Hannah is heading to Amsterdam with her boyfriend Simon. After several beautiful days in Italy, where Hannah had always wanted to go, they have to head back to family responsibility, to Amsterdam, where Si’s sister is getting married.
Hannah isn’t particularly looking forward to going to the wedding, as she keeps getting assigned more tasks to take care of the day of the ceremony, like writing out all the place cards for the reception. But there is one thing that Hannah wants even less than to go to the wedding, and that is not making it to the wedding.
On the overnight train from Venice to Amsterdam, Hannah can’t sleep. A mix-up meant that the personal sleeper cabin Si had booked for them had gone to a young family instead, and the uncomfortable seats keep her awake. She decides to take a walk to a quieter train car, especially since a group of boys are playing their music really loud. She walks toward the front of the train and finds a nice quiet place to sit for awhile, and then she falls asleep.
When she wakes up early the next morning, she feels bad about leaving Si alone on the train all night. She had her phone and her purse but not even a sweater to help with the morning chill. She walks back to see if Si is awake yet, but she can’t find him. Hannah gets all the way to the back of the train, and she doesn’t see Si anywhere. But she also though the train was longer. And when she asks a train conductor about it, he explains that the train spilt in the middle of the night. Part of the train went to Amsterdam, and the other part went to Paris.
That was the first thing that went really wrong.
There is another rider who was surprised to find out that the train had split and they were in Paris. He is French, and rude, and Hannah doesn’t even want to talk to him. And when they get to Paris and race to catch the next train to Amsterdam, she trips over the Frenchman’s bag and twists her ankle. That’s the next thing to go wrong. Then they miss that train, and her phone gets stolen by a pickpocket, and it’s pouring down rain, and the Frenchman has to leave to see a friend, and Hannah is at the station, cold and wet and alone waiting for the next train.
And then something goes right for her.
The Frenchman, Leo, comes back to check on her. He gives her a hoodie to wear and offers to take her to the police station to make a report about her phone, so she can get it replaced. And that leads to a coffee. And that leads to a chance to see the Eiffel Tower. And that leads to a genuine friendship with a man Hannah couldn’t stand just a little while earlier.
As Hannah and Leo spend the morning together, waiting around the for the next train, and Hannah starts to open up to the city of Paris and to Leo and his questions, she realizes how closed off she had let herself become. She hates her job. She loves Si, but she’s not sure about their future. She loves photography, but she’s undecided about taking a photography course in London. And then there’s the story about the only other time she’d visited Paris, and what had gone wrong that time. It was a story she’d never shared with Si, but this stranger had gotten her to talk about it after only a few hours together.
As Hannah finds herself opening up to Leo, and to Paris, she’s also opening up to possibilities. And by that evening, when she finds herself finally in Amsterdam, getting ready for Si’s sister wedding, Hannah realizes that her future is up to no one but herself. And she has to be the one to take control and choose which track she wants to follow.
The Paris Connection is a debut novel from author Lorraine Brown, and it’s filled with all the charm and surprise of a favorite rom com film. There are a lot of familiar tropes, but these characters breathe new life into them. I especially liked Hannah and her journey to wholeness and healing through her journey through Paris. I loved the descriptions of the food, the neighborhoods, the sights, and the architecture of Paris, and it made me want to take a train trip there too (which would be a lot more difficult from the middle of the US than from London, but a girl can dream).
Egalleys for The Paris Connection were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.
