Published By: Headline
Pages: 288
Released On: 28/05/2026
Carly longs to make-over the family’s Edinburgh bookshop, but her father is resisting change.
Upstairs, Fran is stumped by her next novel – and with how to fix her marriage.
In the flat below, Elsa cares for her husband, in need of a short breather to gather her strength.
So when a customer drops in and asks for help at his book festival on a train to Paris, it’s the chance of a petit escape. And when a book mysteriously appears in the shop that Fran inscribed to a lover in Paris years ago, it seems too serendipitous to ignore. Boarding the train with Carly and Elsa, Fran wonders if revisiting her past will help her move forward.
But there are plot twists ahead. Could the book train to Paris be a passport to joie de vivre?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Headline for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Whilst this isn’t always a happy book, it is a comforting book, a hug in a book, and I loved pretty much everything about it.
It is a wonderful premise: a beautiful train journey full of authors, books, and readers, and full of love – what more can you ask for.
I did get a little confused at first because there’s a lot of characters across the three POVs, and they crossover so that took me a little while to get on top of.
It is generally a happy, romantic, uplifting story, but it doesn’t ignore the hardships in life: relationship troubles, unemployment, feeling lost and isolated, money problems, and ill health.
There is a plot and it’s an intersting one but for me this is a character-driven story. We have three main POVs, all women of different ages, but they love each other and it’s that love that connects the three of them.
It is relatively predictable but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s the journey to get to that place that was interesting. Equally, it’s nothing new, but again that’s not bad. This is a comforting story, one to read when you don’t want to think too much and just want to relax. It doesn’t thrill; it comforts and holds your hand and leads you into the city of love.
It’s very bookish, which obviously I liked. If you’re a real bookworm you’ll really enjoy this as it shows the importance of books, storytelling, and a creative life.
I loved the section set in the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris, it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, but even though I’ve ben to Paris a few times, I’ve never found it.
There’s new love, old love, and lost love, family, friendship, adventure, peril, old memories, new memories, and opportunities. It’s about growth, moving forward, finding yourself, reflection, and identity.
It’s perfect reading for a long evening wanting to unwind with a heartwarming story.
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