My SYNOPSIS
Imagine this: You are the owner of a cinema that has managed
to lose its charm with the public, except for a few regular patronisers who
still believe in the charm of old movies. But you are not bothered despite the
fact that you can count the attendees on your fingers every night. You believe
in old cinematic principles where people should lose themselves in a movie
without munching, eating, slurping something to knock off their attention.
Except you really do not care if your cinema is filled to the brim when there’s
one particular regular you are happy to see every Wednesday night. The Lady In
The Red Coat.
You’ve been psyching yourself to ask her out after one
movie. Or perhaps just speak to her when she casts a shy smile your way upon
exiting the cinema. Amidst, incoherent speech and sweaty foreheads, you manage
to achieve this somewhat unachievable feat. Your date is magical. Things are
now looking up with the Lady In The Red Coat to look up to Next Wednesday.
But you can’t really have twice a lucky strike … or can you?
Upon the meeting of a famous director, your life goes viral.
You are meeting with Hollywood’s finest, walking popular actresses down old
cobblestone roads, talking about the enigma and charm of Paris with famous
people at the Ritz, making your very realistic serialist friend envy your life, signing deals to make your cinema
popular, pooling in a huge crowd in your cinema, getting your pictures taken by
paparazzi, getting on the headlines of every major newspaper and the shitty
tabloids, being clocked in the eye by a jealous boyfriend, re-reading letters
from the lady-in-the-red-coat. Your life is perfect.
Until the Lady In The Red Coat doesn’t show up for your
second date.
You are geared on by your obsession for her. You want to
understand why she’s just disappeared all of a sudden. Tracking her down leads
to no results. But really, isn’t it a no-no in the P.I business to track with
just a first name?
Alain
Bonnard’s story summed up for your delight.
MY
REVIEW
I would never, ever read this book again! Here are my
reasons:
First of all, I loved, loved the storyline. Small-business
Cinema owner finds the love of his life, small-Business Cinema Owner is so
close to becoming a household name, Small Cinema owner loses his girl,
Small-cinema owner vows he’d find this mysterious girl if it’s the last thing
he does! Quite basic really, the storyline. But perfectly executed like none I
have ever read before. A star to the storyline..── ★
Don’t you just love commercial fiction based in Paris?.── ★★
Thirdly, oh, you would adore Alain Bonnard, the main
character. His optimism is very inspiring really, though I must admit,
sometimes he just needed to be realistic like best friend Rob yells at him. I
have never connected with a chap-lit main character like I did with Alain
since… (when was the last time I read Harlan Coben?). His voice is nothing I
have ever indulged in before. Simple, relatable and very mature. Readers would
be cheering him on to go get his girl. And perhaps, wondering where he gets his
determination from searching for the love of his life all over Paris on a
first-name basis..── ★★★
Next, the other characters made this book spot-on fabulous.
Every single character delivered in their quest to help, or drive our lead off
track from reaching his dream girl. From Orphée the female cat who lended an
ear to our lead’s problems and gave indignant meows when he was fed up of
listening to same ol’ lady in the red coat, same ol’. Madame Clement the
inquisitive box office manager who was always around to lend her unwarranted
advice. Soléne Avril, the star actress whose flirtatious attempts on our lead
were not-so-disturbing to him more than it was to readers. Allan Wood, the old
famous director who brought our lead all the luck he needed to make his cinema
go big-time and lose his girl in the process. Robert, the realist serialist
whose advice to our main character to get on with another chick would be both
refreshing and annoying to the readers.
Carl, the cameraman who wouldn’t get off Soléne’s phone to avoid sending
fuck-off messages to her Texas fiancée. And all the Melanies who just weren’t the Melanie our main was in search off.
A star to the main characters!.── ★★★★
Now to why I would never, ever read this book again!
I loved Nicolas Barreau’s writing. It had some sort of
vintage-y effect thanks to the storyline that makes it so timeless. Ridden with
flashbacks and lots of foreshadowing, the suspense in this book was just too
much. Trust me, I hated reading this book with a perspiring forehead and every
time wondering where exactly my hankie is (because I never carry one! Shame)! I
mean, I just picked this book to be entertained, not to be entertained on the
edge of my seat!! Tell me, how comfortable could that be? It’s amazing how Nicolas
Barreau uses a lot of flashbacks and foreshadowing from start-to-finish to keep
the reader at a constant unease throughout the story! A great literary piece,
that’s what this book is! And you can hardly say this to most published chap-lits!.── ★★★★★
My rating is a massive five out of five stars!
Cheers to The Secret Paris Cinema Club published by Quercus
available here.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a piece that has
been so much acclaimed by reviewers and adopted by lots of publishing houses in
print because of its sheer greatness! Anyone who wants to read something so
suspenseful they would never, ever want to open it again should pick this.
Anyone who loves their Audrey Hepburns and so many other old stars in old
monochrome movies should get this title. And anyone who’s bent on looking for
the one lady or gentleman in a tutu or whatever who managed to capture their
heart should pick this title!
My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.
