traumatic events from her past that had affected her life for years. Fortunately, her stepson is very supportive of Maxine, so she is not totally alone, but he lives overseas.
Olivia is the youngest of the trio. She inherited a florist business that she runs out of a bright pink London taxi, providing flower arrangements to a lot of the luxury yachts moored in Monaco. Her mother in particular, really just wishes that Olivia would get a proper job and also find the right man, get married and have kids. And if Olivia can't find the right man, then her mother has an endless parade of suitable men.
Despite a rocky start, the three women soon begin to build a friendship, helping each other to deal with both their current issues and to help them to look to the future. They all have pressing issues that they need to deal with now. For one, Vivienne needs to decide what her life is going to look like. Is she going to agree to her husband's demand to sell their family home? He wants to move on, and he wants it done immediately.
The scenery of the French Riviera is integral to this book, being quite close to Monaco, but Vivienne also heads up into the hills to visit a small town to investigate her own potential French connection.
This was my first Jennifer Bohnet, and I liked it a lot. There was one small niggle for me and that was the tendency to have secrets from the reader. I get that it was supposed to build tension, for want of a better word. For example, Vivienne finds out who the other woman is but we don't get told as readers for a number of chapters. But this is a small niggle in an otherwise enjoyable read.
Luckily for me Jennifer Bohnet lives in France and has any number of books that are set in the area!! Guess I have another author I trust with a backlist to work my way through!!
I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog.
Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Check out other stops on the blog tour!
Rating 4/5
A French Adventure
When your old life ceases to exist, its time to build a new one…
It’s early summer on the French Riviera when Vivienne Wilson arrives for a one-woman writers’ retreat after learning that her philandering husband or 30 years, wants a divorce. There to collect the shell-shocked Vivienne is recently widowed Maxine Zonszain, who is struggling to come to terms with her empty life. To add insult to injury she receives another knockout punch with a letter from her very estranged first husband…. Florist extraordinaire, Olivia Murray, shares the Villa that Vivienne is renting. She’s content with life - but sad to add another failed relationship to her growing list and longs to meet 'The One'. Life under the summer sun in Antibes becomes a challenging time for all three women as secrets are shared, problems halved as they forge unexpected friendships and embark on new adventures. Sometimes life’s surprises turn out to be unwanted but just sometimes the ‘new normal’ makes for a happier life than the one lost.
Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/AFrenchAdventureSocial
About the author
Jennifer Bohnet is the bestselling author of over 12 women’s fiction titles, including Villa of Sun and Secrets and A Riviera Retreat. She is originally from the West Country but now lives in the wilds of rural Brittany, France.
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I like friendships between women especially the very different ones.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good portrayal of making new friends in a different country
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