Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants.
A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.
Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.
The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest
There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.
Who holds the key?
My Review:
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Firstly, I'd like to thank Harper Fiction and Tandem Collective UK for the gifted copy for an honest review. I really enjoyed being a part of the read along.
I've heard of and seen Lucy Foley's books everywhere so I jumped at the chance to be a part of this read along that celebrated her new release, The Paris Apartment. As is quite typical for me, I went into this book blind, only being guided by the author and cover. I really loved the setting and how the French language was incorporated into the text. I could even translate some of it myself (being a 1/4 French has its perks). I thought it was a really interesting plot where we get almost all of POVs from those that live in the apartment building. Each POV led to more questions and clues that kept me guessing. I did have some theories but wasn't even close to what happened in the end.
I didn't find myself as gripped as I had hoped I would be. It felt like it really dragged until just before the ending. If the whole book had been like the ending I would have been able to give this a higher rating but around the half way mark I was just ready to 'get it over with'. When reaching certain points that were climactic they felt anticlimactic to me. I just wasn't as bothered as I think I should have been. By the 300 page mark I was ready to find out what happened. I couldn't take it anymore.
The ending of this book was really good and almost made up for the part I didn't enjoy as much. I didn't expect what happened and it really turned the book around. Overall, I did enjoy this book but it did have quite a few slow parts for me. Having said this, I do recommend it to those who enjoy a 'whodunnit' and are fans of Lucy Foley's writing!