Quick confession before I launch into the review of this – I do own it in French, but I chose to read it in English because I’m the laziest French degree grad ever.

I’ve wanted to read this book for ages, and originally bought it because I thought I would study it during the final year of my aforementioned French degree, only for the reading list to change!

Definitely a quick read, I read it over the course of a couple of evenings, and really enjoyed it. I think it would be easy to say that not much happens in this book, and that the reader enters the story partway through, but I like a book like that – let’s be honest after all, how many books do you read where the characters’ past lives aren’t mentioned at some point?

I would say however that this tale of a young girl’s struggle with her father’s love life is a bit more complicated than your general story, so a bit more explanation would have been handy, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Cecile’s struggle is one that I’m sure many young people can connect with – we all have moments where we feel like our parents shouldn’t have lives outside of us and that it would be easier if these other people weren’t around – but her realisation at the end is also an important lesson to any sympathetic readers.