I wanted to like this, and at first i did. But then it felt like it was all over the place and i just could not connect with the characters.

This was a beautiful book. I loved it. It beautifully describes France,like you are there. It is filled with loss and grief and so much more. Absolutely beautiful.. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Had me in tears, so beautiful. It's about starting again after suffering loss, grief and finding joy in life again.

This book was like memories of being back in Paris. A beautiful love letter written to a deceased wife, Julien writes to Helene who has passed on. This wasn’t a very long read. I enjoyed the depth in this story.

"Come, my love,
be mine again
Like once in May."

"I will love and miss you--until you can be mine again, like once in May."

This was a beautiful love story about a man who loses the love of his life, his wife and in turn loses his belief in love and happy endings but fate and his late wife have different plans.

On her death bed, Helene, makes her husband Julien Azoulay, a writer of romance novels, promise to write her 33 love letters (one for each year of her life) and leave them at her grave at Montmartre cemetery. At first, Julien's grief and depression prevents him from writing anything, let alone the promised letters but after six months, guilt takes over and he unwittingly begins the task at hand even though he questions the usefulness of it. However, as Julien begins to open up about his feelings, fears and hopes and pens them down in these letters, he starts to feel a change and slowly opens himself back to life, friends and even love.

The letters were really wonderful to read and are the best parts of the book. Reading them you can sense the process is proving cathartic for Julien by the gradual change of tone of the letters from sad and despairing to positive and hopeful. Although this is an English translation of the original French novel, I don't think the feel of the language of the original was lost at all; I could picture all the characters speaking in their own French manner of talking even though I was reading the book in English. The descriptions of the sights and sounds of Paris, the cozy cafes and bistros and the Montmartre cemetery make you feel that you are right there and if not, want to be there.

Simply lovely ❤️!

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher Skyhorse Publishing and the author Nicolas Barreau for the e-Arc of the book. The book has been translated into English by Rachel Hildebrandt. I apologise for putting up a late review even though I had finished reading the book in June, 2020.

The book was published on 12th May, 2020.

Oh this book! Ohmygod, this book. I think it's the best love story I've ever read. And I've read quite a few. But none like this. This book is so beautiful. Even in painful memories, even in anguish, this story was absolutely breathtaking. It was a long journey, but I enjoyed it so very much. It is the first book I've read of this author, and I believe I shall devour anything else written by him. His writing, his prose, his poems, and his way of weaving emotions into his words inked on the page. So so amazing. I loved the characters. Even the ones I dislike, I loved. Because they all played a part in this beautiful story of lost love and found love and shared love and second and third love. I'm so happy I found this book. I'm so happy I was able to read it. I'm so happy that it has a happy ending. It could very well have had a heartbreak at the end. It could very well have been a book about moving on, after those times where you feel life has no value even if you did manage to move on. I'm in love with this book about love. It is now my favorite 2020 book. I haven't read a lot of books this year, but this one holds the cake right at the top.
I have nothing but love for this book. Not even any words. I'm just happy to have read it and experienced it.
I did cry at the end. It was a surprise to find myself with tears on my face. But that's where I was. The ending just ambushed my heart. I was so overwhelmed by the emotions. It might've had more to do with my life than just the book. But the story made the tears come out and it was a shock to see myself react like that. It was a happy ending, but oh what a happy ending it was!

*Thank you to the publishers, Skyhorse Publishers, to the author, Nicolas Barreau, and to Netgalley for my free copy of this wonderful book in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely story about love after loss. Nothing ground breaking but still nice anyway. i enjoyed it, there was good character development. The setting of Paris is always enjoyable as well, great imagery. Thanks so much for the copy netgalley!

"Love Letters from Montmartre" or as I like to call it “The book version of P.S. I Love you” is a delightful read, but like most of Barrau’s works in the last decade, misses the mark. This was undoubtedly a beautiful story about hope, grief, and love, but it fails to deliver. Julien Azoulay is a young French writer who recently lost his wife, Helene. He’s also the father of a little boy, Arthur. Before she died, she asked him to write thirty-three letters, one for each year of her life; after six months, he hasn’t even written the first letter yet.

Things start to change after he begins to write the first few letters, he starts to live again and to feel closer to his deceased wife through those letters. In the cemetery where Helene is buried he, and Arthur, meet a young art restorer who fixes statues around the old cemetery; those beautiful angel sculptures mostly belong to famous people buried there. Her name is Sophie.

At the same time, he also grows closer to Helene’s best friend, Catherine. Ok now. There is a moment in the book when I feared the author was going to do the same thing he did in another one of his books when after he made me fall in love with a couple, he chose to pair the protagonist with another woman with whom the guy had no chemistry and them ending up together didn’t make any sense. I hated that book SO much. That feeling of "dread" kept me company during the entire book.

I’m not going to tell you how the book ends or who Julien is going to choose, but the thing that for me fails to deliver a good story here is the fact that Julien spends so much time doing NOTHING but grieving and those pages were so dull. It killed the mood; I was waiting for the book to finish because the whole story was dragging way too much for my taste. Also, Julien, Sophie, and Catherine are, weirdly enough, the only characters that don’t stand out and are not adequately fleshed out. I couldn’t picture Sophie in my mind because she was so basic; nothing she said or did made me like her. Catherine...well Catherine, I don’t even know who she is except for Helene’s best friend and someone who likes Julien and is a good friend to Arthur.

Honestly, the two things I loved the most about the story were the supporting characters (all of them, the annoying kid included, were beautifully written) and the setting, the stunning Montmartre that makes my heart sing every time I look at new pictures or read a new article about the place. It’s the kind of book that is perfect for reading during the summer but keep in mind what I told you about the main characters.

This was such a beautiful story of grief, loss and love. While it was sad, I really enjoyed reading this and will definitely recommend it!

Romantic novelist Julian is lost without his beloved wife, leaving him to bring up their son alone. However before her death she made him promise to write her 33 letters, one for every year of her life.

This is a moving story about grief, sadness, loss and love.

This is an incredibly charming book. There are few surprises but it doesn’t matter because the world is so delightful, Julian, a Parisian author, loses his wife to cancer. He’s trapped in a spiral of grief until visits to the cemetery with his young son turns into something magical. This was exactly what I needed at this moment in time, sweet and hopeful,

Such a sweet, loving novel about a grieving widower. Really enjoyed this one.

Many thanks to the author, the publishers, and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was a sweet story of love, loss, and finding yourself. Set in Paris, it was a quick read that pulls at your heartstrings. Julien & Hélène are happily married with a son, Arthur. When Hélène falls gravely ill, at the age of 33, she requests one thing from Julien. He is to write her 33 letters (one for each year of her life), letting her know how the world is without her & how he & Arthur are. Bring them to her grave and wherever she is she will read them & watch over he & Arthur. So the process of grief begins, and we follow Julien as struggles to complete this request and find a way out of his sadness. Thanks to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Arcade, and Nicolas Barreau for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautiful story! The setting and characters all make for the most lovely love story.
Julian Lost his wife, Helene, leaving him a single father and overtaken by his grief. Helene made him promise to write him 33 letters after she passed and told him he would be ready to move on when he was done. Love Letters from Montmartre deals with grief, tough love, new friendships, and the process of working through Juliens grief to start a new chapter of his life.
I feel that anyone who has experienced grief can understand at least a sliver of how Julien feels. He is lost, convinced he will never get over his loss, had a hard time being the parent his daughter needs, and constantly visits his wife at the cemetery. While the topic of grief is sad, it is by no means a sad story and is so beautifully written. Writing letters to his wife, albeit hard, becomes cathartic for this skeptic.
Nicolas Barreau weaves such an incredible story. I could imagine walking this journey with Julien and could picture all of the places he went (even though I have never set foot in Paris.) I finished this story with feelings of love, hope, and a respect for grief and the impact it has. I highly recommend this book!

Julien Azoulay, a French rom-com author, looses his 33 year old to wife to cancer. He then struggles to function and raise his young son on his own. His late wife made him promise to write 33 letters to her to help over come his grief. Once Julien finally begins writing the letters he starts to move on and begins living again. I enjoyed this story about love, loss and hope. It reminds me of a quirky SBS foreign movie. I would love to know who the real German author is! Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my digital copy.

Love Letters from Montmartre is a sweet little love story that just makes you believe that from the bad comes the good. Julien is a romance novelist who one day met the love of his life while walking through the Cimetiere Montmartre. Five years later he loses her to cancer. Helene had one last request from Julien, she wanted him to write her a letter for every year of her life (33). He reluctantly agrees.

Over the next year Julien starts to write his letters and delivers them in a hidden compartment in Helene's headstone. One day the letters are gone and replaced with a stone heart. Then the next week there is another gift in place of the letter he left. Who is taking these letters? Is it Helene?

This is a romance novel about the journey to finding love. It was so lovely and such a quick read that you can fit it into any reading schedule.

Julien Azoulay is just scraping by. Not so long ago, life could not have been better: Julien penned an award winning novel, he and he red haired angel Helene were happily raising their baby Arthur, life was good. Then Helene got sick, very sick. On her death bed, Helene makes one last bequest of her soul mate; that after she passes, he promises to write her 33 letters, one for each year of her life. When Julien asks her why she would want him to do this, she will be dead, what good could it possibly do? She disagrees and makes him promise to do it. When the book begins, six months have passed and Julien has yet to write one letter .... His publisher is after him to see some work on his next novel .... His mother AND his best friend Alexandre are coaxing him to rejoin the world of the living ... and his son is the only one who keeps him going. When Julien finally starts writing the letters, life starts to change ... "He is unprepared for what will happen, just as unprepared as anyone can be for the arrival of happiness and love, and yet, both of them are there." Nicolas Barreau"s, #lovelettersfrommontmartre, takes the reader to destinations in #Montmartre (some of which),even, the locals have not yet visited. It is the first novel by Barreau for me and after reading it I want to read all of his previous novels. Cosmo says - "Once more, Nicolas Barreau is writing about love, soft and magical." If you are looking to spend some quality time wandering the streets of #Paris (and Montmartre in particular), buried in a love story, then this book is for you!

Love Letters from Montmartre is about an author who doesn't believe in love anymore after losing his beloved wife. Before she passed, Helene made Julien promise that once she was gone he would write her a letter for each year of her life. He leaves the letters are her grave and something magical begins to happen, leading to a possibility of new love.

I really liked that this book was about a widower, because I feel like most stories about someone finding love after their spouse has passed are about widows. It was interesting to have the story be about Julien and how he not only deals with his wife being gone but also with raising their son. I also loved the idea of writing letters and leaving them at the grave. It's a tragically romantic idea and I really liked it.

Although this has aspects of romance, it's more about Julien rediscovering the joys and potential of love. It's about him learning how to live again and be open to life in general, with love as an added bonus. Also, the Paris setting just really made it even more romantic; the book was almost the embodiment of the phrase "Paris is for lovers". I really enjoyed this sweet, slightly heartbreaking story.

💔How to overcome grief and find new delight in life & love: sublime!💞🤗

What a lovely, moving, heart-felt story! I just could not put it down as Julien, a widowed writer with a four-year-old son finds coping with his young wife's death so impossibly difficult until the last wishes task she set him takes hold.

I can't think of a single thing I did not like about this book. The writing flows easily, the emotion is palpable, and all of the characters have individuality and substance, right down to dementia-plagued Uncle Paul and his jealous but forebearing wife. The main mystery in the story gave enough clues along the way for me to be pretty certain of the answer, but I have to admit that I was kept guessing right through to the big reveal and confession. With a setting like 🗼Paris, with all of its sights and cozy cafes, how can you go wrong? And, despite the sadness at Helene's passing, there are joyous moments, my favorite being young Arthur's impromptu 🎨art collaboration with his little girlfriend.😄

This was my first time reading a work by this author and I would not hesitate to read more by Nicolas Barreau.

Thanks to Sky Horse Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review and the opinions expressed are my own.

This is an unusual and touching novel of grief and recovery told in letters. Julian's wife Helene made him promise to write her 33 letters after her death (really? I thought but then...). He's mired deep in his grief and doing his best to care for his son Arthur. He's a novelist who is unable to write and then one day, during a visit with Arthur to Helene's grave, he starts to compose a letter. And then another and another. He hides them at the cemetary but one day the letters are missing. How Julian and Arthur come out of their shell- partly due to Sophie, a young stone mason- will make you smile. While this could have been a very sad read, it's actually quite hopeful. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. The past can lead you to the future.