Title: Hope In Paris – Vol. 1
Author: Donnalyn Vojta
Genre: Thriller/Crime

Summary: Kelly struggles with a relationship she is trapped in and formulates a plan to fix it. Miss V suffers from mental health and hides from her unpleasant past. Richard wants to write a romance novel, but the poor guy has never been in love or had a girlfriend. He rushes off to Paris, the city of love hoping to accomplish both.

Three different story lines, each with their own conflicts, and unique personalities. Each are closely tied to one another. Some of the ties are good, but others you will want to untie sooner than later.

My Review: This book is captivating at every page and one of the most original books I have read. What makes this book so original is the narrators perspective; because the entire story is told through the perspective of three teddy bears. But this is not a children’s book as I myself thought it was for the longest time. This book deals with mature adult content, such as abuse and even murder. The plot is serious in structure, but the narrative makes it humorous, light, and even funny at times.

The Teddy Bear’s naivety and innocence to their environment shines through in many scenes as the bears do a fantastic job of showing and not telling the reader what is happening around them. There are moments when one of the bears is describing a serious scene, but I laugh due the way the story is being viewed through the bears eyes. The bear provides enough information and clues so that the reader knows the seriousness and true meaning of the situation. But the bear also injects his own opinions about what he thinks is happening, and this is brilliantly done.

This book contains so much suspense and caused me to grip my seat tight a few times in anticipation for what’s to come next, and fear for the protagonist. I found myself yelling out loud a few times.

The story had a well-balanced pace to it. It does flip back and forth into the past at times in order to capture the different angles from the different stories, and this was well done.

My only issue with the book is that I connected more to the teddy bears then I did the main protagonist, and the other two main characters, and this left me wanting to get more inside of their heads. I especially wanted to connect more to Kelly, and I found myself asking questions about how she is feeling, what she is thinking in many of the scenes.

Closing Thoughts: I read a lot, and never in the history of my reading journey have I read a book this unique due to the perspectives of the story. I rated this book four out of five stars on my good reads. If you are looking for a thriller that brings a fresh twist with it, then you need to read this!

I am looking forward to reading Vol. 2.