Cover Image: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

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Member Reviews

This is a heartfelt poignant novel which is well written. It has well developed characters.
A great read

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Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

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It started fine, entertaining enough with a lively protagonist of American, French and Indian heritage. After failing to win a prestigious essay writing contest based on an obscure connection between writer Alexandre Dumas and painter Eugene Delacroix, Khayyam is feeling humiliated and despondent. And the boy she was kind-of dating is ghosting her. Quelle horreur! Lucky for her she bumps into the six times great-grandson of Dumas (yes, really) who revives her thesis and her hopes for her future in art history. Alongside Khayyam's story, we have Leila, the inspiration for Byron's poem The Gaiour, which in turn inspired the Delacroix painting.

It's a convoluted plot with some interesting twists and turns if you can get on board with the HUGE coincidences and turns of luck. Unfortunately, Khayyam started to grate on me quite quickly. There are delusions of grandeur for someone still in high school and her mooning over Alexandre and Zaid was irritating. The book tackles important issues about race and sexism but it's very heavy-handed and had some glaring blind spots. Khayyam frequently makes pronouncements about female agency so it would have been nice if less of her story, and her thoughts, revolved less around two men. Similarly, it's surprising how little attention is paid to the fact that Dumas was the grandson of an enslaved black woman. It's given rather cursory treatment. Though the book is billed as the story of two strong women separated by centuries Leila's narrative and character are barely sketched out. Her chapters are very short and she is given little voice compared to Khayyam's exploits with Alexandre and her obsessive Instagram stalking of Zaid. It all became quite tedious and overblown. I'm a fan of YA work but sometimes I can't escape the fact that I am not it's intended audience, and that was the case here

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Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed is a fun YA contemporary with an added historical narrative woven into the story. Khayyam is spending the summer in Paris after losing an important art history essay competition and feeling like she has failed at everything she worked towards. And then she meets Alexandre. Alexandre Dumas, to be exact. Descendant of that Alexandre Dumas, the one who she was working on. Together, they follow her seemingly insane theory about a missing painting once belonging to Dumas, and thus end up following in the footsteps of Leila, a young Muslim woman living in the Paris of Dumas’ time. There is much here that makes a great story. But I ended up loving the premise a lot more than the actual book. To me, there were a lot of pieces that just didn’t quite fit together properly and the story and characters ended up like a puzzle with half the pieces missing or wrongly assembled. I might have approached it from the wrong perspective as someone very familiar with academic work in both history and art history, so it might well be that I am just the wrong reader for the book – but the way historical documents were treated in the story made me cry and that Khayyam’s parents (PROFESSORS!) encouraged her in this endeavour made me VERY upset. JUSTICE FOR RARE MATERIALS! I think this was a three star read for me, but ultimately more due to who I am than anything else.

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I love novels with multiple timelines and Ahmed’s novel was not an exception to this. From the distinctly modern Parisian setting to the older Ottoman one, Ahmed is able to clearly distinguish narrative voices and timelines with minimal effort. Excellent.

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I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting idea behind this story and some good writing. I liked the inclusivity of this story but felt that there could have been more and more exploration of this theme as it was said once and left beind which lacks the power and emphasis which could have been seen. The writing is good, however, the formatting of this book made it difficult to read: I thought it was written in prose for the first chapter or so.
On the whole an OK book.

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I am so happy that I finally opened this book after leaving it on my TBR for months because this BOOK IS AMAZING! I simply could not put it down!

In pursuit of her dream of being an art historian, Khayyam entered an essay contest, but her essay linking the writer Alexandre Dumas to the artist Delacroix was slammed by judges. However, when a twist of fate brings her face to face with one of Alexandre Dumas’ very handsome descendants in Paris, she begins to wonder if maybe she was right. Together they begin a journey to unravel a 150 year old mystery including a lost painting, a tragic poem and a woman who history has forgotten. Can Khayyam salvage her pride, forgotten history and her love life in one summer?

My favourite thing about this novel was the mix of mystery, history, romance, Parisian settings and humour. I loved the modern day mystery which involved real historical figures from the literary and artistic worlds such as Lord Byron, Dumas, Delacroix. Although the story isn’t factual, it felt like it could be with Khayyam and Alexandre journeying around Paris museums and libraries, tracking down letters, articles and other artefacts. The characters, both modern and historical all felt like real people and I couldn’t wait to see how their stories unfolded. This book also raised brilliant questions about gender, race, colonialism, and whitewashing of history which really added to the story.

I’m an quite picky about romances and I loved the romance in this book. Khayyam and Alexandre’s relationship didn’t feel forced, and you could feel their friendship and chemistry on the page. I liked the way their relationship grew as they worked together to solve the mystery, because it felt relevant to the wider story rather than a parallel plot that distracted from it.

Overall, this is a brilliant read which I loved from start to finish. I can’t wait until lockdown ends and I can travel to Paris and visit all the spots mentioned in the book, and until then, I will just have to add all of Samira Ahmed and Alexandre Dumas’s books to my TBR.

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This book started off quite pleasantly and I found myself intrigued by both Leila and Khayyam, both mostly Leila's backstory, The concept appealed to me - a lost woman in history whose story is unearthed by a budding art historian. However, the book soon fell flat. It became convoluted and I felt as though the trivial matters of Khayyam's life were take precedence over this potential historical discovery. In the end, I could not continue with the novel and felt that the Muslim representation was not as positive as it could be. As a Muslim book reviewer, I do not understand the uprising number of Muslim fiction that only seeks to present Islam as a label alone, with characters who identify as such, not really practicing or implementing any aspect of it in their lives. Also, the focus on romance was off-putting - I had come into the book expecting one thing and was left unsatisfied, thereby dnf-ing.

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*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I did however purchase my own copy of the paperback which is the copy I read.

Art history, literature, a mysterious woman, romance in Paris – what more could I ask for in a novel? This is my first Samira Ahmed book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her writing style immediately hooked me into the story and kept me interested throughout. The whole book is set in Paris and I really got a sense of place from the writing, with the characters feeling realistic and flawed throughout.

I absolutely adored the discussions of art history, literature (mostly Dumas and Byron) and the protagonist’s exploration of feminism. I felt like the feminist themes were woven well into the story but Khayyam’s own development in this regard was fascinating to watch. The author did not shy away from Khayyam exploring different facets of her personality as a Muslim American woman with a French father and Indian mother. Nor did the author shy away from calling out the characters’ on their flaws. I enjoyed how the mystery surrounding Leila developed and the snippets of her life that come in alternate chapters kept me intrigued the whole way through.

The only thing that annoyed me slightly was the miscommunication and teen angst present in the romantic relationship but by the end I could forgive this as I just adored the characters.

Overall I would highly recommend this book and will definitely be picking up more by Samira Ahmed. I would also recommend reading the author’s note at the end of the book to gain more context on the author’s motivations in writing the novel and also some of the real life inspiration.

4 out of 5 stars!

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Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to know review by Samira Ahmed

Hello bookworms! I am here with a NetGalley review as I try and sort my requests out! I think I requested Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to know earlier this year because I was intrigued by the synopsis. This book did not disappoint!

E-galley from netgalley in return for an honest review. This does not affect my thoughts or rating

Synopsis from Goodreads:

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, which is surprising as it’s a contemporary. I found this book made me so aware of how I view other people, as well as how other people view themselves. Also, people who are online are not always who they say they are!

Khayyam

Our protagonist and who we spend the book reading from the perspective of, and is an Indian, Muslim American on holiday in France. Through her eyes we see how she is seen by th French, as well as the Americans. It makes me wonder what thoughts I have subconsciously and wrongly held about people I pass on the street. Incredibly intelligent and as someone who knows what she wants Khayyam is 17, and honest makes me feel like I am a boat in the ocean. I love how strong she is in her beliefs as well as what she wants to do when she finishes school. One of my favourite parts of the book

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3.5 Stars

<i>But I’m not a passport that everyone gets to stamp with a label of their choosing.</i>

We start of with a kicker-punch by being introduced to Khayyam, a girl who simply wants to tell her own story and let her own voice be known instead of being a blank canvas for others to project their expectations on. However, as she states: she lives with constant code-switching. She's Indian and French and American and Muslim, a range of identities that interplay with how she navigates her life.

What I liked about Khayyam was that she sounds like a teen (maybe not 17 though). Most books make their protagonists wise-above-their-years or incredibly snarky or ultra angsty or sweet-supreme "door-mat nice". Khayyam however, has doubts, along with confidence and a vision that something grand will happen and everything will sort itself out, that she'll be the best, youngest college admittance writer her dream uni will see. Her over ambitious dream-like fantasies were realistic to the point you felt for her when the rose-tinted glasses finally came off.

Then there's Leila, the woman caught between two men, death and betrayal. A woman captured for eternity in both, a painting and a poem. Always left to the side, forgotten and silenced in the grand scheme of things.

The 2 contrasting perspectives really helped propel the story and the underlying empowerment themes, though I wish we got more of Leila. Her snippets were few and far between but I really enjoyed delving into her thoughts, her forbidden love and sadly silenced life that created atmospheric tension akin to A Thousand Nights (a book I loved) .
I definitely preferred her POV whenever the long (albeit socially-conscious) monologues our other heroine would get into. I laud the author for including the discussions (and the end-note)- it's a historical viewpoint that is conveniently ignored, but at the same time felt the author could've integrated them with more finesse. I say this because at times, Khayyam would dispel her 👏👏 nuggets of knowledge in a clunky way that didn't seem as authentic to the rest of the story momentum.

The plot concept of Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know was excellent, the settings and parallels riveting. However, for me, the book unfortunately fell short on execution. There was just so much potential that did not get tapped into, particularly due to the overshadowing (almost insta) romance that came into play. Time, which for me could've been used in fleshing out our alternate world's richness.

If I were younger I'd have enjoyed this way more.
P.S Love the violets, reds and fiery oranges on the cover!

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I am an absolute sucker for books with dual timelines and I went into this book expecting to get that. However, I felt that this book was more of Khayyam’s story, and personally, I didn’t really care for Khayyam as a character. She just fell a little flat to me and I found her kind of pretentious and uninteresting. Leila, on the other hand, I absolutely adored. I really wished we got more of her pov.
I do want to note, though, that I am not muslim or Indian which may be the reason why I struggled with Khayyam’s character. I am also just past my teen years so I would like to acknowledge that I’m not the target audience of this book.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to other teens, because I still think it is a great story that a lot of young adults can enjoy and relate to.

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To be honest, I thought I was going to get slightly more out of this one. The story twines together that of an American Muslim who adores art history and is on a quest to find a missing Delacroix painting. This leads her to Alexandre Dumas and to a mysterious woman with raven tresses. Alongside this is Leila's story, whose identity has been both lost and immortalised in a poem by Byron two hundred years previously. I just feel I should have liked it more than I did ...

Instead, we meet Khayyam, who has suffered academic embarrassment at the age of 17 and feels as though her life is over. She returns to Paris to find out where she went wrong. There, she meets Alexandre, great-great something grandson of the writer Dumas, who seems to think her failed art history theory might actually be on to something. They begin a romance of sorts whilst breaking into buildings, destroying antiques and destroying any sense of object provenance.

Can you tell I'm an archaeologist/historian?

But not only does this give strength to Khayyam's academic argument that Dumas may have had a lost Delacroix painting, but it also begins to unveil the story of a woman forgotten by history. And I loved this side of the art history mystery - of finding someone apparently unimportant who had her own story to tell. And for Khayyam she is even more important because of her shared heritage. Leila's link with Byron is also the source of the novel's title, although I suspect this was more due to how fun the descriptor is, rather than its direct relevance to the story...

I also found Leila's chapters, as this forgotten woman a bit bland. They should have been full of excitement and fear and adventure, but instead were all mopey, because they were just occasional glimpses into her life.

They weren't as bland as Khayyam's love interests, though, which is also an interesting thing to add into a book that is apparently all about empowerment, but it did frame an interesting question about taking credit for research. Alexandre was the stereotypical charming Frenchman, who took her on romantic picnics. Zaid was the unfinished past boyfriend that Khayyam was still agonising over. And it sometimes felt that this agonising over boys took precedence over the actual history - time that I would have preferred spending with Leila.

But what this book did offer was a lovely insight into French culture, shared heritage and marginalised figures in history, with a slow-burning academic research mystery in the background.

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A love child of Kate Moss's Labyrinth and the Divinchi Code in the best way.

This beautifully written quest novel follows Kyayyam and Alexandre as they try to discover who 'The lady with raven tresses' is and find her in a lost Delacroix portrait.

Kyayyam describes herself as 'French American. Indian American. Muslim American. Biracial. Interfaith. Child of immigrants and at 17 is very well aware of the lack of #herstory in history.

Kyayyam's family return each summer to Paris for their summer break and to see her father's family. This year she is upset about an art history essay she wrote about the artist Delacroix gifting a painting to Dumas which has never been seen. But the college she wanted to go to considered her research poor and her premise unfounded. She feels belittled and is determined on trying to prove that she was right.

Kyayyam stumbles into a descendant of Alexandre Dumas, who is also called by that name and is instantly attracted to him. Complications? Of course, she is just coming out of a relationship with Zaid, a more suitable Muslim boy. She's confused, torn between the two, so reasons that she can use Alexander's connections to help her with her quest rather than admit that she is attracted to him. Alexandre has his own motivations to confuse her further.

Kyayyam's story is threaded through with the story of Leila which is revealed episodically, although we do not find out why until later in the novel. Many of their experiences overlap as both are strong willed women.

Will they find clues to find the missing Delacroix painting, and who this mysterious woman could have been (real or imagined?)

An expertly combined coming of age and quest story, weaving authentic characterisation and situations seamlessly from the 1800s to the modern day. How much has really changed in the treatment of women and those of a different ethnicity?

I could not put it down till the end and love that it's left open for sequels. Something different but one for YA teenagers list of, must reads.

I was given the novel free by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

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Sadly this book didn't live up to my expectations. I felt there were some cultural changes made by the author that may have taken away from the actual aim of the novel. I felt the book itself needed greater research with regards to the analysis of both the art and the poetry being discussed.

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I’ll admit that this stunning cover is what drew me to requesting this on NetGalley. The designers at Atom have done an amazing job on this book but I did also really enjoy Ahmed’s debut YA novel Love and Other Filters, which gave me another reason to give this one a go.

Every August, aspiring art historian Khayyam and her parents spend the month in Paris. While mourning her failure to get into her academic institute of choice, she runs head-first into the beautiful Alexandre Dumas, a direct descendant of the famous French novelist and a long-buried mystery unveils itself to them.

Like a lot of teen girls, especially those of mixed heritages, Khayyam struggles with who she is and who she wants to be. However, she does have a huge amount of self-worth, which I would say is actually pretty mature for a 17-year-old. While this is an admirable quality, unfortunately it takes away some of the vulnerability that makes me fall in love with YA protagonists. She seems to fall in love with Alexandre incredibly quickly though, which seems at odds with her level-head, regaining her some vulnerability points. I had a very mixed opinion of her!

‘A cage, though gilded, is still a cage.’

Alongside Khayyam’s sleuthing adventures in Paris, we get the story of Leila, a young woman living in a Pasha’s harem during the Ottoman Empire. Despite being the favourite, she has failed to produce a male heir and she’s also fighting to keep her true love a secret from her master. Leila’s story fascinated me and I rooted for her from her very first chapter and I would have loved to have had more from her perspective.

Leila is guided by a jinn named Si’la, who is full of wisdom. These mystical encounters were completely captivating and beautifully written. I’ve not read many books that feature jinn or other figures of Arabian folklore because I’m not a big fantasy reader these days but these small sections made me really want to learn more.

Talking of beautiful writing, Ahmed is fantastic at writing little pockets of beautiful space. I’ve been to Paris several times but I don’t remember ever finding anywhere as gorgeous as this little garden sounds. It sounds like the perfect place to spend an afternoon with a book and a picnic and now I really want to go and look for it!

Khayyam makes it her mission to tell Leila’s story, which I admired but this point was repeated so many times throughout the book. The line ‘There are literally centuries of women who never got to tell their stories’ was simply reworked several times in Khayyam’s dialogue and sadly, I got quite tired of hearing it. I know that women have been ignored throughout history and that their stories have been lost. I knew that before I started the book. It really only needed to be said once.

One thing I really didn’t like about Khayyam was her air that she ‘isn’t like other girls’. This is a quality that really grates on me in real life as well as in fiction. Several times, Khayyam reminded me that she is a nerdy outsider and because she is the protagonist on an honourable mission, that implies that the reader is supposed to think that Khayyam is the superior ‘type’ of girl. I would have loved to see Khayyam in an unlikely female friendship because I’m sure that would have been able to clear up any suspicions that she may have some kind of internalised misogyny.

The connections between Khayyam’s and Leila’s stories were done really well and I loved drawing parallels between them. Both are torn between two men, both want to carve out a life for themselves, both of them feel dismissed or belittled. It reminded me that perhaps things haven’t really changed all that much for women, particularly women of colour. I understood why Khayyam was so determined to get the truth of Leila’s story because in so many ways, it was the same as her own and it’s the same for many other young women of today.

Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know is a culturally-rich YA contemporary intertwined with heartbreaking historical fiction. Although I was intrigued by the mystery of how all of these literary figures were linked to Leila, I felt it could have ended a while before it did. Art and poetry nerds who also love teen romance will eat this up.

‘For what in the end are we but stories?’

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In my eyes, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know is a perfect summer book.

Set against the backdrop of Paris in the scorching summer, Samira Ahmed really makes the city a character of its own. From name dropping restaurants to bridges, fountains and other architectural monuments, museums, tourist hot spots, and less known places, this is a guide to sightseeing in the French capital.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The premise is simple: Khayy, having failed to hit the mark with her essay to get into a prestigious art history college course, is sulking. Her theories about Alexandre Dumas, Delacrois, and a mysterious raven haired lady are still bouncing around her brain when a cute guy strikes up a conversation with her. But not just any cute french guy; Alexandre Dumas - a descendant of the famous french writer Khayyam has been obsessing over. As they strike up a conversation and start hanging out, Khayyam wonders if Alexandre could be the key to unlocking the tangled web of connections that could get her into college. As they both embark on a research mission, taking us all around Paris as they search for clues, we learn that there are secrets they're keeping from each other. But are they more important than finding out who this long lost woman is and giving her an identity? And can they actually crack the mystery that seems to be staring them both in the face?

Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know is part love story, as Khayyam falls deep for Alexandre while struggling with seeing her ex-boyfriend popping up in selfies with what seems like every girl in their school year. It's part an homage to Paris, it's history, culture, and it's beauty in the summer. It's part an exploration of who Khayyam really is, at least to herself, as she expresses she doesn't feel at home with her identities - half Indian on her mother's side, half French on her dads, and raised in America. But most of all, it's an adventure, through Paris, and history, and into the stories we are told through art and literature.

Not only is this a beautifully written story, but it's also a compelling story - in fact, two compelling stories. Leila and Khayyam both have strong narratives, and the way their stories are woven together is wonderfully done.

There were some parts I didn't care about as much, mainly Khayyam's ex boyfriend and that whole storyline - I was partially more interested in her romance with Alexandre but mostly just more interested in the mystery of this missing woman and the hunt for her. But, my disinterest in this didn't take away from my enjoyment of the overall storyline, and I definitely 100% adored this book. It has so many elements which are all so amazing, and I loved how it shines a light on some lesser known parts of history.

I really urge you to pick up a copy of Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know! It has become a strong contender for one of my favourite books of the year!

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I liked the idea and concept of this book, The overall message about women telling their own stories was fantastic and is much needed.

I did however have issues with the execution. I found it to be very dense with information but then also somehow difficult to follow without having a better knowledge of the historical references. The info heavy style then threw off the pacing for me, everything seemed to just happen very conveniently. This meant that I struggled to then get invested in the characters and the romance.

A good idea and I can see why some people would enjoy it but it was not for me..

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Absolutely stunning book, I haven’t read anything by Samira before, but I’m definitely a fan now. What a fascinating and enthralling read, I was hooked, I loved the romance elements , but I adored the sense of mystery far more. I fell in love with the characters especially Khayyam, she is just fabulous, so relatable, so ‘real’ , the characters are all well developed and I love the fact they are this way, warts and all. I loved the focus on women and their influence/roles and effects through the story. Just simply one of my favourite reads this year.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

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This was so good and so unlike what I expected! Which shouldn't be a surprise since I went into this book blindly, since after loving "Internment" so much I decided that I can blindly trust Samira Ahmed's books.

"Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know" is a very different sort of book from "Internment". In many ways it's lighter but not any less important. It's told from dual POV: one is about art and falling in love in Paris in August and another takes place centuries before and follows the life of Pasha's favourite concubine. It's a story about two strong women, it's an adventure book, it's a book about sleuthing and art history and looking for truth with a nice little touch of romance. At its core it's a book about trying to give back voice to women and especially women of colour - to give them back the space they deserve and to reclaim the history which is not nearly as male or as white as we've been told for so long. It's also a story about the grey areas between the right and wrong, truth and lies, and what's private and what's a story that should be told.

The characters are amazing and felt so so real. They are deeply flawed, they make mistakes, some that you might not want to forgive. I especially liked the way romance was handled because it felt so real and is not what we come to expect from YA or books set in France in the summer.

I'm also incredibly grateful for the slowly growing amount of YAs which show Europe and its present and past through the eyes of people of colour. While I tend to complain and rage about yet another American pretending to know anything about Europe, THIS is the sort of stories we badly need.

I have to admit that I don't know how much of the story is true and how much is fiction (my ARC didn't have an author's note that I believe will be there in the finished copy) but I definitely want to read more about it - and maybe even read the Count of Monte Christo...

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