We'll Always Have Paris: A Novel

Fascinating premise, wonderful moments....but one of the strangest books I have ever read. The reader spends the entire story inside the head of a person who harps, mulls, muses, but doesn't seem to get anything done. She is not living in the real world -- and I nearly threw the book against the wall when I read about "back problems" and jokes about failing bodies. She is not in her 80s or 90s. She is 64. And supposedly does Pilates. A light as air, promising feel-good, supposed-to-be-affirmational but wound up .... a strange read.

This novel was a refreshing and beautiful look at love and relationships. I enjoyed the struggles of the characters and the relationships between them. Rosie was sixteen when she met the charming Peter during the first week of college. Her life changes, but later she marries someone else. Forty-seven years later she sees Peter again the year after her husband has passed away. This begins a string of events that will change her life again. This is a beautiful story about the power of young love. This novel explores loss, fate, and life in general. It explores the challenges and dynamics within the relationships in a family. Author Sue Watson writes about family in a realistic way including humor along the way.

This was literally a fun read. This is like the continuation of Love, Rosie by Cecilia Ahern but with a different story line and I can't help it but be charmed about a story of two old people, once lovers, meet again in their sixties. It felt like the stars, the planet, and the moon aligned for Rosie and Peter. I'm going to miss this book a ton.

The story focuses on the life of Rosie Draper-Carter, after Mike, her husband, passed away at the age of sixty-four. To spend her time, she works in their floral shop, helping her two daughters, Anna and Isobel, arrange flowers for weddings, funerals, birthday, and graduations. On a particular clients' granddaughter's wedding, Rosie is met with an unexpected reunion with her first love, Peter Moreton. But after a thorough heartbreak, will you be accepting of someone who once crushed your heart in pieces?

Watson had very well moved my heart with this story and I love this book for that reason! Second chances are hard to give but through this book, Watson has shown a reason why they should be given. Not everyone deserves it but when you see someone who changed because of realizing their faults and acknowledging what they did wrong, who else best deserves such notion than that person?

This book has drawn a picture of the difference between the want and the needs, being responsible and being free, being in two different level of society.

On the other hand, when you realize that you have everything in life, and discover that all is served in a silver platter for you, you begin to realize that the one thing you took for granted is the one thing you've only ever needed. You can pursue all the adventures you want. You can go as far as where you want to be. But you just don't leave people with broken promises. I have never believed that promises are meant to be broken. These are the few treasures that are priceless and there are people who value them.

I encountered several problems while reading, though. One of which is that the characters felt voiceless when in a dialogue. I have no idea how loud the characters are speaking or how they are reacting while talking to each other. There's the repetition of "Rosie says", or "Peter says" and it bothers me in a way, not hearing how these characters are really talking.

On a positive note, I very much enjoyed the book as a whole. After reading it, I wanted to go back to it but I felt that it might break my heart because of how realistic the events felt. This book teaches what maturity is and seeing things in a different perspective, in an older and wiser state of life.

A story of forgiveness, of second chances, of facing the past and moving forward, you might not miss this heart-touching story!

English widow Rosie is just putting herself back together after her husband’s brutal illness, throwing herself into her floristry business and even more thoroughly into nostalgia. Her grown daughters and their families are a comfort, but it is Rosie’s memories of her first love, an art student self-dubbed Pierre, that most occupy her time—and then, there he is! At a wedding! And the past becomes prologue, as Rosie and Peter (his real name) renew their acquaintance, and find that their future might just turn out to be more interesting than four decades of what might have been. Told in prose by turns poetical and prosaic (and perhaps threaded with a little too much chatspeak, courtesy of teen grandchildren), this refreshingly uncomplicated but still enchanting tale gives us a sixty-something as a romantic heroine, her feelings as intense and valid as any young sylph of the genre, alongside a flawed but debonair suitor vying for acceptance… and forgiveness. Lovely. -- Rachel Hyland

This review appeared in [[ASIN:B07BVZ6V8X Romantic Intentions Quarterly -- Issue 1, April 2018]].

This was a sweet book about a widow that is finding herself in the year after her husband's death. Rosie is a wonderful, strong, caring, and inspiring woman. I love the dynamic between Rosie and her daughters and granddaughters. Rosie meeting Peter again after 48 years is just wonderful. I love how meeting her first love again helps to remind her of who she once was and the dreams she had.

I would highly recommend this book to friends and family.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.

I normally don’t read books with older main characters, but from the moment I saw the title I just wanted to read it, also the synopsis was good and I wanted to find out what would happen in this story.
From the very beginning we know there’s something they’re not telling us but as you keep reading, as the flashes of the past start, you get to know Rosie and Peter, and their story.
I was surprised with the book, the story, the characters and what they made me feel, what they made me think. Having parents who are in their sixties it was very interesting to read about Rosie and her feelings as a mom. It made me think about all that mothers don’t say but that they always feel. It was also very nice to find a story of second chances, redemption. A story of two characters looking for happiness and giving themselves the opportunity to follow their dreams regarding the physical age they have.
It was a very sweet story, I loved the characters (except the daughter most of the time). I loved Rosie and her sense of humor and I love Peter and his personality.

This is a lovely story of finding true love for a second time. Rosie and Peter were a couple for a short time as teens, their relationship ended and they went on to live their lives apart. Rosie was married for 46 years to a wonderful man that cared deeply for her and her two daughters. A year after his death, she crosses paths with her first love, Peter. The story goes from there.
Peter and Rosie are older and wiser and accept each other's faults and blend into a close loving relationship better than the one they had as teens.
This is a story that explores the love of a couple in their 60's. It was written masterfully and I totally enjoyed the journey into this world.
Thank you to NetGalley.com and Skyhorse Publishing for a copy of this book to read in exchange for a unbiased review.