Meet me in Monaco - Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Description

Set in the 1950s against the backdrop of Grace Kelly’s whirlwind romance and glamourous wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb take the reader on an evocative sun-drenched journey along the Côte d’Azur in this page-turning novel of passion, fate, and second-chances.

Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flash-bulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique, fending off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across thirty years of friendship, love, and tragedy.

James Henderson cannot forget his brief encounter with Sophie Duval. Despite his guilt at being away from his daughter, he takes an assignment to cover the wedding of the century, sailing with Grace Kelly’s wedding party on the SS Constitution from New York. In Monaco, as wedding fever soars and passions and tempers escalate, James and Sophie—like Princess Grace—must ultimately decide what they are prepared to give up for love.

Review

I chose the audio version of this book. Unfortunately a few things irritated me about the book, the first was the narrators voices. When the male voice is narrating he gives James a middle English accent with almost a cockney twang at times, but when the female voice is narrating the voice of James becomes that of some sort of a cad with a demeaning tinge to it. I felt it all very odd and naturally it affected my vision of James. who one minute was this kind hearted soul. and the next some leering man. The voice of the child Sophie had a very spooky and unchildlike voice!

The book is written by two authors and a few times inconsistencies arose which glaringly highlighted this fact. One instance is when James takes a business card from Sophie and gives it later to Grace Kelly. Yet when he returns to London he takes the business card out of his jacket.

Many references appear to have been written with the 21st century in mind rather than the 1950s. There is a is a reference to someone in a newspaper office in his jeans - I'm not sure that this would have been a dress standard in the 1950s even for a newspaper office. A final point on this is that Grace Kelly married in 1956 and died in 1982, so how the two women could have a friendship that stretches across 30 years is beyond me. I doubt younger readers would notice many of these things, but for me it ditracted from the story.

Putting aside all of that - although it took some doing, I did enjoy the book. I couldn't resist checking some "facts" such as the name of Grace Kelly's dog and breed and they were indeed correct. If you are looking for a gentle romantic read then this is a great book.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars.