Review: Wish You Were French

Wish You Were French by Elaelah Harley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear.

Look, every now and then I take a chance on a genre I don't often read. I thought this might be a cute lil romance that would melt my icy heart a little - especially with my own love of French things - but sadly this was not for me at all.

I appreciate our Australian indie authors. They've got a tough gig, and I honestly really admire anyone who completes a book and then releases it into the wild world. Which makes it so much harder to write a negative review.

But this was just so trite, so full of stereotypes and dull maturity. In the real world, I LIKE when people have mature conversations and understand their own emotions and own up to their faults etc. But in a book it just means zero excitement. Where is the action???

Audrey was a painful character that I disliked from the beginning. She was obnoxious and rude and Theo falling for her instantly felt so forced to me. Theo himself is a little more bearable, but he's still over-the-top smug and annoying.

The writing is awful, with no real major plot points to make things interesting. Nothing of note really happens throughout the story, other than a kiss here and there to add 'spice'. The story is so bland and everything happens so awkwardly. The romance between the two never feels genuine, because there's no time taken to develop the characters before they're thrust together.

Plus the whole 'wish you were French' thing is basically non-existent?! Like she wants to move to France and she wears French-inspired outfits (aka berets) and that's kind of it on the French side? This has very little to do with the French way of life at all. I was very disappointed.

The side characters give some spark, but it's not enough to save this story.

I really wanted to like this, but everything about it was forced and awkward. Not to mention you can see everything coming from a mile away and the French theme is sadly lacking.

Maybe romance fans will appreciate this more than I did but it didn't have anything close to what I hoped for in a sweet lil romantic diversion.

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