Troubled Short Stories about Troubled Romances

Paris for One, the titular story for Jojo Moyes collection of short stories, is both the longest and best story in the bunch.

Paris for One is more novella length and tells the story of Nell, an English girl, who impulsively buys a weekend  getaway to Paris for herself and her loser boyfriend. The loser boyfriend bails on the trip and Nell is left stranded in one of the most romantic cities in the world. The front desk woman at her hotel sends Nell to a restaurant where she meets a Parisian waiter, Fabian.
Fabian is a writer who loses his manuscript in an accident; he has recently broken up with his girlfriend and after a second meeting offers to take Nell on a tour of the city. The whole story is predictable but it’s sweet.

“Well, when Pete didn’t turn up this weekend, I wanted to die. I thought everyone would laugh at me till next Christmas. Nell, the girl who got stood up in the City of Light.”

The others are more traditional short stories, around 15 to 20 pages, and they range from “meh” to “bad” continuing the focus on unhappy or struggling relationships. The first two, Between the Tweets & Love in the Afternoon, and the last story, The Christmas List, were probably the best. While Holdups was particularly awful.

Paris for One elevates the collection to a 3.5 Star rating although is was nice to read some Jojo Moyes after so long!