Paris For One and Other Short Stories By Jojo Moyes
Paris For One
By Jojo MoyesGenre: Short stories/Contemporary Fiction/Romance/Humour
When I saw this book, 
I was under the impression that this compendium of eleven short stories 
might be extracts left out of Jojo Moyes novels, like deleted scenes from a movie. For instance, in the title story, I thought it may have been about Louisa Clarke's (of the Lou trilogies) time she spent travelling, between Will's untimely demise & her returning to England to settle in London. 
However, story 7, Honeymoon in Paris does revisit The Girl You Left Behind (my favourite book of Jojo's other than the LT's), which was a real treat for me as I love Liv, Sophie & Edouard. All the stories except this one & the first, were like extracts from books making it difficult to invest in the characters, some I struggled to see the point of & others were worthy of being part of a book. Overall, I just felt that the author & publishers missed a trick in not making this book into short stories following characters from the author's existing publications......unless of course Jojo is intending to write books about these new characters in the future.
I was under the impression that this compendium of eleven short stories might be extracts left out of Jojo Moyes novels, like deleted scenes from a movie. For instance, in the title story, I thought it may have been about Louisa Clarke's (of the Lou trilogies) time she spent travelling, between Will's untimely demise & her returning to England to settle in London. However, story 7, Honeymoon in Paris does revisit The Girl You Left Behind (my favourite book of Jojo's other than the LT's), which was a real treat for me as I love Liv, Sophie & Edouard. All the stories except this one & the first, were like extracts from books making it difficult to invest in the characters, some I struggled to see the point of & others were worthy of being part of a book. Overall, I just felt that the author & publishers missed a trick in not making this book into short stories following characters from the author's existing publications......unless of course Jojo is intending to write books about these new characters in the future.'Lou In Lockdown', (a short story),which follows on from the 'Lou trilogies', as far as I have been able to find, is only available on-line & I wonder why it was not included in this book.
A list of the short stories that I liked from this book with brief accompanying reviews are below:
Story 1 - Paris For One - I enjoyed it but found the end predictable & overly sentimental . I would have liked to have seen Nell return to England & then a few months later come across Fabien's book with a dedication to her, not a return to Paris.
- I enjoyed it but found the end predictable & overly sentimental . I would have liked to have seen Nell return to England & then a few months later come across Fabien's book with a dedication to her, not a return to Paris.Story 3 - Love In The Afternoon 
- I really wanted to get invested in this as the narrative & the characters were something that really appealed to me. I felt that this was worthy of expanding into a novel.
- I really wanted to get invested in this as the narrative & the characters were something that really appealed to me. I felt that this was worthy of expanding into a novel.Story 6 - Holdups 
- Funny & really liked the character of Alice. It had an interesting plot twist at the end & read like an extract from a book.
- Funny & really liked the character of Alice. It had an interesting plot twist at the end & read like an extract from a book.Story 7 - Honeymoon In Paris 
- My favourite, & now my main reason for owning this book. I loved the main novel, The Girl You Left Behind. From Sophie & Edouard's perspective, it picks up their story in Paris, 1912, between their marriage & Edouard going to fight in the war between the French & Germans & focuses on a time of insecurity for Sophie within her relationship with her husband. With Liv & David in 2002, the narrative focuses on their honeymoon, with David continually going to meet with tge Goldsteins to discuss plans for the construction of a new building, eventually to become his legacy. Leaving Liv to wonder the streets & art galleries of Paris alone.
- My favourite, & now my main reason for owning this book. I loved the main novel, The Girl You Left Behind. From Sophie & Edouard's perspective, it picks up their story in Paris, 1912, between their marriage & Edouard going to fight in the war between the French & Germans & focuses on a time of insecurity for Sophie within her relationship with her husband. With Liv & David in 2002, the narrative focuses on their honeymoon, with David continually going to meet with tge Goldsteins to discuss plans for the construction of a new building, eventually to become his legacy. Leaving Liv to wonder the streets & art galleries of Paris alone.Story 9 - Thirteen Days With John C 
- This was entertaining & I immediately imagined the central character (also called Miranda), as Miranda Hart all through the story as it fit the narrative perfectly, & made me smile. The twist at the end is clever when Miranda meets John's wife. A warning to all never to reply to text messages from a stranger's phone!
- This was entertaining & I immediately imagined the central character (also called Miranda), as Miranda Hart all through the story as it fit the narrative perfectly, & made me smile. The twist at the end is clever when Miranda meets John's wife. A warning to all never to reply to text messages from a stranger's phone!Story 10 - Margot 
- The title character put me in mind of Mrs De Suza from the Lou trilogies in New York. A heartwarming tale that will make you smile......with a dash of sadness.
- The title character put me in mind of Mrs De Suza from the Lou trilogies in New York. A heartwarming tale that will make you smile......with a dash of sadness.Story 11 - The Christmas List 
- A fun story with a liberating twist for the main character.
- A fun story with a liberating twist for the main character.
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