"After Paris" by Nicole Kennedy is a captivating exploration of friendship, motherhood, and the complexities of identity. Set against the backdrop of Paris, three lifelong friends embark on a weekend getaway that leaves their relationships forever altered. Kennedy skillfully navigates themes of secrets and the facades we maintain, leaving readers guessing until the final page. A poignant and thought-provoking read that lingers long after the last chapter.

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I loved the complexities of the relationships among the three friends, as well as the depth of the characters. Nicole Kennedy expertly portrays how our perceptions can be clouded, even when we think we have all the information. It's a beautiful story of friendship, showcasing how surrounding ourselves with supportive individuals can carry us through life's challenges.

Good book that had a few slow parts. It was as good but the wordy parts slowed down the flow of the story for me.

This is a good book about friendship. The story is told from multiple POVs. The storytelling was perfect. An absorbing book

This book follows Nina, Alice and Jules. 3 friends who meet in Paris in their teens and then throughout their adulthood have regular trips to Paris to relive their youth. On their most recent trip to Paris, the women all leave and never talk to each other again.

I found this book a little tricky to get into as the duel timeline and multiple POV was a bit confusing but as soon as I got used and was familiar with the characters I couldn’t put it down!

This book was the perfect mix of chic-lit and more serious topics which I think that the author covered really well. I feel like a lot of research into it.

I felt like I really got to know the characters and although they all have their flaws, I would love to be part of their friendship group! This is the first of Nicole Kennedy I’ve read but I’ll definitely be reading more.

Trigger Warnings below as they have spoilers.

TW - miscarriage, affairs, gambling addiction, abortion, injuring a child

This novel felt really refreshing and different. It provides a focus on friendship, an interesting timeline and a setting that really evokes a strong sense of place and time. There was so many elements to this book I enjoyed and it is definitely one I would recommend.

In this novel, readers get to know Alice, Nina and Jules. The three met twenty or so years ago in Paris (at Le Crillon). Ever since, they have met up once a year. This time, forty is looming large as the friends are now thirty-nine. Also, this time, all does not go well and the women become estranged. Why? Will they find their way back to each other? Read this story to find out. Along the way, readers will get to know the characters and their lives well. It doesn’t hurt that Paris is part of the story aw well.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for this title. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Overall, this book just wasn’t for me. It is very well written and the story is nice. It’s a story of friendship throughout the years with all the trials and tribulations of true friendship. I listened to the audiobook and it got a little confusing on which point of view you were listening to since it’s one narrator for 3 female characters.

Absolutely loved this book!

The writing style was really good and I look forward to reading any other books from this author in the future :)

I feel a little let down by this book. I'd have liked a little more of a look into female friendships in your 40s but instead it felt really catty and immature.

Also the reason for them falling out was incredibly dumb, so much so it was all resolved after three or so pages.

This was my first time reading a book from the author but I am delighted to say I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I look forward to reading more books from the writer in the future!

When the novel started I had in my head that it was going to be a quick, escapist read about women on holiday. I soon found out there were unexpected depths to the story, both in the serious issues that are explored and the deep emotions they unleash. Jules, Nina and Alice have been friends for twenty years, ever since they met in the toilets at Le Bal - the French equivalent of a debutante’s ball in the U.K. The girls, and Teddy their honorary member of the girl gang, decide to give the ball a miss and go out together instead. Since then Paris has always been their city, the place they escape to and celebrate in. Now they’ve managed to juggle their lives to have a nostalgic trip to their favourite city as they’re coming into their forties. Jules now has a high octane city job and a husband, Paul. Yet she also has an addiction thats spiralling out of control and this weekend away might be the only chance she has to put it right, but she doesn’t want the girls to know. Nina is tired, not drinking, and finding it strange to be back in the same situation and place she was twenty years ago. Alice is trying to fight the anxiety she’s experienced ever since leaving husband Ted in charge of their three children for the weekend, especially Charlotte who is on the autistic spectrum and doesn’t like change. Can any of them relax enough to enjoy this city that means so much to them or will some truths about their current lives spill out? That’s not all though, there are much older skeletons in their closets that could affect their holiday and its aftermath.

The author has pulled off that clever trick where there’s just enough charming and escapist detail that the reader expects a light read. However, underneath she’s tackling some huge issues that women face every day: from addiction, infertility, abortion to marital breakdown, caring for a child with autistic spectrum disorder and in amongst it all trying to find some time to pursue your own dreams. This appealed to me because although I’m slightly older, every woman I know is juggling so much. I’m struggling to find time for my MA studies between the day to day of two teenage stepdaughters - one doing her A’Levels and leaving for university this year - running the house, struggling with a disability and parents who are at that age when they start having falls rather than just falling over. There are so many balls in the air. I bonded with Alice immediately, perhaps identifying with her lack of self-confidence and rather colourful dress sense. She married Teddy, in Paris of course, already pregnant with their first child. Alice has immersed herself in motherhood, especially where Charlotte is concerned because trying to find a learning environment where she will fit and be accepted has been so hard. Luckily she now has Mr Hughes, trained in working with children on the autistic spectrum, not to mention very easy on the eye. She’s had a brief foray into interior design after so many compliments about her own home, but became discouraged when she created a nursery for a Japanese couple. They were friends with Jules and she was very pleased with the final result, but they didn’t pay and she never heard from them again. Maybe now, Alice could finally be able to carve out some space for herself and try again.

I didn’t immediately warm to Nina and Jules, but their stories were really interesting and a therapist’s dream. Nina had never wanted a family, inspired by her time in Paris to start a French style patisserie in London. She spent longer in Paris than the other girls because the flat belonged to her aunt, her only real support in life. Nina’s father was a French movie star and he’d always been too busy chasing his own dream and other women to have any time for his daughter. I could understand her feeling abandoned, so painful because her parents had chosen to leave her. She has also spent most of her life in love with someone out of reach, but does she really know him and can she judge him on a brief encounter when they were young? Jules has also thrown herself into her work in finance, enjoying the high stakes of trading in the city. She also has her husband Paul, who she loves so much, but their relationship is strained from several rounds of IVF and a secret addiction that’s left Paul picking up the pieces more than once. The girls notice that Jules is distracted, often on her phone and seemingly exhausted even after a full night’s sleep. What they don’t know is that she’s put everything on the line, her job, her marriage, her chance at becoming a mum and even their friendship.

I love fashion and interiors so I’ll admit to being a bit shallow and enjoying the women’s fabulous style, especially Alice, and how the author expresses their personality through their clothes. There are lovely little vignettes of Nina’s photos for her cookery book, Alice’s interiors and Jules’s curated wardrobe. I was dying to see a sample of Alice’s ‘labia’ wallpaper! These things may sound shallow and unimportant, but they lift the book and also underpin some big shifts in the character - once Jules has been honest about her issues she starts to be more authentic, throwing out the ‘tasteful’ wardrobe picked out for her and re-using interesting pieces like her crystal encrusted croissant handbag. They also helped us to see how the beautiful city of Paris had influenced them. I loved the exploration of motherhood through these characters and how being on a different motherhood journey from our friends can cause angst and dishonesty, while trying to be kind. For example, if one friend is thinking of having an abortion while the other is struggling through IVF, they might keep it to themselves. Similarly one women announcing a pregnancy might feel awful if their friend has miscarried. These are familiar dilemmas for all women of child bearing age and are portrayed beautifully here. There are some incredible men in the book and others that made me want to throw the book at the wall, especially Teddy. He acted with no thought or care for the consequences at times, especially when it came to how his actions affected the other person. However, he was balanced beautifully by the lovely Mr Hughes, Paul and the wonderful Flynn who warmed my cynical heart.

This is one of those fabulous books that seem like very pretty and well written fluff, but are actually much deeper than that. The author has created something compulsively readable and three female characters who I’d happily have a drink with. If reading this for a book club I could imagine us all sitting there and trying to work out which of the three friends we are - in fact I’ll probably be devising a quiz later. It was remarkably honest about female friendship, including that long silence of several months with everyone checking who was online, but not wanting to make the first move. Arguably they needed that space to really think about where their lives were going next, making those first steps without each other. It certainly benefits Jules and sets her on the path to recovery. It also allows them to redefine the patterns of their friendship for the next twenty years, because just like a marriage we change and have to adjust to each other again. I felt sorry to be leaving these women and as always when I read a book about Paris, I yearned to visit and see all these things for myself. This was an excellent holiday read and I’m sure it will be seen on a few beach loungers this summer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and the story stuck around in my mind for a long time after I read it. I think some of the flashbacks were a bit convoluted and hard to read at times, but I'd recommend this to my friends who love literary fiction with a bit of mystery.

Jules, Nina, and Alice are best friends, who were thrown together in an impromptu meeting as teenagers. Every few years, they take a trip to Paris together. But as they've grown older, they have each started keeping their own secrets, which culminates in a falling out during their latest trip. Now, communication has stopped. Read to find out what comes next for the lifelong friends.

It's a poignant tale of women who do what many of us do....try to keep everyone else happen even at the expense of our own happiness. It's entertaining, fun, and thought-provoking. Here's a tale of the crossroads we reach in life, reckoning with our choices and the repercussions of our decisions. There are moments that resonated with my life & I found myself quite emotional while reading. Nicole Kennedy captures the intricacies and intimacies of female friendship.

After Paris is entertaining, fun, thought-provoking & encapsulates what many women try to do - keep everyone else happy, often at the expense of their own happiness. It explores the many crossroads we come to in life, the choices we face, the decisions we make, and the possible repercussions. Fabulous!

This a rare book with three narrators that really seemed to get the balance right. Each woman had a distinctive voice and really contributed to the story. I feel like this is hard for authors to really manage. It was also a great book that was truly just about friendship. I really wanted to see what would happen next but I did feel like the ending was a little bit of a letdown. It wasn't bad, it was just not as good or well paced as the rest of the book.

Really good book. The plot was well-written and engrossing. I look forward to reading more from this author.

This was a great book for women who have had lifelong friends who have stuck together through thick and thin. I enjoy the dynamics of the three friends from how they met and over the years through flashbacks and various experiences. I wouldn’t have minded having more flashbacks to maybe just a few years ago so we could’ve seen what was happening in the lives of Alice Jules and Nina. Overall it was good to see that these friends had various life experiences but were still able to come together and keep their friendship through all the years even though there were trials and tribulations among them. I enjoyed the fact that this was a good women’s fiction book about friendship.

Nicole Kennedy lays bare the intricacies and complexities of female friendship in her astute, emotional and immensely readable novel, After Paris.

Twenty years ago, Alice, Nina and Jules had met in Paris and they have been the best of friends since. The three women have always been there for one another and supported each other through the good times and the bad. Every year, they return to Paris to relieve their youth, leave their troubles behind and generally have a fun time remembering the girls they used to be before they were weighed down by responsibilities and commitments. Nothing could possibly tear these three women apart, but when the cracks begin to show, will Alice, Nina and Jules end up going their separate ways? Or will they end up salvaging the friendship that means everything to them?

After their weekend in Paris, the three women never speak again. It seems that irrevocable damage has been done to their friendship and they can never go back to how things were before. Each one of them claims that the other two ghosted them. But who is telling the truth? What really happened during their weekend in Paris and will they ever be on speaking terms ever again? Or is their friendship over for good?

Nicole Kennedy’s After Paris is an honest, relatable, believable and engaging and enjoyable read every single woman will relate to. Fun and escapist, but moving and layered at the same time, After Paris is a mature, intelligent and entertaining page-turner that delivers on all counts.

With characters who are flawed and real, intense emotional drama and plenty of laugh out loud moments, Nicole Kennedy’s After Paris is a thought-provoking and engrossing read perfect for Jane Fallon fans.

Lovely feel good book to read. It was a joy to read. Lovely characters. Great plot. The book was charming. Very well written. I’d definitely recommend this book

At first, this was a DNF for me having requested it off Netgalley as I just didnt understand or enjoy the first chapter. A couple of weeks ago, someone I follow on Twitter mentioned how brilliant it was so I decided to give it another go and do some research into the first chapter and some of the words (like debutante) that I didnt understand. Having done the research I was able to enjoy the book a little more. Unfortunately I still didnt love it but thankfully I didnt hate it hence the 3 star rating. It's ok. It raises awareness about autism which I think is good, it also mentions some other subjects which some readers may find hard to read about. The overwhelming theme running throughout the book though is friendship and how important friendship is.

After Paris is a grown-up, thought-provoking and gripping novel set in Paris about motherhood, friendship, secrets, and the face we present to the world. However, I just could not for the life of me understand why Alice, Jules and Nina were ever friends in the first place. I found their individual stories so compelling, but their friendship made no sense. It was completely unsurprising that they drifted apart the way they do, when you learn how their friendship was riddled with lack of communication and jealousy. The structure of the book was also confusing to navigate, not just because of the back and forth between timelines, but also who was narrating. I did love the deep hard issues that these women are faced with and how it is clear, like in real life, that they aren’t simple resolutions or decisions to be made. This book was an interesting read as it represents a lot of women’s problems in current days. It has an important message regarding women supporting women, which gave it a very good ending.