I really loved Sanae Lemon's The Margot Affair. I'm a sucker for books set in Paris, so this was a perfect read for me. I loved Margot's observations, how effectively the secondary characters were woven into the ongoing story and the food descriptions were divine.

The premise of the story sounded interesting but I have to say I wasn't all that impressed with this book. It just seemed to go on and on with no real point or ending to the story.

Beautifully written emotionally moving.Margot a teenager the illegitimate daughter her mother an actress her father a politician.Wevare introduced to the family and watch as Margot begins to unravel her family secrets.So well written so involving,A novel Inwill be recommending,#netgalley#randomhose

The Margot Affair is a different sort of book and I can understand how it wouldn't be for everyone. But I really did enjoy it and found myself suddenly wishing I had spent my childhood and teenage years in Paris.

In her final year of high school, Margot is finally coming into her own. Raised by a mostly uninterested actress mother, she longs for more time with and attention from her absentee father. But her father, a well-known politician, has another family and Margot is the result of his ongoing affair with her mother. He visits Margot and her mother, but Margot is beginning to hate being his secret and desires to know she means as much to him as the children he has with his wife. Will she spill her father's secret to the world and risk upsetting those she loves best?

It's a coming-of-age book with a focus on the complexities of families, what is means to be a parent, and the universal struggles of adolescents. For me, even better than the plot of the novel was Margot's quiet daily Parisian life, walking to her best friend's flat, studying for her boards, and enjoying quaint coffee shops and simple fresh foods.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve read a lot of romance and YA this summer, but picking this one up and finding a TOTALLY different kind of story was so refreshing. ⁣
⁣
It’s a slow burn, a story of a secret love child between a famous actress and a French politician, and it felt so totally European in a way I can’t quite describe. Quirky and a bit pompous and aloof, perhaps?⁣
⁣
Well written and surprising, I liked this one! Thanks to @randomhouse for sending me this one. // ⭐️⭐️⭐️

You know those books where the writing was great, you connected with the characters and the story, the setting pulled you in and you were completely engulfed? That was The Margot Affair for me.

Margot is a high schooler who is the child of a famous actress and a well-known politician who have been having a 20-year affair. Because of this, Margot and her mother have spent their lives holding this secret and only occasionally seeing her father since he is married with another family.

I was really impressed with Lemoine's writing and found it very beautiful. The Paris setting helped fulfill some of my wanderlust I've had this summer as a result of staying home (#pandemic). But what I most connected with was Margot's feelings surrounding her relationship with her father, family dynamic, and feeling like she doesn't belong. I suspect anyone who grew up as a child of divorce, especially those whose parents went on to remarry and have other children, will identify with Margot's feelings throughout this book.

Lemoine explores family dynamics, motherhood, female expectations and body image, amongst other topics in this book. I didn't expect to love this book so much but it really and truly pulled me in.

What a fantastic debut! I went into THE MARGOT AFFAIR completely blind, but it pulled me right in from the first page. Besides the interesting premise, I found the writing to be lyrical, insightful, and full of life. I especially loved the descriptions of Paris and the Parisian lifestyle -- it had such an idyllic quality to it. Paired with Margot's equally intriguing character development, this made for an incredibly lush and introspective novel. If you enjoy literary fiction that centers on women's coming-of-age stories, definitely check this one out!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I’d rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

Have you ever seen the movie 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦? It’s from the late 50s, starring Deborah Kerr. I haven’t seen it in ages, but this book made me want to pull out my copy and watch it, maybe tonight! 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝘼𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧 and 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦 kind of have similar vibes though 60 years or so apart.⁣
⁣
“𝘔𝘺 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦. 𝘈 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥. 𝘈𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘭.”⁣
⁣
Margot is the secret teenaged daughter of a French politician and his longtime mistress. Set in Paris, Margot gets stolen moments with her father and aches for more. When Margot leaks her family’s secret she is quickly thrown into a very adult world where she has to live the private and public consequences. ⁣
⁣
The writing is beautiful and feels so French (like I have any idea what I’m talking about 😆 but it does feel that way to me). My heart ached for Margot, especially when she made things harder for herself with her naïveté and trust in adults who did not deserve it, so like me as a teenager. This novel is gritty and I liked it!

Margot has always been aware that she and her mother are the "other" family for her father. Now that she is nearing the end of her high school years, she is becoming more dissatisfied with being the secret family, the one that her father will not leave his wife for even though he professes Margot's mother to be the "love of his life." One evening, at a party for her actress mother, Margot speaks to a journalist and carelessly reveals her father's identify and that he is a rather public figure in French politics. This story follows the consequences of Margot's comment and the subsequent fall out when it is publicly revealed.

This book was much different than I expected, but it held my interest as it studied the unintentional and unrecognized effects a person's decision has on others. I did like how no one was portrayed as "bad," as the reader was led to see the justifications of each of the character's actions. Lemoine's writing itself has a certain literary quality to it with her talent for description.

The singularity of parenting – that unique arrangement a child has with one or both of its parental figures – is but one dimension of Lemoine’s cherishably Gallic debut.

Margot Louve has only known the idiosyncratic domesticity of a mother, Anouk, who is a celebrated, frequently distracted actress, and a father who is a minister in the government, who visits periodically, when he can escape from work and his other, acknowledged family. This arrangement is not so unfamiliar to the French in the light of President Mitterand’s secret lovechild whose story broke in 1994 and whose own account of living a shadowy, unacknowledged existence was later published.

Margot shares a similar undeclared relationship – with a parent and the world at large. Her experience of a father is occasional and unpredictable yet intense. The man, when available, is loving and attentive, but Margot wants more, and different – a family without guilt, a father who is more present than absent, a shared role outside of their apartment – yet the arc of the novel is partly a journey towards acceptance of what is uniquely hers about the arrangement her parents have accepted and created.

Events begin when mother and daughter are sitting at a Parisian street café one day and glimpse the tastefully low-key figure of Madame Lapierre, Margot’s father’s wife. With Margot’s inadmissibility given form, her frustrations concerning the man she loves and the inherent disappointments of her circumstances propel her towards a process of change.

Margot’s perspective is inevitably an isolated one, and her coming-of-age is pursued often in painful separation – from her parents and her best friend Juliette. She finds temporary companionship in a stylish couple, Brigitte and David, both writers, but she has yet to learn whom she can trust. This secondary storyline introduces gothic elements to the narrative, as well as a derivative dimension. Themes of violence and predation lend an undeniable chill to the book’s pages but also import notes of melodrama and predictability that jar with the fresher, insular, incremental process of Margot’s unsentimental education.

Like Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse, which is acknowledged in the text, this is an evocative and compelling story of young emotions explored and exploited, set in a beguiling, class- and money-conscious French landscape. There are trips beyond Paris – to Normandy, to Provence; there are café tables galore; there are meals which, whether hasty or indulgent, are reliably palate-stimulating. All this feeds into a focus on the flesh, and in particular female bodies – restricted, commented on, flowering into youthful maturity, aging into something more solid and stolid.

Lemoine’s, then, is an evocative, female-oriented debut, a superior summer read that explores identity, sexuality and attachment during the transition to adulthood. Chic and fluid, it offers a compelling tale, and an immersion that Francophiles in particular may relish.

When you are a teenager you feel you can bend the world the way you want. Margot is 17, the daughter of the French Culture Minister and his mistress. Margot has never envisioned her father’s wife as a real person. But when Margot and her mother spy on her father’s wife, she realizes how real the wife is. Margot decides tell a journalist about their family hoping to jolt her father into action. But does it really help or ruin two people she loves.

Margot, the secret child of an affair between a famous French actress and politician, yearns for her family to be complete. The hidden family exists in moments in a small Parisian apartment on the Left Bank. Yearning to be heard, Margot finds a well-regarded journalist to tell her story. Once the scandal is released for the public to read, Margot realizes that her impulsive decision has a series of catastrophic consequences.

If you have ever watched a French movie, this book is that. I often find myself being confused about halfway through a French film, only to finish it feeling incredibly depressed. That said, this coming of age story is beautifully written and makes you feel like you are in Paris. The descriptive food descriptions are especially delectable.

The synopsis was what pulled me in, but I found the actual storyline to fall flat. Once a pivotal moment occurs about halfway through the book, the story takes a turn that I found to be unrelated to the original synopsis. Unfortunately, I didn’t love this one, but I am excited to see what Lemoine writes next, as her writing style wowed me.

The Margot of the title is the teenaged love child of a French actress and a married politician who tires of being her parents' secret and outs the relationship in the press. The novel is full of complicated relationships, all of which become even more difficult because of Margot's impetuous decision.

Set in Paris, the book is a love-letter to the City of Lights with vivid descriptions of its neighborhoods and parks, its food and drink, and its traditions and culture. Lemoine writes beautifully and her words draw you into Margot's world. Part coming-of-age story, part family drama, The Margot Affair can be frustrating at times - the pacing is slow and it's not a story where a lot happens but things pick up considerably in part two. I wasn't sure how Lemoine would resolve Margot's predicament but the ending was satisfying and felt true to the characters.

I struggled with what to rate this book but ultimately decide on 3.25 stars. I found the premise and writing compelling but didn't love the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley, Hogarth (Penguin Random House) and the author for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for my unbiased review.

I've had marvelous experience with French novels in the past, finding the lyricism of the writing wholly engaging and the characterizations so vivid and complex. I was immediately drawn by the blurb on this one and the evocative cover, and eager to dive in. Unfortunately this one didn't work for me. The magical immersion that I was hoping for never happened - there are glorious burst of language and descriptions, but somehow the story never cohered for me and I wasn't able to finish.

This book was a wonderful and gripping slow burn. Margot is a young girl who is coming to terms with family secrets. To say any more would be to spoil this beautifully layered plot that unfolds like the French meals deliciously described in this book. There were several subtle twists that were poignant and unexpected. I devoured this book in one day because u couldn’t wait to see the outcome of the Margot Affair.

The Margot Affair, a debut novel from French-Japanese author, Sanaë Lemoine, is told from the perspective of seventeen-year-old Margot, a secret love child between a stage actress and a prominent politician. Living in Paris with her mother, only a few people in their inner circle know of this affair and Margot’s father’s true identity.

Like all teens, Margot is grappling with identity issues and testing the boundaries of who she is. But unlike other teens, her mere existence seems to be a test in itself. A test of her parents relationship, a test of her father’s morality. And finally, a test of her own volition. This pure yearning for recognition from her father and longing to belong lead her down a path of questionable choices that ultimately unravel the lives of the people closest to her.

The writing is gorgeous. Her descriptions are vivid and the lack of quotation marks allow the reader to immerse themselves in the characters thoughts. There is a bit of a lull in the first half where I was struggling a bit to get through. But, the pace picks back up halfway as consequences to Margot’s actions silently erupt. Reading from Margot’s perspective was interesting, especially since she seemed a bit too introspective and self-aware for her age at times. That might possibly be why I couldn’t connect with her as much as I’d like. But, she felt authentic in both her naïveté and judgement. I recommend if you like books that explore familial relationships and self-identity.

P.S. The author has a few of the recipes of the food in this book on her site! So awesome because every time there was food, Lemoine’s descriptions made my mouth water. 🤤

I'm still crying with that ending, especially Anouk's words were beautiful.

The story of Margot wasn't easy, she really went through so many things that I'm not sure how she was able to keep walking, she was a great heroine in a way that she was very mature and strong for her age, sometimes I even forgot how old she was. Her mother wasn't easy, she was not very nurturing and Margot felt the need to seek advice and help from other people.

I felt very sad for Margot as I was learning more about her. she was very lonely, she didn't have many friends, she was always seeking the approval or the acceptance of her parents maybe that's why she always felt and crave affection and love, she didn't felt beautiful, a lot of people betrayed her trust hurting her in the worst way. she only wanted a family, a father that will care for her always.

"When I asked you to stay with your wife, it was before meeting the other love of my life"

The secondary characters were great, Juliette, Mathilde, Theo, David, and Brigitte. One of my favorite characters was Madame Lapierre, she really surprised me in many ways, I didn't expect to like her and at the end, she really was a lady.

Worst moment of the book, When Bridgitte spoke with Margot.

Many things to say about The Margot Affair, it was steady, I felt a melancholy feeling around the story at all times, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, it was suspenseful in many ways but at the same time, it was dramatic and with a lot of misunderstandings. I always felt like too much "silence" was slowly killing Margot.

Overall I really love it and I'm thankful to the author that in the end, she gave justice to Margot, it was necessary and so well deserved!

https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1042977134
https://www.amazon.com/review/RCWY03CWKZCYR/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3395787450?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

The Margot Affair is a coming of age story about a high school teenager (Margot) who is a the product of an affair between an actress and a high-profile French politician, with a focus on her relationships with her parents. The ambiance of the book is great, and it does feel like the book version of a French indie movie. The lack of quotation marks may be difficult for some, but the writing is strong, and the story flows along quickly. Overall the book is an engaging debut. Thanks to Netgalley and Hogarth for the ARC.

I was intrigued with this book when I read the blurb of ' The Margot Affair.'

Margot Louve is a secret: the child of a longstanding affair between an influential French politician with presidential ambitions and a prominent stage actress. This hidden family exists in stolen moments in a small Parisian apartment on the Left Bank.

It is a house of cards that Margot—fueled by a longing to be seen and heard—decides to tumble. The summer of her seventeenth birthday, she meets the man who will set her plan in motion: a well-regarded journalist whose trust seems surprisingly easy to gain. But as Margot is drawn into an adult world she struggles to comprehend, she learns how one impulsive decision can threaten a family’s love with ruin, shattering the lives of those around her in ways she could never have imagined.

Exposing the seams between private lives and public faces, The Margot Affair is a novel of deceit, desire, and transgression—and the exhilarating knife-edge upon which the danger of telling the truth outweighs the cost of keeping secrets.

The blurb above is enough to engage anybody into reading the book. When I started the book I absolutely ran through it. It was so engaging. I loved the world and couldn't get enough of it. However there was a patch later where I felt the story dipped a bit but I'm glad I continued reading it because it picks up beautifully and totally captivates you.

The relationships, the characters, the descriptions draw you into Margot's world and doesn't let you go until you read the last page.

I am definitely going to keep a look out for the author's books in the future because she is such an eloquent and evocative writer.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing a Digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.