A beautifully written novel a story of an illegitimate daughter the product of an affair between an actress and a politician.A book that drew me in I was totally absorbed by the novel the characters Margot the product of this love affair trying to find her place in the world,Highly recommend the book ‘this author, #netgalley#hodderstiughton.

17 year old Margot Louve has spent her whole life as a secret – she is the result of a clandestine love affair between an influential French politician and an infamous stage actress. Her father has a wife and two sons, and he sees Margot and her mother when he gets the opportunity to slip away. Her whole life, Margot has been raised in lies, never really seen as what she truly is, and one day she snaps and tells all. And it’s in this revelation that her whole world quickly begins to unravel, and she must face the devastating results of her actions.

I don’t know I was really ready for this book, and although it’s reasonably short I struggled a lot with the pacing. It starts out really strongly, with Margot building up all of this contained resentment, jealousy and anger towards her father and his ‘true’ family and the initial fall out is full of all the drama and angst that you would expect. And then things just sort of peter out and stagnate. I can’t deny that the writing itself is beautiful, complex and nuanced but something just felt a little lacking. Like a part of Margot’s personality is missing beyond that of a naïve girl trying to find herself, and she becomes a little lost herself within her own story.

I did really enjoy Margot’s rather complicated relationship with her mother Anouk, who at times Margot feels that she’s a mere inconvenience in her mother’s high society and glamorous life. She wants to be noticed and loved, and a lot of this is missing within her relationship with her mother. There’s no affection between the two, and I do think that this is one of the main driving factors behind Margot’s decision to go public about who she is. She wants the recognition and the family life that she thinks she deserves. There’s a lot of self-discovery for Margot within the novel too, as she deals with the fall out and tragedy that she creates, and it results in her growing up rather quickly. Her naivety has a tendency to lean towards bitterness as she sets out to discover who she really is, and sometimes this made it difficult to connect with her as she comes across as rather mean spirited and spoiled.

A cerebral and immersive book that will certainly make you examine your own family dynamics and how they have shaped your personality and life. The writing is beautiful, but I can’t help feeling this was trying to be a little bit too clever at times.

Margot is the secret daughter of a French politician and a famous actress. In her final year of school, alongside studying for her exams, she meets a journalist and is drawn into an adult world that she doesn't realise that she's out of her depth in, and makes a decision that will change her future.

This is very, very French - not just in the set up of a high profile politician with a secret family (the scenario here has actually played out more than once in France, where being exposed as having a mistress hasn't been a career ender for decades, if ever) but also in style and writing to the point where I went and checked (more than once) if it was actually in translation because the turns of phrase and everything about it felt so much like a French-language novel.

I had some qualms about the journalistic ethics you see on display here, but while I was reading, I went with it. Now I've finished the book, it bothers me even more but that may be because I'm a journalist and sensitive about how the profession is portrayed in fiction/movies/arts as having very few morals and doing whatever it takes to get the story. PSA: journalists shouldn't behave like this, if you find someone who is, then they are a bad actor and you shouldn't cooperate with them. That aside this is an interesting coming of age novel, albeit one with a fairly hard to like cast of characters.

Now, I have to admit, this isn't the type of book that I am usually drawn to. But something about the blurb really struck me,
Let me first start by saying that this is absolutely beautifully written.
It's a coming of an age story but not like any that I've read before.
It' had me riveted and looks at the different nuances in relationships between women. And whilst it is slow paced, it feels like it gives the viewpoints of a teenager time to breathe, instead of being a slog to get through.
This is a fantastic debut and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future work from this author.
I've got a feeling if you enjoyed Sally Rooney's work, you will enjoy this almost Parisian twist on her type of stories.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.