Moonlight Over Paris: A Novel

A year ago I had no idea who Jennifer Robson was. Now I am an avid fan! Moonlight over Paris is written a beautifully as all her other novels. I recently purchased her latest which is set in Italy, and it is a gripping read. With a Jennifer Robson novel, you are captivated, captured, and enraptured through her word pictures and emotions into new worlds where you learn about historical events and places, as well as live vicariously through the eyes of her heroes and heroines.

I found myself feeling a bit flat on this title. It’s an entertaining story and the characters are sympathetic to a degree. Yet, I found myself bored more than once and glad when the final page had been turned. This is one of those titles that are fun while you read it but that you quickly forget as the next book looms on the horizon. The author takes her time when setting her story. 1920’s France with its hopping night life scene, artsy angst, and creative juices definitely breathes in this book. A world trying to rejuvenate after a devastating war comes across in spades. The author’s research and time in getting her details right is evident. The characters, including the leads Helena and Howard, are very human and three-dimensional. They all have their quirks and foibles, avoiding stereotypes which are refreshing. I liked how Helena was strong enough of a personality to stand up to her parents when departing from their planned journey for her life. She wants to pursue her art and so does. Yet, I found her to be without fire. Beyond standing up for her choice of life, I found her to be pretty apathetic. Her constant bemoaning on how here art skills aren’t that great or how her teacher isn’t paying attention to her go tiring quickly. Unfortunately, Howard didn’t save this part of the story either. He’s great when he gets page time, but that isn’t that often. It seems like for half the story, he isn’t even there at all. While the main focus of the book is really Helena’s growth as a person and an artist, a book that touts itself as a “romance” certainly lacked a bit in that department with its hero absent many times. Overall, this book was OK but ultimately forgettable. I enjoyed the story and characters during the tale, but I had no problem going onto the next book afterwards. The writer has written more engrossing works than this; don’t start with this tale if you haven’t read her before. But still, an pleasurable read and diversion from hectic daily life.

I loved this book and the 2 that preceeded it (Somewhere in France, After The War Is Over) as they are all tied together, following the lives of intertwined characters. The time period of before, during and after WWI appealed to me as my Grandfather served in Mesopotamia during it. I am always hungry for a 'feel' of the times and it is very well written by the author, who is new to me....and Canadian!!! I recommend this and the other 2 for anyone who is a fan of Historical Romance....You won't be disappointed!

December 1923. Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr is near death in her London home. Doctors have told her parents to start planning for the worse. I believe that her illness was scarlet fever, but that didn’t come out until about halfway through the story. Robson would have readers believe that her broken engagement has caused her illness. She feels the shame and shun or her relatives, friends, and strangers. Her five-year engagement to Edward is over. The Great War changed him, but it wasn’t her who broke off the relationship; it was Edward. Now Helena is 28, and her prospects are few. A letter arrives from her bohemian, free-spirited Aunt Agnes in Paris. She invites Helena to come and visit her. Helena quickly agrees, despite her parents’ concerns. Helena has always been drawn to art and enrolls in an art school under the tutelage of Maitre Czerny. She drops her title and simply becomes Helena Parr. Although Robson is an excellent writer and researcher, the story becomes predictable. She does her best at art but is never noticed by Czerny. She becomes fast friends with three of her classmates and, together, they rent a studio. She meets a handsome American, Sam Howard, to whom she is attracted. They hit it off and are smitten with each other, yet… There are a lot of wonderful details in the work. I enjoyed watching Helena become an artist and gain self-confidence that he broken engagement destroyed. Although it’s predictable, Moonlight Over Paris has strong characters and character development. Since I didn’t expect anything different, I really enjoyed this read.

Lady Helena, daughter of London aristocrats, almost loses her life due to scarlet fever. She survives and promises herself that she will live a more full life than before. Unfortunately, her fellow aristocratic fiancé broke off their engagement when he returned from the battlefields of the Great War. In their circles, most believed Lady Helena ended their engagement due to the gentleman soldier’s loss of his leg in the war. However, Edward and Helena really did not know one another very well, even after a long engagement, and certainly did not love each other. Due to this misunderstanding, British society was quite harsh on poor Helena, whispering behind her back and freezing her out of friendships. As she recovers, Helena persuades her parents to let her travel to France and live with her eccentric aunt while she attends art school, art being her therapy and happiest pastime. First in Antibes, and then in Paris, Helena thrives. She makes her first real friends in life at the school, learns much more about drawing and painting than she already knew, and meets a brash American newspaper man named Sam. Each of her three best friends and Sam have their own unique story involving social and personal problems. MOONLIGHT OVER PARIS was a very enjoyable read as many of the minor characters were real figures of Paris in the 1920s. To aid in her storyline, author Jennifer Robson introduces Sara and Gerald Murphy as friends of Helena’s. Helena and Sara had met years earlier when Sara and her Wiborg sisters were on their grand tour of Europe. Sara and Helena cross paths during a discussion of modern art and cubism and remained acquaintances through the years. Helena meets up with the artful couple and their friends on the La Garoupe beach in Antibes, and again a few times in Paris. Robson understands how the Murphys brought so many artists of all types together in such a prolific period of their lives. Helena also meets some other Lost Generation members at one of Natalie Barney’s salons, as well as via a visit to Gertrude Stein’s. Of course, Helena was relegated to the kitchen with Hadley Hemingway and others under the direction of Alice Toklas, as were most of the wives and women guests at 27, rue de Fleurus. Besides encountering many of the Lost Generation characters, Robson does a wonderful job of introducing her readers to the city of Paris. Helena’s aunt Agnes lives on the Ile-Saint-Louis, she and her friends rented a Left Bank art studio, and she visits such places as Notre Dame and Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company. Helena’s story was somewhat predictable, but I can never get enough of the Lost Generation, Paris in the 1920s, and any art-related story combining the two. After reading this third novel of Robson’s, I surely want to check out her previous two books.