My four rating is a weak four, I'm afraid. Perhaps I was left a little flat because I loved her prior book so much - or it may have something to do with reading while I had the flu. Absolutely loved the way the opening scene/chapter was handled. Gentle romance, and a sixty-something feeling beautiful - those appeal - there were just so many strong and loveable characters, I wish their relationships hadn't felt a bit rushed at the end.

I couldn't finish this book. Little Paris Bookshop was a wonder. This one is an incoherent mess. Sorry.

I feel like I need to begin this review by letting you know that I think Nina George is a phenomenal writer. Her book, The Little Paris Bookshop, was far and away one of my favorite books of last year. So, when I saw that she had a new book coming out, I was super excited. Unfortunately, I think some of my excitement may have led to some disappointment.

For me, The Little French Bistro was a slow read, and one that I struggled to get into. I generally have a rule that if you don't "get into" a book, you put it aside because there are far too many books to spend time on one you are struggling on. However, this author is a beautiful writer. So, even though it moved significantly slower than her previous book, I was still so in love with her flowery sentences and evocative language that I stuck it out.

Nina George does know how to write an impressive, moving, lyrical sentence. It is what made me keep going even when I struggled with connecting to these characters or the plot. Another issue may have been that there are many instances of foreign language in this novel. This may make me sound dumb or unsophisticated, but I do not speak any other language, so I feel like I missed a lot of what was happening in the novel. Of course, I understand I could have researched these terms, but I really was wanting to read this book for pleasure and escape. *Please don't judge me too harshly for saying so.*

With that being said, if you are a fan of books featuring an older demographic and women come into their own late in life, you will most likely enjoy this book. George is an excellent writer and I probably would have liked this book more if I had not read her previous work and had such high hopes. It might also just be because I am in summer mindset and needing some beach reads, and this one did not fit in this category.

The Little French Bistro by Nina George is among my favorite books for 2017. This book is beautifully written. I loved the characters and was moved by the storyline.

Marianne, a sixty year old, travels to Paris in search of her own death. She realizes she has not been living all these years but merely existing. When she reaches her destination she still wishes to die, but puts it off for just one day. Will Marianne realize her life has meaning?

I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I loved how we are shown that even late in life things can change. I laughed and cried. This book surprised me. I will be reading it again. Fans of Nina George will not be disappointed.

I acknowledge that I received this book free of charge from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

The book was slow in the beginning. I would have liked a little more description of the gentleman that came to the rescue. He was quickly forgotten yet he changed the course of Marianne's life. In the end, she does look for him, but she does not find him. I would like a map and more history of Brittany, especially the Celtic connections. I enjoyed the lively characters and the subtle romances that developed or rekindled.

It's a poetic and funny novel, it reminds a little bit of Brit-Marie from the novel Brit-Marie was here. As most novels whose setting is the beach during the summer, it created a cozy feeling, with quirky characters whom you cannot help but endear. It's the kind of novel that presents the good characters clearly, making sure you see their goodness, and the bad characters truly bad, making sure you don't miss their nastiness. It presented love as the only important force in the universe, and you couldn't help but cheer for them. However, I do not remember the names and particularities of every characters, only the most important ones. At some point they seemed alike, and I'm referring to the women. Not a deal breaker, though.

At some point there were some eyebrow-raising details, but because the story and the main character, Marianne, were presented so smoothly and as if everything happened naturally I let them pass. The novel starts in a somewhat gloomy way, but it doesn't stay that way for long. It didn't catch my interest from the very beginning, but too changed soon. Some lines the characters have made me straight-up laugh, and I don't often laugh at a book. It's just that it took me by surprise, and it was a nice surprise.

I read Nina George's The Little Paris Bookshop about two years ago. I enjoyed that novel, but The Little French Bistro I liked more. Maybe it's the setting and the summer vibes and the perfect timing when I read the novel - whatever it was, it was a perfect read at the right moment.

If you want to read a novel set in France, a novel that sends summer vibes with a touch of melancholy and even sadness, but with a good ending, pick up this novel. It is a novel with an eventually daring character and a perfectly dreamy setting.

The Little French Bistro is one that romantics should throw into their beach bags for an absorbing and light read. Marianne is a classic character, tired of her meaningless life and cruel husband, who finally, rather accidentally, frees herself from her burdens and sets out on an adventure that will change her life forever. The cast of characters are quirky and passionate, the setting makes you want to vacation to a small town in Brittany, and the messages are powerful for people who might want a little change in their own lives, too.

Little French Bistro by Nina George
When you are married to a cad, a real heartless, selfish, mean spirited cad, what is your last recourse? You think you just have to kill yourself.
Marianne is 60 years old, has been married to Lothar for 40 years and she’s just had it so while on a ‘vacation’ in Paris, she gets up from the dinner table, walks to the edge of the Seine and prepares to jump in. She leaves her coat, her purse, her shoes, thinks about it one more minute and jumps.
Of course this isn’t the end of her or her story. She is rescued and eventually finds her way, penniless, to the Brittany coast where by default she finds herself working in the kitchen of a bistro. She ingratiates herself to the people she meets in this place called the end of the earth. And they to her. As her acceptance grows so does her confidence and soon Marianne transforms herself into a real person, something she didn’t know she was.
I loved this sweet story. A message to all of those at a certain age that age is just a state of mind and as long as you breathe there is a life for you.

After 41 years with a man who has cheated on her, never let her make one decision on her own, at the age of 60, she makes her first one. To end her life.

Death may not be quite ready for Marianne though. As terrified as she is at striking out on her own with nothing she is determined to let this old life die and find one she loves and that loves her back.

Something in a painted tile she finds calls to her and she sets out to find Kerdruc. It's here that she remembers who and what she is, where she is free to be who she wants and to love who she wants.

First the name, The Little French Bistro, then the cover, a simple bistro style table and chairs, drew me into this book. I thought that it would be a light and easy read filled with food and stereotypical French life. What I found inside couldn’t be further from that. I was both a little disappointed and pleasantly surprised.

The story opens as the main character, Marianne, is leaving alone from a party in Paris. Escaping the clutches of her controlling and emotionally abusive husband, Lothar, whom she has been with for 41 years. She decides that she is going to end it all. It’s the only way she can see her way out of this relationship. She finds a bench on the banks of the Seine and starts to undress. Carefully folding and stacking all of her clothes so that someone in more need of them than her will find them. What use of them they will get she doesn’t know. The dress is bland and old as is the coat. Lothar never allowed her to get new clothes. She climbs up onto the brick wall and jumps in. Letting the river pull her under. Gulping in huge lung fulls of dirty Seine water. She is at peace. The most peaceful she has been in a long time. Suddenly, she is rescued by a homeless man who watched her jump in. His friends call an ambulance and they take her to the local mental hospital. Lothar tells her that he is going to have her returned to Germany, where they live. She escapes from the mental hospital and makes her way to the town of Kerduc, France. A town she found on a painted tile on her travels. She had once again planned to kill herself in the sea. Each day she tried and each day she said maybe the next. She found love again. She found dear friends. She found a job that she loved and was good at.

I still have no idea what to think about this book. On one hand, it was pretty good. The author did an amazing job of giving the characters back stories. The places she described came to life in my mind’s eye. The problem was that even on the happiest and lightest part of the story it still had a fairly dark and turbulent undercurrent. The author does tackle suicide and depression. I enjoyed the character of Marianne but she was so wishy washy. She ran away from any problems she had. She was excellent in solving other people’s issues but when it came to her own she stuck her head in the sand. The book covers dark things. Death from cancer, Dementia/Alzheimer’s, affairs, Parkinson’s, abusive significant other and suicide. The book then suddenly takes an odd turn at the end and it ends up her being a Druid, or what I assume is a Druid, and playing the accordion on the beach. I do have the other book Nina George wrote, The Little Paris Bookshop. After reading this book, I hope that it is a more happy read than The Little French Bistro.

A very well written book with a great plot and well thought out characters. I enjoyed this author's writing style.

This was a delightful romance about a 60 y o who wants to escape a loveless marriage. I enjoyed reading this book a lot and especially liked the insights she has along the way. The descriptions of the village are especially nice.

While on vacation with her controlling husband in Paris, decides to commit suicide by throwing herself into the Seine. What she wasn't counting on was someone jumping in and rescuing her. As she is laying in the hospital recouperating, her husband shows up and berates her for doing such a foolish thing. Marianne cannot bear the thought of going back home to the life she has grown to hate, so she takes off on a journey. She chooses a destination to end her life, but life intervenes. Sometimes life gives us things that we weren't expecting. Life hands us all sorts of surprises and it depends on whether you want to turn your back on them or embrace them, as to what direction your life will take. This book was absolutely delightful. I was enchanted from beginning to end.

I found this rather trite and very slow reading. Maybe a good pick for older women's book groups

A story of choosing life over death and finding a life when there was none. There were moments of enchantment but most of the story felt disjointed and left me confused. I really wanted to like this story of Marianne finding herself and happiness but most of the time I just didn't like Marianne.

Eh. I wasn't wild about The Little Paris Bookshop, largely because I thought it was misrepresented, and despite having just as much (if not more) potential, this was even more disappointing. I started by enjoying it because I really like Marianne as a character. Even her journey to the small seaside town where she ends up was entertaining, despite being highly unrealistic. However, just as there was very little bookshop in the first book, there was very little bistro in this one. And despite the promise of a cast of colorful characters, I felt like I found a cast of first names and professions - very flat, especially compared with Marianne. There were glimmers of a good book in there, because Marianne's story could have been uplifting (especially for a woman of a certain age), but it largely plodded along. Add the expected and clichéd love interest, and this just really didn't do it for me.

This is the perfect book for Summer reading on vacation- it takes you away to another place and allows the reader to live through Marianne, to see unfilled dreams come true! This book is filled with warmth, charm and humor, and the reader gets lost in the book, not wanting to leave Marianne's story. You'll find yourself rooting for Marianne to embrace and stay in her new life, as her inner character grows and blossoms into being her true self. It's a wonderful story to remind us not to let go of our passions, no matter what life gives us. This book would be a charming movie, and I hope it gets picked up quickly! Don't miss this book this Summer!

I enjoyed Nina George's book, "The Little Paris Bookshop" very very much so I was very excited to read her newest novel "The Little French Bistro".

Marianne was tired and frustrated in her loveless marriage of 41 years she had given up on life, what better place to end her sorrows then in the city of love. She plans each detail and finally takes the death defying plunge into the Seine, only to be rescued. While recovering in the hospital she finds a tile with the city of Kerdruc on it and decides to make a daring escape. The novel follows Marianne's journey and life in Kerduc and the zany cast of charachters who show her there is more to life then what she was living. This is a story of love and second chances and mostly learning to live life.

This book wasn't "exciting" or "thrilling," but the more I read the more I liked it. The writing is lyrical, gorgeous, and hauntingly beautiful. The main character, Marianne, is 60 years old, but this story is like a "coming-of-age" for her as, following a failed suicide attempt to escape a loveless marriage, she discovers who she is inside. The description of the settings and the food are particularly beautiful. Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

Cute little book. I really enjoyed the setting and the characters. It's usually a setting that draws me into a story. This one doesn't dissapoint