Book Review: One Evening in Paris

Book: One Evening in Paris by Nicolas Barreau translated by Bill McCann

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: July 1, 2014

Description:

Alain Bonnard, the owner of a small art cinema in Paris, is a dyed-in-the-wool nostalgic. In his Cinéma Paradis there are no buckets of popcorn, no XXL coca-colas, no Hollywood blockbusters. Not a good business plan if you want to survive, but Alain holds firm to his principles of quality. He wants to show films that create dreams, and he likes most of the people that come to his cinema.

Particularly the enchanting, shy woman in the red coat who turns up every Wednesday in row 17. What could her story be?  One evening, Alain plucks up courage and invites the unknown beauty to dinner. The most tender of love stories is just getting under way when something incredible happens: The Cinéma Paradis is going to be the location of Allan Woods’ new film Tender Memories of Paris.

Solène Avril, the famous American director’s favourite actress, has known the cinema since childhood and has got it into her head that she wants the film to be shot there. Alain is totally overwhelmed when he meets her in person. Suddenly, the little cinema and its owner are the focus of public attention, and the red-plush seats are sold out every evening.

But the mystery woman Alain has just fallen in love with seems suddenly to have vanished. Is this just coincidence? In One Evening in Paris by Nicolas Barreau, Alain sets off in search of her and becomes part of a story more delightful than anything the cinema has to offer.



Rating: 4 stars

Review:

One Evening in Paris reminds me of those old movies that are full of romance and misunderstandings.

The story follows Alain Bonnard who owns Cinema Paradis a small movie theatre that shows old movies. For a while now, he has been quite taken with a woman who only comes to the theatre on Wednesday evenings. He refers to her as "the woman in the red trench coat", that is until he finally got up enough courage to talk to her and found out her name was Melanie.

On the Wednesday that he finally talked with her, the two went to out after the last viewing at the theatre and got to know each other. They sat at the restaurant talking for hours, afterwards he walked her home and they shared a kiss.

As he walked back to his apartment, Alain was completely head over heels in love. And to top that off the next evening as he was closing up the theatre he ran into a famous movie director and actress who wanted to use the theatre for scenes in the director's latest movie. The director Allan Wood was so inspired by the leading actress Solene Avril that he had to film there. Solene Avril is from Paris but has spent at least the last decade in the United States becoming a huge success.

And with news of the upcoming filming, Alain's business was starting to pick up. However, his love life had taken a hit. And what should have been a world wind romance turned into Alain trying to figure out what has happened to Melanie since she didn't meet him on the following Wednesday as well as she stopped going to the theatre.

This delightful and charming story is a romantic mystery and has several twists and turns that had Alain wondering about the true course of love. The story and the characters were fun and a little quirky.

As I said before, reading this was like watching one of those classic old movies. It was simply irresistible and perfect for romantics.