Blog Tour | What Happens in France #review @canelo_co

Since the weather has been so cold and miserable I have had plenty of opportunity for reading and if you find yourself in need of a book then you’ll definitely want to read more about this one.

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Bryony Masters has been looking for her long-lost sister, Hannah, for years, but when their father has a stroke her search takes on new urgency. So when primetime game show, What Happens in France, puts a call-out for new contestants, Bryony spots the ultimate public platform to find her reality TV-obsessed sister, and finally reunite their family.

With the help of handsome teammate Lewis, it’s not long before she’s on a private jet heading for the stunning beauty of rural France. With a social media star dog, a high maintenance quiz host and a cast of truly unique characters, Bryony and Lewis have their work cut out for them to stay on the show and in the public eye.

Yet as the audience grows and the grand prize beckons they find that the search that brought them together may just fulfil more than one heart’s wish…

 

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What Happens in France is the kind of book that you can tell just from reading the blurb that the concept is going to be brilliant, I hadn’t heard of the author before so I was trusting she could pull it off. No disappointment here.

Reading this book was effortless, sometimes a bit dangerously so as the good old ‘just one more chapter’ turned into quite a late night. The writing style was straightforward and made it easy for me to conjure the different settings. I really really want to go to France and stay in a château and drink all the wine although I might pass on the furry car.

It was also very humorous, so much so that I laughed out loud at points and earned myself some amused stares from other train passengers. There is a particular line from Jim that took me a minute to compose myself before I could carry on reading.

Even though it is for the most part quite a light-hearted story it did have its serious moments too, the whole undercurrent of the story is Bryony’s search for her sister so that her father with ailing health can see her again. I quite enjoyed the change of tempo when we got flashbacks into just before Hannah disappeared and also when Bryony was writing her blog entries for her sister. Kind of gave me a moment to pause amongst the rest of the goings-on and added another emotional element to the story but without losing the generally upbeat feeling from the rest of the book.

Bryony is an infectious character, I just couldn’t help but love her, she has been through a lot but still manages to be so positive and her pairing with Lewis was brilliant, I really enjoyed their camaraderie. It was nice to see their friendship develop and I was glad that the book mainly focused on them being friends and supporting each other, even if they did have a few gripes now and again.

Actually, I did develop a soft spot for a few of the other contestants too, Jim and Oscar were fabulous and I ended up rooting for them in the contests as well, but the one that stood out the most was Biggie Smalls, no wonder he became the cover star.

I really enjoyed this book, with such an interesting plot and loveable characters I’m sure it will appeal to a lot of readers, and I really do hope that maybe I’ll get to meet Bryony, Lewis and pals again.

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If you want to find out more about the book then check out all these other cool places you can swing by.

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As a child Carol Wyer was always moving, and relied on humour to fit in at new schools. A funny short story won her popularity, planting the seed of becoming a writer. Her career spans dry cleaning, running a language teaching company, and boxercise coaching. Now writing full-time, Carol has several books published and journalism in many magazines.

Carol won The People’s Book Prize Award for non-fiction (2015), and can sometimes be found performing her stand-up comedy routine Laugh While You Still Have Teeth.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

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I would like to thank Canelo and Ellie Pilcher for inviting me to be part of the tour.

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