Publisher: Agency Editions
Publication Date: February 10, 2014
Categories: Fiction
Source: I received this ebook from the author in exchange for my honest review.
Also, see Author Website, where you will find links to other blogs for a cover reveal, author guest post, author spotlight, more reviews, and an upcoming author interview and book tour.
I recently had the opportunity to read Paris, Rue des Martyrs by Adria Cimino. Any book with a setting in Paris sets certain expectations by nature. Romance, the Eiffel Tower, berets, long loaves of crisp French bread...okay, okay, all very stereotypical. And not what you will find in the pages of Paris, Rue des Martyrs. True, the title of this book is an actual street set in an actual neighborhood in Paris, but the story is not a mini tourist attraction, so to speak. You can read more about the author's intentions for the setting here, but the story stands on its own, regardless of the stereotyped expectations of the setting.
Amazon's short summary starts: "Four strangers in Paris. Each one is on a quest: to uncover a family secret, to grasp a new chance at love, to repair mistakes of the past. Four stories entwine, four quests become one, as their paths cross amid the beauty, squalor, animation and desolation of a street in Paris, the Rue des Martyrs." One of my favorite plot points in a story is seemingly unconnected characters whose paths cross. It puts me on the edge of my seat to see how the author can possibly bring all of these people together.
Raphael is on the search for answers to questions that haven't been asked yet, revealing secrets he didn't know he had been sent to find, his parents' sudden death the catalyst.
Cecile, housewife and mother, can remember a time when life was exciting and she was part of it. Now she finds herself with the temptation and opportunity to claim that life once again.
Andre, after suffering an accident, finds his acting career waning. Loss of work reveals gaps in his life he never thought were important...gaps like the son he abandoned years ago.
Mira runs from betrayed love, only to find herself in Paris, running toward love. But not without a few complications.
With most stories, the cool part is the main characters themselves. In Paris, Rue des Martyrs, the secondary characters the reader meets through these main four are what makes the story. The host of secondary characters that entwine the main characters and tie the storylines together as well was my favorite part.
I'm glad you enjoyed the novel -- and the secondary characters! Creating each one was interesting, fun and sometimes a bit of a challenge... I didn't want to overload the reader with too many characters, but I did want to maintain the "real life" tone and the theme of encounters. Thank you so much for reading, Jennine!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the opportunity! I love when following a couple of storylines, they begin to intersect. It's like you're in on something the characters aren't!
DeleteI have this book and I can't wait to read it myself!
ReplyDelete