Paris in July: A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont

 

Last year I read and enjoyed Sophie Beaumont's novel The Paris Cooking School (review here) so as soon as I saw this one I knew I was going to read it. It just took me a bit longer than I intended it too. That does, however, mean that it is still fresh in my mind so that I can review it as part of Paris in July! Hoorah!

When Sydneysider Emma Taylor's French born mother Corrinne passes away, Emma believes that Corrinne was on the verge of telling her the truth about her life in France before she ran away, most notably who Emma's father is. The only clue that she has is a photo of her mother lying in a field. Corrinne has always refused to talk about her past and Emma has had very little to do with her French grandparents. Emma is determined to repair those relationships, although she does wish that could have done that before her grandfather died. Now, she has come to Paris to get to know her grandmother Mattie, and to try and find out why Corrinne ran so far away and never looked back.

Charlotte Marigny has returned to her native Paris from England to take stock of her life. She is a successful garden designer and together with her husband Tom they have their children and created a great life together. However, Charlotte feels like Tom is drawing away from her and has been for some time. Facing the end of her marriage, she needs some time and space. 

Florist Arielle Lunel has had to start her life over. When she was widowed she also lost her business and she was left with two young children and no assets. Fortunately, she was able to move in with her sister in Paris and now works in one of the market stall at the flower markets where she gets to use her knowledge behind the meaning of flowers to create meaningful and beautiful displays. She doesn't have time to even think about a new romance, especially not after her domineering parents in law seem to be determined to take her children away from her as they believe they can provide them with a better life. 

In both of her Paris books Beaumont does a great job of drawing together several people who are, at first, completely separate but there are invisible webs which connect them all. In this book, those webs all draw the characters to the flower markets. 

Emma decides that she is going to start working on her grandmother's garden, a task that is now too much for Mattie. It also gives her a place to hide when she keeps on butting heads with Marc-Antoine, a successful businessman who has been close to her grandparents for years. There she meets Arielle. Charlotte is also drawn to the markets because of her work and she is impressed with Arielle's design style. And with Charlotte having been Emma's mother's best friend as a teenager the circle is complete.

The closer the circle becomes the closer the three women are to be being able to answer all their questions, even if they didn't know all the questions they needed to ask yet!

There are some lovely little cameos from some of the characters in The Paris Cooking School, but they are things like there is a cheesemaker buying milk from the farm that two of the characters visit. If you haven't read the first book you probably won't even notice the moments, but I did and I appreciated them. 

When we did a walking tour in Paris, we were constantly reminded that behind many of the gates and doors on the streets that we were walking along, if you looked through you might see a gorgeous mansion or a lovely courtyard. This book takes it to the next level and says that beyond those you might find gorgeous gardens. Some are public, and others, like the one at Sophie's grandparents house, is private. I love that there was a version of the gorgeous hand drawn map drawn by Mattie which shows some of the public gardens in Paris. Maybe next time we go to Paris, because there will be a next time, we can use the map to find a little piece of garden paradise. We did go to the flower markets although it was January so everything was a little quiet but it was still beautiful.

There is something about Sophie Beaumont's writing that just really works for me. I find it very relaxing to read. There are some lovely romantic connections for a couple of the characters, a lot of Paris sights, some great food and of course flowers everywhere. I am already looking forward to her next book, In the Paris Fashion, which is due to be released in November.

I am sharing this review with Paris in July. This was also one of the books I nominated to read as part of 20 Books of Winter and this is the sixth book I have read this year with the word Paris in the title!

Rating 4.5/5