Love Letters from Montmartre

The moment I read the premise of this novel I knew I had to get my hands on this story and I am ever thankful that I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a love story within a love story. Julien has lost the love of his life, his wife Hélène, and in his devastation has lost his passion for all of the things he used to love - including writing. If not for his precious son, he'd be lost to the world entirely. Except his wife didn't want that to happen. Hélène made Julien promise to write her thirty-three letters after her death. He doesn't understand why she wants him to do this, but a promise is a promise and so he begins writing to her and thus begins the start of a new chapter in his life. One he never saw coming, but one I enjoyed being along for.

Julien was exactly what you'd expect; heartbroken and hopeless. But he was also clearly a loving man to the woman he lost and remained a loving father to his little boy. He recognized how lost he was and wanted to get himself out of that dark place if anything for his son, but his struggle to connect with the real world again was realistic. As someone who has dealt with the loss of loved ones, I know this isn't something you just pick back up from. So seeing him go through these very real emotions, witnessing him cling to the memory of his wife while simultaneously meeting new people and becoming part of something inexplainable. I was transported to France through this novel and enjoyed rooting for Julien. It was hard not to want the best for him. I would recommend this to any friend - especially one with a romantic and hopeful heart!

A sweet, serene story of finding love again after loss. Although there wasn't anything ground-breaking about this book, and indeed at times it was rather predictable and saccharine, it was an enjoyable read - truly it is a love story to Paris, and the setting is beautifully described. The characters feel real, their emotions believable, but this just lacked a little bite for me.

Brief synopsis from the book cover:

Julien Azouly, the famous French writer of beautiful romance novels, has stopped believing in love. When his beloved wife, Hélène, dies at the age of thirty-three, leaving him alone to raise their young son, Arthur, he is so devastated that he loses faith in the happier side of life—and along with that his ability to write.

But Hélène was clever. Before her death, she made her husband promise to write her thirty-three letters, one for each year of her life. Six months after the funeral, Julien finds himself standing in the most famous cemetery in Paris, the painful first letter in his hand. Little does he know that something strange—and wonderful—is about to happen.

My rating:

Plot: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Writing: 4 out of 5 stars
Character development: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Recommended for readers of:

General fiction
Women’s fiction

Review:
The story is a bit sad at times. It’s not all sadness though. It also a bitter sweet side to it a feeling full of hope and promise for the future. The book is nicely written, the characters are well developed and feel realistic as they show real emotions, such as love, pain, sadness and grieve. The plot is sound and the main theme is how do you cope with the loss of your partner, the process of grieve, moving on and in time new love.

Overall a nicely written story with characters who are true to life. Sad at times but with a positive message.

Review copy provided by NetGalley at no cost to me
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This was probably one of the book I looked forward to reading,. Having been to Paris and having fond memories of it, I thoroughly enjoyed. Julien who now widow promised his wife he write a letter each year. This is probably one of the most relaxing books I read. I enjoy the slow pace, the happiness, the loneliness, the heartbreak and grieving expressed.

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

In fact, this wasn’t the first time I read Love Letters from Montmartre. I have listend to the german edition as an audio book in 2018. Normally I hardly ever read the book a second time. When I saw this version on Netgalley, I couldn’t help but download it. Reading it for the first time it was very emotional for me. Two years later, it was no different. I went through all the emotions again. For a long time I have been thinking about how to put my thoughts and feelings about this book into words. As I write this review, tears are pricking my eyes.

For the writer Julien Azoulay, a world falls apart when his beloved wife Hélène dies of cancer at the age of thirty-three. He withdraws, wallows in self-pity and considers himself the unhappiest person in the world. Only for the sake of his four-year-old son Arthur, Julien gets up every morning and fulfils his fatherly duties. A writer’s block also prevents him from keeping his promise to Hélène, whose last wish was to receive a posthumous letter from Julien for every year of her short life.

From then on, the young widower’s centre of life is located in a small, very old cemetery in Montmartre in the north of Paris, where he once met the love of his life and only a few years later had to bury her. Both the efforts of his caring mother Clémence and the attempts of his best friend Alexandre to get him out of his lethargy fail. When Julien finally writes the letters ge places them in a secret compartment in Hélène’s gravestone in the Montmartre cemetery. One day the letters disappeared. Instead, Julien finds strange symbolic answers, a stone heart for example, or cinema tickets, a bouquet of flowers… From now on, Julien is faced with a mystery. No one knows about this hiding place and the promise he made to his wife … Will Julien decide for life and love?

With The Love Letters of Montmatre, Nicolas Barreau has once again proven what an outstanding storyteller he is and not without reason one of my favorite authors. With sensitive words and a fluid, pictorial writing style, he captivates the reader with the first sentences and guides him gently and cautiously through the plot which impressed me deeply. Anyone who has ever had to mourn the loss of a loved one will immediately identify with Julien. The heartrending grief, the worry about the little son, the constant hopelessness are so well described that not only Julien suffers terribly, but the reader as well. I have suffered with him, because this pain is not unknown to me either.

Only little by little does Barreau masterfully allow glimpses of light to enter his protagonist’s life, slowly changing the lives of Julien and Arthur, relieving the pain of grief and bringing hope back into their hearts. Bittersweetly he lets father and son wander through the city of love, at whose heels the reader clings to experience and absorb the French laissez-faire. The visits to the cemetery and the quotations from Heine’s works make the reading both romantic and sad, and touch the reader’s heart as much as the letters addressed to Hélène. These letters left me speechless, because they were so full of love, and yet so infinitely sad and endlessly encouraging at the same time.

Barreau always conveys a message with his stories, this time it is about hope and looking ahead. No one can tell a love story as sad and romantic at the same time as Barreau. I was captivated by the story from the first page and that didn’t change until the end. The Love letters of Montmatre is simply incredible! The book has an almost magical effect in its intensity, in that it shows us life in all its fullness, I can’t say it better: this book breaks the reader’s heart and puts it together all over again.

Julien Azouly is a famous romance novelist, becomes a widower when his wife dies at thirty-three leaving him to raise their young son alone. Before her passing, she challenges him to write her a letter for each year of her life.

Little did Julien know that this plan would lead him to live and love again. It's a very realistic, bittersweet story. It reminds me of P.S. I Love You. It's certainly a book filled with a rollercoaster of emotions.

3.5 Stars. This was a heartbreaking, but sweet read and set in one of my most favorite cities in the world. I really enjoyed the story overall, but the format just read a bit stunted to me for some reason. The imagery was beautiful though and the ending left me feeling hopeful. Thank you to Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing for the ARC.

I love the idea of love letters, When I was first dating my husband and we were living 1300 miles apart we sent each other a letter every single week. I think it was one of the most romantic periods of our relationship. This story hit me in the gut because The main character made a promise to his dying wife to write her 33 letters when she dies each one signifying one year of her life. Basically she tells him that he will be better for it. He doesnt believe her but he does it anyway. This book showcases one way to deal with grief. Letter writing can be very helpful.

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. While it wasn't a perfect read I liked seeing the growth of Julien Azoulay through his grief. The letters were so well written, they were probably my favorite part of the entire book.

Thank you for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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.

💔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.

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.