Yay or Nay?: I See London, I See France (Novel)

This book is amazing! Alright, now you can click out…joking! Don’t actually click away to something else, I want to tell you all about how great this novel is, and how long I’ve waited for a good book like this to come along. 

“I See London, I See France” is a delightful, light Y/A read that fills that need to travel. It’s also about romance, friendships, and learning about the freedom to take advantage of what life throws your way. I’ve been combing GoodReads lists for a book to read that was light, easy to get through, but enjoyable. I got so much more than I bargained for, and I bought this on a limb at the bookstore one day. 

Okay, okay, I’ve stalled long enough, and now I’ll get into the awesomeness that is this story! 

The Story

“I am going to Europe. EUROPE. I am leaving the country. I have never left the country, and now I’m going to at least five countries”— pg. 1

Nineteen-year-old Sydney is going to Europe with her best friend Leela. For the next four and a half weeks, she’ll be traveling through Europe with her best friend, equalling the perfect summer. That is until Leela’s cheating ex-boyfriend shows up on the exact same flight! Suddenly it becomes a whirlwind adventure that Sydney did not plan for, including falling in love with Leela’s boyfriend’s best friend or monitoring her mother’s “spiraling mental health via texts” or getting caught in a friendship tug-of-war. 

(This is partially the GoodReads synopsis…sometimes I suck at retelling the stories of books I love!) 

Can I just say that I am so glad that someone wrote a story about traveling that actually sounds like the places they are. My biggest pet peeve is stories that are like talking about places that the author has never been to, and make it sound like a magical place with things that aren’t there (if that makes sense). A lot of places that Sydney and Leela had gone to, they sounded like, and by her descriptions allowed me to visualize the places (such as London, or Amsterdam) where I’d once visited. I mentally traveled through Europe with these characters, and I absolutely loved that. It’s been so long since I was able to do this with a book. 

My Thoughts 

“Paris is so beautiful. London is beautiful. Amsterdam is beautiful. There are so many places to see. Yet her world is shrinking to the size of a snow globe”—214

I’m not exactly subtle about my thoughts on this book this time, am I? Well, let’s start with what I loved since that’s what I really want to get off my chest. 

I love the way this book was structured. Keep in mind, I needed something light, cheesy, and fun, and this book fulfilled a lot of fantasies I’ve had, including an awesome trip through Europe, and an awesome romance through Europe. I’m not quite sure what kept me going, if it was the fairy-tale kind of romance between the main character Sydney, and Jackson, or if it was the multitude of places they went to and things that they did. What comes to mind here was the Riviera in Paris, Italy, and Monte Carlo. The author does this cool thing where each place they go to, she leaves a travel tip that connects to the story, and chapters are divided by the places that they go. Down to the structure of the story, it’s designed to keep you invested. 

Sydney also reminds me of me when traveling. Panicked, micro-managing, and carrying around a guidebook. It’s weird, I’ve never actually met a character in a story that I’ve found resembles even a little bit of my personality. Her reaction when landing in London in the first chapter closely is how I normally react when traveling to a new place.

“To the loo!” I say.

“Don’t make me laugh, I’ll pee my pants.” We spot a sign that says “Female Toilet” and make a run for it. 

Fun fact. I also do this too. 

Most of all, and this book has gotten some criticism for this fact, I loved the “fantasy-like” nature of it. It’s fun, and it deals with some really relevant issues like friendship and traveling realistically (which I appreciated), which I’ve also experienced and could sympathize with. But, most of all, it was the fantastic nature of the novel. By that I mean, some things that Sydney and Leela do, or experience may not actually happen (or cannot), but it’s something I, at least, have dreamed of happening. 

Here’s an example. At one point Sydney ends up in Monte Carlo, and their travel-buddies end up winning 4000 euros at the casino, which they use to spend on a really lavish dinner, and more fun back in the French town of Juan-Les-Pins. 

“The floor is white marble and the walls look like they’re made of gold. There are columns everywhere, and chandeliers and the ceilings are sky-high” —289

Pro-tip: Dress up before going to Monte Carlo. I found this out the hard way when I went last summer, went to the casino and wanted to enter during its actual business hours, and my dad got denied entry because he was wearing sandals. 

Conclusion: Act like you’re the shit when you go to Monte Carlo. Also, don’t go to the bathroom on the train, and don’t even go into Monte Carlo (it’s crowded and full of rich people. Go to the Riviera towns in between. And train bathrooms are a big no-no. They’re a recipe for disaster. But that’s a story for another time. 

“A cheese plate, two chocolate mousses, two souffles, three tiramisus, and four bottles of Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial champagne later, Eli pays the bill with a flourish and we shuffle onto the beach”— 295.

This is just a taste of the type of writing style, Sarah Mlynowski (the author), has. Also, as a fellow Canadian, I’m obligated to point out she was born in Montreal, and assumably, is a Canadian author. And with that, I’ve finally found some Canadian literature that I actually like. That aside, I love the dreamy experience she gives the characters and the reader. I’ve been to the Monte Carlo Casino, and we couldn’t really gamble at the time we came to view it. But they did, and I’ve always wanted to do that, and have a five-star dinner there of all places! 

But this is just one of many. There’s so many moments that pandered to my every whim. That, I suppose is one of its criticisms, but I didn’t say read this story for its realistic nature, did I? The only realistic nature about the story is the settings, which, I can vouch for.

Now, the bad? 

Well, not the cheesiness of the book, but the characters themselves. 

Don’t get me wrong, the characters are good. But in the story, Sydney, specifically, and to an extent, Leela as well both get annoying. There were some spots in the story where I just wanted to wring their necks. Leela gets whiny and bitchy at one point, and Sydney, just plain annoying when I was supposed to sympathize with her.

That’s the first point I want to make. I’m trying to remember as I write this the exact point that I tagged where I just thought “holy shit, you’re so fucking annoying”. 

Case Number 1: Page 284

I laugh. 

“Hey,” He says. “Let’s go to Monte Carlo.”

“Huh? What? When?”

“Tomorrow,” he says. 

“Just for the day?”

“Yes the two of us. We’ll take the train out in the morning and come back at night.”

“But what will I tell Leela?”

“That you’re going with me for the day. She’ll understand.”

I doubt that. But it’s my trip, too.

A travel tip from Meghan: never do this. Never leave your companion alone in a foreign country ESPECIALLY if they’re not comfortable or if this is their first time. You stick together, and friends first. You don’t run off to Monte Carlo with your fling. Ever. For context, this is Sydney wanting to go off with Jackson (friend of Leela’s ex, who Leela despises). I absolutely was livid. 

I get that there’s an aspect of developing independence the author wants to focus on with Sydney. But running off with your boyfriend, isn’t it. It’s also a dick move, and there are a few more cases where Sydney is like “Leela can survive without me”, or she gets annoyed because Leela’s relationship issues or issues, in general, are getting in the way. Yes, it’s shitty timing, but that’s why you communicate. 

Case Number 2: pg. 316.

Leela snort-laughs. “Come on. There’s no way Sydney and Jackson could have a long-distance relationship.”

I flush. 

“Why not?” Kat asks defiantly. “They could so!”

Leela looks at me. “First of all, you are the worst at keeping in touch. The worst. I could never get ahold of you.”

“I was busy!” Can she cut me some slack?

“I know you were busy. I’m not mad at you for being busy. I’m just saying that if you were too busy to text me back, your best friend for a million years, do you really think you’re going to have time to make a relationship with Jackson work?”

Leela is possibly the only Y/A character that I’ve actually gotten so irritated with that sometimes I want to just yell. Throughout the book, because of relationship issues (no spoilers here), she’s whiny, lazy, and bitchy about everything. She makes their fun trip a total annoyance, and she’s super self-centered. But it’s not like, at one point, it’s constant throughout the novel. And I get that this is her obstacle she has to overcome. But that doesn’t make her less annoying. 

The thing is, I genuinely didn’t want to hate her as I read. I could see her perspective, and at some points it was valid. It just didn’t end. 

And lastly Jackson. No quotes of irritation to list, not because I wasn’t irritated with him, but because throughout the book he’s given this reputation as a “man-whore”, and in the beginning, well, he kind of is? 

I end that last sentence with a question mark because while he appears as one, he just isn’t. He literally becomes the fantasy boyfriend who follows Sydney across Europe, but occasionally has sass and swagger. 

So, not a man-whore, and the relationship Sydney and he has is, quite simply, as fast as Romeo and Juliet’s, and with as little plot too. Love at first trope, actually. 

So yeah. I mean, I loved Jackson, but I couldn’t help but notice that there was really that much “tension” or “plot” when it came to Jackson, in my opinion. So, I guess that could also be a pro, but in its own way, it’s also a con. 

My Rating 

All in all, however, this book was pretty awesome! “I See London, I See France” is a fairly relatable story, grounded in some fantastical, as well as some “real” moments. 

My rating is: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2         4.5 stars

Give it a buy or check it out at your library! This is a definite YAY!