French Coast

I usually love Anita Hughes’ novels as she takes the reader on an extraordinary journey to a beautiful location and fills each sentence with extremely accurate and stunning descriptions of the characters, ambiance and emotions. Her three past books were a delight to read because of their plots and I am eagerly awaiting her 5th book to arrive later this summer. I would love for her to take on a story based in Southern California/Orange County, CA where she currently resides just for her descriptiveness of the locations and people alone.

That being said, the story of French Coast seems to have been ghost written by Danielle Steele. While the premise was enticing, the actual story seemed so unrealistic. Do you really think someone you’ve never met before is going to allow you to share your suite at an amazing hotel in Cannes for a few weeks? I could go on and on about the unbelievable storyline, but I would be giving away the plot - something I try never to do. The secondary story of Yvette Renault was the exact opposite of the main plot – it was filled with true romance and passion and I would have loved to see it expanded on as its own novella.

I look to the novels I read to be a temporary escape from life. Unfortunately, this installment left me questioning what just happened?

What I loved: Zoe is a great character, but I would have liked to see a little more Pygmalion/My Fair Lady makeover interaction between Zoe and Serena.

What I didn’t love: The story wraps up too neatly for my tastes and the characters all seem to ride off in the sunset together. I’m hoping that these characters can resurface in a sequel because there is so much that still needs to be answered and this ending was too easy.

What I learned: Everyone falls in love while in France..

Overall Grade: Story B-, Descriptions A