#BookReview: French Coast by Anita Hughes

Reviewer: Samantha

I received a review copy

Summary:

Serena has the job she’s always dreamed of and Chase, the man her heart never dared to. As a new editor at Vogue, she bags the biggest interview of the year with Yvette Renault, the infamous former editor of French Vogue, in The Carlton-InterContinental Hotel during the Cannes Film Festival. She eagerly jets off to France while Chase stays home, working with her father, a former senator, on his upcoming mayoral campaign.

Everything feels unbelievably perfect…until it doesn’t. The hotel loses her reservation hours before her big interview. Serena fears that she’ll have to go home without her story, but then she meets Zoe, a quirky young woman staying in the suite below Yvette’s who invites Serena to stay with her. Serena is grateful for her mysterious roommate’s generosity, but it seems that there’s more to her story than meets the eye. To make matters worse, soon after arriving in Cannes, Serena learns a shocking secret about her parents’ marriage, and it isn’t long before she begins to question her own relationship.With her deadline looming and pressure mounting, Serena will have to use her investigative journalism skills, new
friendships, and a little luck to get her life and love back on track. Fast paced and impeccably written,
French Coast will draw readers in to the intoxicating world of the Cote D’Azur. Hughes’ beautiful prose and sense imagery bring the food, fashion, and feel of the ocean to life in this audacious new novel.

Review:

OMG, my friends. I said it best on social media when I announced I was reading this book. I said “This book is making me want to pause life so I can just keep reading.” I mean…do I even need to say anything else? From the first page, and I’m not lying, from the first page I knew I was going to be totally hooked. Anita Hughes is one of my favorite writers, and her books have the complete ability to make me get lost in them. I love that this time I was taken to France, and wrapped up in not only a mystery in the present, but from the past. I loved the dueling time periods we get, from Serena but then also Yvette, as she takes us back in time along with her. There was a twist near the end that I’ll be honest – I didn’t see coming. When a book makes me gasp aloud and my eyes bug out, you know it’s a good one. I can’t say enough good things about not only French Coast but Anita Hughes, and this one is a must-read.

5 stars