Review: Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes

Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication Date: February 9th 2017
My rating: 4 stars.

Nell is twenty-six and has never been to Paris. She's never even been in a romantic weekend away - anywhere - before. Travelling abroad isn't really her thing. But when Nell's boyfriend fails to show up, she has the chance to prove to everyone - including herself - that she can be independent and intrepid. Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed... In ten other stories, Jojo Moyes introduces us to more strong, relatable women in the midst of their everyday lives. In Honeymoon in Paris, featuring characters from her bestselling novel, The Girl You Left Behind, Liv and Sophie - though decades apart - both find that marriage is only the beginning of their love stories. In Crocodile Shoes, a businesswoman's blossoming confidence emerges from a fateful changing-room mix-up. And in both Love in the Afternoon and A Bird in the Hand, two couples dance around the trickiness of long-term marriage. In this irresistible collection, readers will be whisked from elegant perfume shops to taxis to five-star hotel rooms and beyond.

I’m typically not a short stories sort of reader, but when I heard about Paris for One and other stories by Jojo Moyes I knew I had to read it, Moyes just has a way of getting under your skin with her writing, so I couldn’t wait to dive right in. With this book featuring quite a few stories I thought with my review I would focus on a few of my favourites. 

Between the Tweets 
This story was totally unexpected; we have a well known actor who has come under intense scrutiny when a random lady pops out of nowhere accusing him of having an affair. Declan has a wife and kids, so is taken aback by these accusations, he gets somebody to look into who this lady could be especially as she claims to know details about him that only someone who has been intimate with can know about. I was all for discovering who this person could be and to be honest I was fully on Declan’s side, but the two big blows towards the end of the story completely took me by surprise. In the end I was left slightly gobsmacked, but also with a smile on my face with the way things ended up. 

A Bird in the Hand 
This story I really ended up enjoying, it was about two people who ended up finding a connection whilst working together. They’d tried to keep their relationship under wraps, more so because Beth was married. We’re not fully told the back story of Beth and Ben’s relationship, so I sort of appreciated the way that we’re given their story with their chance meeting at an event. Both are there with their respective partners, and the way they’re forced to interact with one another and reminisce of what could have been because of miscommunication was done beautifully. I’m not going to say how this short story ended, but although it wasn’t how I would have wanted it to, I was still left happy with it. Also this story really left me wanting a full story from these characters. 

Holdups
This story was an absolute delight to read. Alice finds herself caught up in a break-in at her place of work at the jewellers. Instead of being scared by the big guy looming over her, she finds herself connecting with the guy with the strange accent and tights on his head. This interaction between Alice and her captor was totally bizarre, but done really well! It was clear that this guy really didn’t want to be in this situation at all, Alice was so easily able to take so much information from him in a short amount of time and would a criminal really allow his hostage destroy a painting they didn’t like? Despite this story being kind of farfetched, I really liked it, Alice was such a funny character and the way things ended up I absolutely loved as I totally didn’t expect it at all! 

Honeymoon in Paris 
I was totally confused at when first reading this, as I thought the story of David and Liv had come to an abrupt end and we’d be thrown into the world of another couple straight away. To be honest I was kind of annoyed, as I needed to know what was happening with David and Liv; they were on their honeymoon and David’s work was clearly taking a priority over his honeymoon, I understood that it was a big deal for him, but you only went on your honeymoon once, so I totally felt for Liv. And then when we were just in the middle of their story we’re introduced to Edouard and Sophie, yes their story and what was going on with their lives were interesting enough but I wanted to go back to David and Liv, I needed to know what was going to happen to them, would David finally put his love for Liv before his love of work? But seriously it was kind of neat the way Moyes mingled these characters stories together, although at the beginning it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, it was cleverly done. So much so that this book ended up being my absolute favourite from all of the stories!