A pleasant and interesting story.

The life of Sophie Bernot from a young child making a promise of being a heart surgeon to fulfilling her promise and pioneering the way for women doctors and surgeons in 1950’s/1960’s France. Losing her family to war, falling pregnant whilst studying, giving up her child for her career, always being in love with her child’s father.

The book throws a few side stories in focusing on the lives of Sophie’s child’s father, Sebastian, his sister and her love with a man in the resistance and finding out what happened to him, their uncle becoming a priest and sacrificing his life for Sebastian.

A complete family story, or what becomes a complete family.

This is such a well written book. It’s multilayer with lots of characters that are easy to follow.
The author managed to bring the characters to life in the pages. A great book.

A gripping, engaging and sweeping historical novel that I loved reading. I enjoyed the tenacity of Sophie as she trained to be a heart surgeon in a man's world, and I found Sebastian's storyline really interesting too.

Would definitely recommend!

Ooh, la la… I’m a sucker for anything French and this period romance made me want to book a Eurostar ticket straight to the capital.

The star-crossed lovers in this book are Sophie Bernot and Sebastian Ogilvie, who enjoy a brief fling one summer and are separated by a cruel misunderstanding. Sophie wants to be a heart surgeon; Sebastian wants to become an architect. As their plans cross over and over again, will they get a happy ending?

The misunderstanding trope is one that’s used a lot in romance books, but I don’t really have a problem with it if it’s executed well. And this is, for the most part: Montague keeps us guessing with new twists and new conundrums for the would-be couple to navigate. However, by the end it does become a bit weary- the kind of moment where you want to slam their heads together and tell them to kiss already.

Fortunately, Sophie and Sebastian are well-drawn characters- Sophie particularly. She’s strong-willed, career-driven in an age where it wasn’t that accepted, genuinely tortured by the decisions she made- and haunted by her war-torn childhood. I was rooting for her to get a happy ending all the way, and though Montague keeps us in suspense, it makes for a riveting read.

I enjoyed this book so much that, having rushed through it to find out what happened to the characters, I turned straight back to the beginning so that I could relish it at a slower pace.
As a nine-year-old, Sophie decides that she wants to be a doctor, specifically a cardiac surgeon. The war intervenes, killing her parents and, she believes, her adored brother Max. Time passes and, with the support of her grandmother, she gets to medical school.
Sebastian, half-French, half-English, works for a company that is rebuilding much of London. He engages a young French architect, Marcus Donadier, to design one of their developments. When visiting France to see Marcus, he takes a few days off to go walking in the mountains near Chamonix. At the same time, Sophie has taken some holiday to return to Chamonix where she enjoyed her last holiday with her parents and Max, in a bid to say farewell to Max. They meet...
The book follows both characters over the next few years, as their paths separate, cross and cross again.
A compelling read - the characters are engaging so you really care what will happen to them. The scenes are well imagined and the settings well researched.
A thoroughly enjoyable page turner.

An interesting historical fiction full of emotions and with a cast of great characters.
It was an engrossing and entertaining read that kept me hooked till the end.
I liked the well crafted plot, the great cast of characters and the vivid historical background.
An interesting read that I recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The year is 1952. Sophie Bernot is training to be a heart surgeon.

Sebastian Ogilvie lives across the channel. He's burning with ambition for his first architectural project. His schemes take him to France. A chance encounter with Sophie makes his future look promising. Sophie and Sebastian have a brief but passionate affair.

Thus is a well written and throughly written book. It's multilayered with lots of characters to try and remember. I really liked Sophie and Sebastian, especially Sophie and the struggles she had to face. The author brought this story to life. I loved this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and the author Caroline Montague for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What an amazing book. I loved this book from start to finish, in fact I couldn’t put it down especially towards the final chapters as I couldn’t wait to find out the end. A love story for more than one of the characters which meant you are left guessing and imagining throughout the book. The story is set from WW2 then into the following years. Great historical fiction, medical fiction, climbing fiction and of course love fiction. Thanks Caroline Montague and NetGalley.

This a wonderful story of a determined woman and the various characters she interacts with over her lifetime and career. When Sophie prioritises her medical studies over love and family it seems, at times, that she will never find happiness. Read on to find out what actually happens. Despite there being a few significant coincidences this is a great read.

An absorbing tale that had many layers to it. Some layers were well fleshed out whereas I found that others were rushed or superficial. There were many characters to get to grips with and it would have been good to get a better understanding of their importance. Other elements were downplayed which left me a little confused. This was meant to build intrigue but meant I had to park something and revisit the concept later in the book.

Really compelling storyline with realistic protagonists kept me absorbed in this book. I love historical fiction, and this period of history is an interest area for me - allowing me to overlook some of the frustrations with the variable depth.

I loved the main characters of Sophie and Sebastian plus Sebastian’s family particularly his grandmother and the lovely Gillie and Alfie. The battles that Sophie faced were well articulated and I was able to empathise with her.

i think that this book was too short - there was lots of detail that was missed out that would bring colour and texture to certain elements ... it’s more of a saga so perhaps that could have been addressed to make it flow better. I suspect that elements were cut to make it a shorter, more accessible novel.

All in all I enjoyed this book. It was evocative of All The Light We Cannot See which i adored.

3.75-4*

I really enjoyed this book. Yes the story is far fetched with so many 'coincidences' and unrealistic relationships but for me it was a lovely escapism read for winter evenings (good for summer too, I'm sure). I enjoyed the characters portrayed here and found the accounts of a young woman's rise in the burgeoning world of heart surgery fascinating. Thank you to Caroline for all the research she has obviously done to include factual descriptions interwoven within a lovely romantic family story.

An enjoyable story, but a few too many “coincidences” to really grip me. I enjoyed the plot and the different strands for the different characters, but would have been just as happy had they taken different directions. Lots of interesting ideas and loved the fact that Sophie was forging a path of her own and taking on stereotypes by entering a “Male” career as a Heart Surgeon. Enjoyed reading but it is not a book I would reread.

Unfortunately, this one was far too much of a slow burner for me. It had such a dragged out narrative, and the tone was just quite dull and slow. There was a lot of potential in the plot synopsis but for me the book itself just didn't deliver.

At the beginning of the book, for some reason I thought this story was about uncovering the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of the main protagonists, Sophie's brother during ww2. Unfortunately, it wasn't and I kind of felt that the title was a little misleading. This story is basically a historical fiction set in the 50's following the main characters who have suffered and sacrificed a lot during the war and are now trying to put back their lives together as best as possible. Obviously, things happen in between, things like love, loss and heartbreak and the characters are forced to make decisions about doing the right things for themselves and their loved ones. Honestly, a lot of times it felt like a soap opera and other times it just felt info dumpy. The author has surely researched well but her research didn't bled with the flow of the story. The story definitely had a lot of potential but I felt that the narration was too slow and came across as telling rather than showing, not to say the least but everything was highly predictable so there wasn't any sense of mystery or intrigue in the story.

There were so many characters in the story and while I appreciated the bonds that existed between them, they weren't really fleshed out all too well and fell flat for me. I did like Sophie's character and I can't imagine the struggles she went through during and after the war while training to be heart surgeon in the era when it was considered to be Man's field of work but overall the plot felt convoluted and I feel it could be bettered with one or two more rounds of editing.

A Paris Secret is an historical fiction set during the 1950s.

The main characters are an architect who is involved with post-war rebuilding designs, and a young woman who pursues her dreams to become a doctor.

I liked the ideas behind the story and some of the settings in France were delightful. However, the pace of the book was too slow for me. I also felt that much of the dialogue lacked variety, making most of the characters sound the same.

I tried this book three times and read 50% of the book before sadly giving up. The story had potential, but I thought it could have used another edit to keep the reader interested by the main themes.

I absolutely loved it, my heart went out to Sophie and Sebastian. Sophie was driven by her ambition to be a heart surgeon to the sacrifice of her personal life.. The setting of war time Paris and post war was very realistic. I was taken back in time and never wanted it to end.

This book is so well written and is he first book I have read by Caroline Montague but I will look for more. I really got into Sophie's character and felt her pain.

Thank you once again o net galley for the chance to read this. I really appreciate it.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
What a fabulous book from beginning to end a real feel good book that keeps you intrigued till the end highly readable

Nice feel good book. It flowed very well. was easy to read. Nice characters. Good storyline. What’s not to love.

I totally loved this book. A wonderful story with great characters. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to people and especially fans of historical fiction, From the first page I was drawn into this book. A well deserved 5 star read for me.

Enjoyed this book very much. The characters were well drawn and the story flowed seamlessly. Highly recommended.