Sarah ran in small bookshop, The Bookshop Around the Corner, in tiny Ashford, CT. Sales had not been good and her landlord was threatening to raise the rent. Sarah’s boyfriend, Ridge, was a jet setting reporter whose schedule only allowed for brief visits to Ashford. Then her Parisian friend, Sophie, suggested that she and Sarah exchange places for a few months. Sophie owned a famous bookshop, Once Upon a Time, along the banks of the Seine. Sophie’s boyfriend had recently left her for a younger woman and Sophie felt she needed to be away from him for awhile.

Sarah flew to Paris a few days later. The Parisian bookshop was as charming and busy as Sophie had promised. However quiet, introverted Sarah had a hard time taking charge of the store. The employees were mostly part timers who made their own schedules which could cause problems when the store was filled with tourists and few people to help them. Sophie had not one to delegate tasks to underlings and so Sarah found herself working into the night to complete all the required tasks and paperwork.

Sarah made a few friends on the staff who tried to show her the French way of working with employees and also how to take time to enjoy Paris. She had hoped that being in the most romantic city in the world would inspire Ridge to spend more time with her. However in the few months she worked in Paris, he had only spent one day with her before being called away to report on a pressing news story.

In classic chick lit fashion, this story has a happy ending for everyone. I am a fan of Paris so I suspected that the story would have less to do with shy, young lovesick girls and handsome, rugged boyfriends and more to do with French life.

I received this ARC from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Originally published in Britain in 2015, The Little Bookshop on the Seine is the first in a series of sweet romances featuring inter-related characters set in Paris.. The best feature of the book is description of the city and it's neighborhoods with particular emphasis on shops, markets, and bistros. Notre Dame is mentioned several times, as one would expect of any book set in Paris; however, in light of the recent fire, this made the book feel dated.

Let’s see what we have here:
Christmas = yes.
Christmas + Bookshop = yes, squared.
Paris + Christmas + Bookshop = yes, yes, yes!

Do you see where I’m going with this? You do, good. Let’s get on with it then.
When Sarah’s offered the opportunity to swap bookshops with her Parisian friend for six months, she jumps at the opportunity. And why wouldn’t you? Paris is, after all, the city of love.

If you’ve read one of Rebecca Raisin’s books before, you know that this book is going to absolutely ooze with charm and all the holiday goodness you could wish for. If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

I loved following Sarah as she set upon her Parisian adventure. The bookstore that she was caretaker for was utterly gorgeous, as were the characters that passed through its doors. The real clincher for me was seeing just how much Rebecca loves Paris through the eyes of her characters. Not only do you get the standard backdrop of tourist attractions (oh, my!), but you get the backstreets and alleys, the small café around the corner, and the tiny cobblestone streets that only serve to further add to the charm of this gorgeous book.

One thing that really sucks me in when reading a modern romance is this: a touch of reality. Yes, I know we escape to our fictional worlds for the book clutching glee of a happily ever after, but in order for a book to really resonate with me, I need something rooted in the here and now. The Little Bookshop on the Seine had this with Sarah and Ridge’s relationship. Neither of them was perfect, and this gorgeous story of a bookstore swap was what they needed to learn and grow.

I love travelling Paris through Sarah’s eyes. It reminded me so much of my past visits, and has made me look forward to future trips so much more!

Another book to add to the TBR list of any francophile looking for a cozy read this winter. Atmospheric and escapist.

I'm recommending this book to all my friends! Rebecca Raisin transports readers to Paris, and to the bookshop- you can practically smell the books within! I wish I had read this in December in a cozy couch, with an even cozier blanket on top, next to my twinkle lights emblazoned Christmas tree!

Sarah Smith and her friend Sophie exchange jobs. Sophie has a bookstore in Paris and Sarah has one in a small town in the US. Sophie is trying to escape from a bad break up and Sarah is hoping to get out of the rut she's in, maybe by running a shop in Paris she'll be able to see her globe-trotting reporter fiancee, Ridge, more often.

What Sarah didn't realize was how buy and difficult to run the Paris bookshop would be. Suspicious things are happening at the shop, customers are rude, and schedules are very different (as in there really isn't a work schedule, people basically work when they want.)

At first the shop is struggling under Sarah's management but can she turn it around with the help of her new coworkers?

This is the first book I've read by Rebecca Raisin, but I'll definitely check out others in the future.

#TheLittleBookshopOnTheSeine #NetGalley

DNF. The romance is lackluster the heroine's passivity was starting to irritate me. The scenes about Paris were well-done but unfortunately the characterization was not working for me.

What’s not to love? Beautiful Paris as a backdrop, a busy bookshop, the chance to move from a small American town to one of the most romantic cities of Europe in winter, an irresistible boyfriend in the background.
Sarah jumps at the chance to do a book shop exchange with her friend Sophie. It sounds idyllic and fun but proves much harder than Sarah anticipated. Her luggage is stolen as soon as she arrives at the bookshop and the French staff seem nothing but rude. The profits fall and Sarah really begins to struggle. Ridge only manages a day’s visit and she begins to wonder if she should admit defeat and return home.
Slowly, things begin to improve. She gains confidence and begins to win over the staff, uncovering secrets in their lives, and winning their support. She explores and falls in love with this wonderful city. Her own romance develops too,
Paris is one of my favourite cities (Shakespeare & Co one of my favourite bookshops) and the author described it beautifully – felt as I was back there in lovely Paris as it was before the ugly scenes we see today. The supporting characters were all well drawn as well.
Definitely recommended as a feel-good romantic read!
Thanks to TBC, Netgalley and the author for the chance to read and review the book.

Really enjoyed this book - the characters and the setting. The story flowed along and made me want to keep reading. I think this is part if a series so I will certainly be looking for the others. I really need to finish the Cedarwood series too.

So this was just a so-so romance read. I usually am all over Christmas romance books, but this one was pretty lackluster. The heroine (Sarah Smith) is a doormat for a good 3/4 of this book. And it didn't help that Raisin threw in a side plot dealing with letters that were left behind that added nothing to the story. I think the main problem is that the book at first reads as if this is a second book in a romance series. We hear very little details about Sarah's romance or her friends in Ashford because the author acts like readers should already know. I think that is what ultimately threw me for a loop while reading this. Since this is book one in this romance series, it's a shame that there was not more backstory added before moving the setting to Paris.

"The Little Bookshop on the Seine" follows bookstore owner Sarah Smith. Sarah lives in the town of Ashford and loves her bookstore. Business is slow though and now that her roving reporter boyfriend Ridge is dashing about trying to nail news stories, she feels stuck. When her friend Sophie asks about switching lives and jobs for six months due to a romance gone wrong, Sarah initially hesitates, but then jumps at the chance. Six months to be in Paris and to have romantic days and nights with Ridge is too much to resist. Of course nothing goes right, and Sarah wonders if switching her job and life for six months was a bad idea.

As I said above, Sarah is a doormat. I was hoping that Raisin was going to have some magical realism elements due to at the beginning of the book she mentions how books "talk" to Sarah and how Sarah is able to pick up what books suit a potential owner. We don't unfortunately get a lot of details about her romance with Ridge besides him calling her and trying to talk to her about what underwear is she wearing at any given time. I was actually pretty disappointed with this romance, it just didn't seem to be more than them having sex with each other in between times when Ridge was traveling.

Sarah is also not a great boss. The workers at the bookshop she encounters she is scared to really deal with for a long long time in the book. Money goes missing along with a rare book and Sarah is scared she's going to cost Sophie her business. I just got tired of reading about it again and again. Sarah was overworked and tired through most of this book. It's broken up here and there by her going out in Paris, but not by much. I was pretty disappointed we didn't get more scenes of her exploring Paris and all that it had to offer.

The secondary characters are barely developed I thought. We had a bookshop worker Oceane (I think that was her name) that seemed way too good to be true. And then Sarah had to deal with a nasty one named Beatrice that she is too intimidated by most of the book.

Sarah also it seems barely talks to her friends or her mother back home. We just have her fretting about Ridge for most of the book when people ask her about where her "lover is". I am like Liz Lemon, the word lover bums me out.

The writing I thought needed to be tightened up. A lot. The book started to feel very repetitive. Also the months seemed to go by too fast and all of a sudden it was Christmas. The flow was just up and down. I think adding in that side-plot of the letters that Sarah found and read with a random author she met added nothing to this book.

I already mentioned that this book reads as if it's the second in a romance series, and it does. The author acts as if you should know who everyone is and how Sarah met Ridge, etc. It got aggravating after a while. I felt like I missed a prequel or something. When I went investigating I found that the stand-alone book about Sarah before this was called "The Bookshop on the Corner" and is the first book in that series called "Bookshop." I don't know why Raisin spun off this character from the other series for this new one, but it just doesn't work for me.

The setting of Paris at times was well done, but this book could have taken place anywhere after a while since most of the book takes place in the bookshop and has Sarah dealing with nasty customers and/or workers in the store. I needed something uplifting to read about. Heck, go explore the countryside, get some wine, something. When I get more of an experience of Paris by watching the Highlander series, the author has gone way off track.

The ending just kind of plops down and everyone gets a Happily Ever After.

This is a perfect book to curl up with at xmas time...lovely setting, great characters, a heroine you can root for. I haven’t read any other books and sometimes I felt a bit out of the loop, but not enough to detract from the story

Not recommending to students, but I will to adult friends.
I am torn about a rating. I’d say it started out as a 4 and then ended up closer to a 3. While I don’t mind a happy ending, I could have lived with just ONE of the plot lines staying un-tied-up. I get so sick of the gorgeous man and the unassuming girl with whom he falls unprecedentedly quickly heads over heels for! And this story was better than others at making her a real person...maybe at the expense of his development.
However, I loved the setting, obviously. And I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of people and places and even weather. That’s probably my favorite part of the book.
And, it’s probably just a quirk if the electronic ARC, but the lack of obvious endings of and beginnings to sections or chapters bugged! Hope that’s fixed for publication. 🤓💜📚

Serviceable romance. Protagonist's internal monologue was a little wearing after a while. Would have liked a section on the other store owner's experiences but the author is too caught up in the alleged allure of Paris.

When a small-town bookshop owner agrees to a short-term bookshop swap with a Parisian friend the result is nothing like the romantic ideal she imagines. This tribute to bookshops and Paris is a light, quick read with a bit of romance. Readers will enjoy the glimpse behind the scenes of running a bookstore and the descriptions of Paris. Recommended for fans of Jenny Colgan.

This was an entertaining light read. Although the ending was predictable, the idea of changing lives with a friend in Paris is intriguing. Sarah's persistence paid off.

What would your answer be if a friend called from out of the blue asking you to swap lives/jobs for a while? Would you say yes without asking many questions? Would you jump at the chance to live in Paris for a while, running a wonderful bookstore or would you cling to your small, safe life in a small town?

I could see myself saying yes if given a similar situation - friendships, taking chances, and becoming a better version of oneself is not always safe but almost always rewarding.

This book was received as an ARC from HARLEQUIN - Romance - HQN in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have always loved book involving small towns and little bookshops because of the genuine plot and the real characteristics each main character possesses. This time it involved the bookshop owner Sarah getting an opportunity to exchange locations with her friend Sophie who owns the bookshop in Paris. In for what she thought was going to be an experience of a lifetime turned borderline nightmare, when she engages with rude customers and risks her relationship with her boyfriend Ridge even more. That still does not stop her and she is determined to get the shop and her relationship back on track and have the experience of a lifetime. I loved how Rebecca Raisin used the most appropriate vocabulary to transport the reader to Paris and in the bookshop to take this ride along with Sarah. This book was perfect for a little cheer and pick me up and counting our blessings for the lifestyle we have.

We will consider adding this title to our Romance collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

This book was ok - cute quick read love story with predictable ending. Was hoping it was more like the book The Music Shop.

Sarah Smith is a small-town girl. Opening her own bookshop at 19, she lives between the pages of romance books. She has great friends, and a hot journalist boyfriend as well.

One day out of the blue, her friend Sophie from Paris, calls to suggest they swap places for six months! Running each other's shops and taking a break from their own lives to experience what the other is lacking. It doesn't take long for Sarah to hop on a plane for Paris and diving into Sophie's shop, Once Upon A Time.

Upon arrival, her bag, luggage, and passport are lifted. The shop is in disarray and one girl, in particular, is out to get her. The shop is doing awful financially and Beatrice is not helping the situation at all. No one has a schedule, books are taken at will, and her hot boyfriend is on assignment and nowhere near Paris!

So far she feels out of her comfort zone and hated by the entire staff. But with help from a couple of good guys and gals, she just may pull off making a go of the shop and a go of her relationship. 

Paris, the city of lights, love, and possibilities! Are there struggles? Oh, yes. But in the end, I think it may work out just fine.

A pleasure to read.

NetGalley/ January 07, 2020 Harlequin

I feel like I missed out on something by not having read the first book in the series prior to this. It felt like a lot of the story (in the first half) had previously happened - off the page - and it made me feel less connected to the characters. The writing style wasn't my favourite; we got every little thought of Sarah’s and sometimes that felt a bit rambling instead of intriguing. It was an okay read but I also wasn’t in love with it, to be honest.