I see London, I see France by Sarah Mlynowski

Summary from Goodreads:

Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and half weeks traveling 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.

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.

Review:

This was the medicine I needed: something light, fluffy, romantic, and full of traveling adventures. It’s a great summer/beach read to take with on vacation. And it was the perfect book to take me away from summer craziness at work.  Books that take place in other countries, and coming of age summer books are two of my favorite things, so…this book checked a lot of boxes for me.

That being said Sydney wasn’t my favorite character. I felt for her, but I never seriously loved her or related too much to her. I also never loved her best friend. Sydney was too set in her ways, and it was hard for me to love her. Her best friend was just so whiny and annoying. I loved the friend they met up with in Paris, but she wasn’t in most of the story. And considering that much of this book was about friendship, I really wanted to like the two main friends more.

However, I loved the traveling to new places with no plans element to the story. I loved the sense of adventure. And I just adored the romance. The train rides, the beaches, the scenery, the travel friends they made, and the quick sight-seeing of amazing places really created a remarkable setting.  I definitely took away that youth hostels are not for me. And I’m definitely going to continue to book hotels and air b and b’s…But, the living on a budget thing definitely added another layer to fluffy story.

I’m getting married in September, and going to Paris right after. So, this definitely put me in the right mindset for that. And it reminded me of a not so long ago trip to London with Nick. This book is definitely for fellow travel lovers. I give it an 8/10.