I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and a half weeks travelling through Europe with her childhood best friend Leela. Their plans include Eiffel Tower selfies, eating cocco gelato, and making out with très hot strangers. Her plans do not include Leela’s cheating ex-boyfriend showing up on the flight to London, falling for the cheating ex-boyfriend’s très hot friend, monitoring her mother’s spiraling mental health via texts, or feeling like the rope in a friendship tug of war.
In this hilarious and unforgettable adventure, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Mlynowski tells the story of a girl learning to navigate secret romances, thorny relationships, and the London Tube. As Sydney zigzags through Amsterdam, Switzerland, Italy, and France, she must learn when to hold on, when to keep moving, and when to jump into the Riviera...wearing only her polka dot underpants.
MY OPINION: **
I've been falling sorely behind on my 2021 Reading Challenge and was forced to lower it just a bit today to make it more realistic (and make myself feel better about it). I read this book as a quick, contemporary, cutesy romance to start reaching that goal and also just to destress and read something fun.
I didn't necessarily hate the book, as my low rating would signify. There were just a lot of things that I didn't particularly love and when adding all of those up, it resulted in a less-than-satisfactory overall opinion.
It's always nice to start off with the things I loved though!
I loved the travel aspect of this book. I've read a few books that were set in Europe, or that featured protagonists from the US who went to Europe (or another foreign continent) for the first time. I love this theme because I've always wanted to travel somewhere in Europe, be it France, Italy, Germany, or the UK. This book was an interesting way to learn a lot about the cultures, traditions, landmarks, and people of these foreign countries. Since I've never actually been to any of these places, I can't say if it was an accurate representation of the lifestyles over there but from what I've read and seen online, I'd say it wasn't AWFUL.
I loved the pacing of this book. The character goes to MANY different countries and areas within those countries in a short amount of time but most of it didn't feel too rushed. However, the ending did go a bit fast and I felt like it could have been more properly concluded and wrapped up but other than that, I'd say the author did a great job of putting in enough details about each place without it feeling boring or redundant.
Now, on to the things that I didn't like as much.
Leela. Where to even start with her. This girl was the most whiny, toxic, annoying, awful best friend that I've read about in a YA contemporary in a while. She constantly talked about her EX boyfriend who CHEATED on her and couldn't move past it, despite the fact that she was in Europe with her best friend. She's selfish, cares about herself and herself only, was a bit manipulative, and didn't like it when Sydney got with her ex's best friend and went out of her way to tell her so. Sure, she MAY have been looking out for her best friend given what she knew about Jackson but the way she didn't seem to care at all about Sydney's feelings was really sickening and honestly disgusting.
On top of that, she complains the ENTIRE trip. I am known to complain a lot myself but this girl NEVER stopped unless she was with her EX. She was a bit stuck-up-ish and scoffed at the "fun" things that Sydney and Jackson and Matt wanted to do and it was just a bit annoying. Why go to Europe if you're not even going to have fun? It's honestly awful and really brought down my mood when reading the novel.
Sydney was okay and a sweet character but I felt bad for her because she couldn't even enjoy her trip and her first taste of freedom all because of her awful best friend. Sydney's mother has agoraphobia and Sydney has taken care of her for her entire life. Her little sister, who is sixteen, spends half the time ranting about how hard it is taking care of their mother for FOUR weeks while Sydney has had to deal with it for years. I felt bad for Sydney because not only was her friend bringing down the vibe, but also Sydney's mom and Sydney's anxiety about her was ruining her trip as well.
Jackson and Sydney were cute but I wasn't really feeling it. I felt it was more of a lust-driven relationship than the normal YA/NA romance stories that are more popular. I would have liked to have seen more development in their relationship rather than just seeing them hook up and share a few details about themselves.
Don't even get me started on Matt and Leela.
I loved Kat but she felt like a really random character that the author just threw in there to add some more conflicts between Leela and Sydney and to bring up the energy. Kat was definitely a better friend though I did not support her relationship choices.
My last point is about cheating on your partner. It's never okay, no matter what excuses you try to bring up, and I can't imagine getting back together with someone who is a known cheater. It's all very toxic and I wish the author had addressed that more than she did in the actual book since there were a couple relationships in which someone actively participated in or encouraged cheating.
I would have loved a more detailed conclusion as to what actually happened with Sydney and Jackson because I felt like the way it ended really fell flat from my expectations.
Overall, this book was not my favorite. However, it did go by pretty fast once I actually sat down to read all of it and I would recommend it to readers looking for a fast, cute, fun novel.
Main Character: Sydney
Sidekick(s): Leela(?), Kat, Jackson, Alain, etc
Villain(s): Cheating, toxicity, agoraphobia, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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