Maybe in Paris

by Rebecca Christiansen

Keira Braidwood lands in Paris with her autistic brother, Levi, and high hopes. Levi has just survived a suicide attempt and months in the psych ward—he’s ready for a dose of the wider world. Unlike their helicopter mom and the doctors who hover over Levi, Keira doesn’t think Levi’s certifiable. He’s just . . . quirky. Always has been.

Those quirks quickly begin to spoil the trip. Keira wants to traipse all over Europe; Levi barely wants to leave their grubby hotel room. She wants to dine on the world’s cuisine; he only wants fast food. Levi is one giant temper tantrum, and Keira’s ready to pull out her own hair.

She finally finds the adventure she craves in Gable, a hot Scottish bass player, but while Keira flirts in the Paris Catacombs, Levi’s mental health breaks. He disappears from their hotel room and Keira realizes, too late, that her brother is sicker than she was willing to believe. To bring him home safe, Keira must tear down the wall that Levi’s sickness and her own guilt have built between them.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Travel, Romance, Mental Health, Fiction, Young Adult Contemporary

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 20, 2017

About the author

Rebecca Christiansen loves boy bands and diet soda. She livesin a house packed full of books in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Reviews

[Rê · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 “Really?” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Sky Pony Press!

First of all, I don’t rate books one star on a regular basis. I really don’t. I feel horrible every single time I do it, and since I don’t like making myself sad, I try not to do this often. But I had a bad feeling about this story from chapter one, and I wish I could say I’m surprised I ended up disliking it this much, but I am not.

Let me just quickly say I don’t feel qualified to talk about the representation of Autism in this book. I read on Goodreads that the author’s brother is Autistic, and I don’t want to offend her family in any way. So I’ll stay away from this topic. I’m sure other reviewers with better understanding of the subject will talk about this aspect of the story.

I want to start by talking about the premise. This premise in itself is a bomb ready to go off. Look at the blurb: girl ignores her brother’s diagnosis and decides it’s a good idea to take him to Europe weeks after he attempts suicide + girl is more worried about flirting and falling in love than being around her brother + girl calls her brother’s autism “quirks” + girl abandons her autistic brother in a strange country to hang out with guy + girl finally realizes she screwed up. See where I’m getting here? This is a recipe for disaster.

I get that the point of the story is to show Keira’s journey from being clueless to finally understanding what’s happening around her. Growing up is part of her arc. But when you’re dealing with serious topics like these, you need to be 100% sure the main character is someone readers can get behind. Someone readers are willing to follow through every mistake. Someone readers will forgive because they see she’s trying to be better. I didn’t get that from Keira.

Keira was too selfish to be the protagonist of a story like this. She only thought about herself and, even when it seemed she was thinking about her brother, she truly wasn’t. And I could see that from the first few paragraphs.

The book starts with Keira hearing a commotion because her brother tried to kill himself. No spoiler here since the blurb talks about this part. Okay, so if you’re going to start with something like that, the scene needs to be so emotional I’ll instantly feel for the characters involved, right? Well, that didn’t happen. Keira didn’t give me anything to hold on to. She didn’t get out of her room even though she heard her mother screaming, the ambulance coming and everything else that was going on. I got nothing. Absolutely nothing from her.



Later on we come to learn Keira is suffering from anxiety, so maybe that why she didn’t even leave her room. Ok. I get that. What I don’t get is why she seemed to not care for her brother at all until she decided, HEY, you’re dealing with mental illness right now, the doctors are saying maybe you won’t be able to ever live without supervision, but we should take an unsupervised trip to Paris and, you know, ignore everything else.



And the thing was, I got the feeling that this wasn’t even about her brother and her misguided, but well-intended attempt to show him that he could live life the way he wanted. No. It was all about her. It was about her dream of going to Paris after graduation—a dream she was afraid wouldn’t be fulfilled because of her brother’s suicide attempt. I truly felt like the only reason Keira even thought about taking her brother to Paris was to make the whole trip possible. Her mother had made it clear she disapproved of Keira’s choice to travel, and doing it while her brother was hospitalized would’ve been really cruel of her. So it came across as if she was finding the perfect solution to her “problem”: taking him with her.

Had Keira been a good sister to Levi, I would’ve believed she truly wanted him there, but she couldn’t have cared less about him. She was too busy thinking about Paris and falling in love.

Dude. Keira was obsessed with falling in love. In Paris, preferably.

What I’m about to say next will shock every single person who’s ever read one of my reviews, but here it comes: THIS BOOK DIDN’T NEED A ROMANCE SUBPLOT OR A ROMANCE-FOCUSED MAIN CHARACTER!



I know. I know. But it’s true. This book would’ve been so much better if instead of trying to fall in love with every single boy she met, Keira had been focused on her brother. I wanted to read a book about a good sibling relationship, but nope. All I got was selfish Keira taking her brother to Europe, getting pissed off because he was uncomfortable in some situations and therefore changed her plans, and then ditching him when the first boy who wasn’t rude to her asked her out.

I mean, I would’ve been really pissed off at the author had I been French. Pretty much every French boy Keira met was horrible to her. Then came a nice Scottish guy and she was ready to fall in love.

I don’t know, but how exactly am I supposed to sympathize with a character who leaves her mentally ill brother in a hotel room for hours to go flirt with some guy she just met??? I don’t understand. I’m confused. I really am. Was I supposed to like her?



I’m sorry, but she made bad choices after bad choices, and she seemed so clueless that I simply couldn’t even feel sorry for her.

Then when describing her brother’s situation to her crush she says her brother is “screwed up”. At this point, I’m like WTF?!



After that she obviously loses her brother because she left the poor guy alone in a hotel room from morning to freaking seven p.m.! The blurb said she’d lose him, so this isn’t even a spoiler. The thing is, this happens at the 80% mark, and if the main character is still making this type of choices this late in this story, I’m pretty confident I won’t change my opinion of her in the last 20% of the story.



I wasn't surprised when Keira kept irritating me after that. Sure, she eventually learned a thing or two, but I was so done with her at that point that I simply couldn't get behind the happy ending. I’m sorry.

So, while I did get what the story was trying to portray, I don’t think it had the right elements to successfully carry such a complex premise. I needed a main character I could get behind and Keira was never that for me. I went into this thinking I’d get a sibling story, but all I got was a selfish sister making her brother’s life even more difficult than it already was.

[Dafna]

This book sounds awful and gross and I am mad. So mad.

[chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm... so. I was really excited to read this book, but it did not meet my expectations. I would love to visit Paris someday, and well, that's Keira's life wish, so I thought we would have a lot in common, but I was 100% wrong.

Keira is a self-absorbed, boy-crazy girl. She's pretty stupid too. She knows a little bit of French, and she keeps showing it off in front of everyone. And she wears a Marie Antoinette-inspired dress to prom. Haha, no wonder Jacques dumps her.

I don't think I'm qualified to talk about the autistic rep, because I personally do not know any people on the autism spectrum. So, I won't be making comments on the author's representation of autism. If you would like to check out some #OwnVoices reviews of this book, I recommend reading Cait's review.

I only like two things in the entire book, which are 1. THE FOOD and 2. the characters who did their best to help find Levi. Keira and Levi go to the same patisserie (with lots and lots of amazing French desserts and treats) for breakfast every day, and its owners are such lovely people. When Levi goes missing, they help to type up and print out posters. I also really like Josh, who is such a great father figure.

But Keira's mom? No, just no. She calls her daughter a SLUT, and she secretly stays in Paris because apparently, she doesn't trust Keira? COME ON! If that is so, why did you even let her go in the first place?

Overall rating

★★

Two stars. One for the delicious food and the other for my favorite characters. I am so utterly disappointed in this book. Bye.

[Tracie Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book: Maybe in Paris
Author: Rebecca Christiansen
Publisher: Sky Horse Publishing/Sky Pony Press
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Publication Date: June 20, 2017



Everyone, there were so many things I hated about this book.

First, I want to preface this review by saying that I do not have a lot of experience with people on the Autism Spectrum. Therefore, I will not be commenting on the author’s representation of Autism. I will also not be commenting on the representation of mental illness because everyone’s experience and interpretation of mental illness is different depending on many things.

My main issue with this story was the characters. In a story that deals with heavy situations such as this one, you should have a main character that understands, tries their best, and learns from their mistakes. However, I didn’t see any of that from Keira. Not only was she very ableist, but she didn’t care a stich about her brother (even though the author tried to spin it that way in the end), and she was extremely immature and hypocritical.

Let me give you some quotes for her ableism…

A.) Ableism
“You picture Hollywood mental hospitals, patients drooling in straightjackets”.

“I can’t believe my brother could be that far gone”. Um…no. Your brother’s diagnoses give you no right to say that about him. That’s so shitty.

”I had forgotten he was such a weirdo”.

“Don’t psychiatric drugs turn you into a zombie?” Oh fuck no. I’m sorry but also not okay. Some people use prescriptions for medication to HELP them have a handle on their illness…

I could go on and on…

Next was her penchant for being hypocritical, immature and pretentious. She acted like she was such a HUGE SHIT. She was the closest thing to be French without…you know…actually being French. And she knew EXACTLY how to take care of her brother and help with his needs…Except she didn’t.

She could have seriously done a lot of damage to her brother, more than him leaving and getting lost. He could have gotten sick without his meds being monitored, he could have gotten hurt…A lot of things could have happened because she couldn’t watch over her brother properly. Because she had to go after every boy in Paris she took even a small fancy to. And she saw that when he left, but I don’t think she learned her lesson at all. That whole ending part seemed very staged to me. I didn’t feel bad for her at all. In fact, I was happy every time a boy broke her heart… Even though she learned nothing from it.

Which brings me to the next point. She was so immature and pretentious. She would go after almost every boy she saw, and judge him based on his appearance and what he could do for her. And in each of these instances, when they shunned her, she had something bad to say. Then she would feel SOOOO SORRY for leaving her brother for some guy IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY who SHE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW. And she acted like she was going on adventures. What is she? Like 14? She is supposed to be 18 in this book. She didn’t even realize how dangerous that was. Going off with people she didn’t even know. Then, in the beginning she had to comment on the French skills of the other tourists and make fun of them. Yet, when her own French was made fun of by a FRENCHMAN, she got ALL offended. Can I scream hypocrite loud enough?

She was also so selfish. It was all about what KIERA wanted to do and who KIERA wanted to see. I can’t think of an instance when Levi got to do what he wanted. When she didn’t get her way, she was all sad or she pitched a fit like a 5 year old, bending Levi to her will.

The only characters I liked in the whole book were Levi (who actually had more of a head on his shoulders than his sister), their stepfather Josh, who actually had useful ideas and who was NICE, and the bakeshop siblings. I hated the mom. She was manipulative and controlling, completely obsessive and she was so mean to her daughter, but sweet as pie to Levi.

Now I know where Keira got it from.

I think Levi and Josh should have been the only characters in this story with the bakeshop siblings.Then I would have been happy.

Actually, can we have a book just about the bakeshop and the history with that? That would have been AMAZING.

Kyo got the mom and Kiera right… 😉

[Liralen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conceptually...yes. I like that Keira is exploring Paris with her troubled younger brother. I like that we're seeing an autistic(?) main (though not POV) character, which is something that's underrepresented in YA fiction. But I'm left with a lot of questions, some practical and some broader.

Money: Keira's saved $6,000 towards a gap year in Europe, based in Paris. After her brother attempts suicide, Keira decides to take him with her. But it's never really clear how far she expects that money to go. $6,000 isn't enough money for one person for a year anywhere she might go and hope to live by Western standards (especially when it has to include plane tickets), let alone for two people. But I'm not really sure what the new plan is. How long does she expect to be in Paris with Levi? They're not working particularly hard to save money; they end up in a hotel rather than a hostel and go off to all sorts of museums and exhibitions, which aren't cheap. Nothing wrong with a change in plans, but I struggle with not knowing what the new parameters of this trip are.

Jacques: Jacques is Keira's one-time love interest. Let's see how she describes him: He would roll his eyes whenever most girls spoke to him. He would complain prodigiously about the school's food. He even complained about it when I organized a French Food Festival with the Culinary Arts class, entirely for his benefit. Our school had a daycare on campus, and he would snigger anytime he saw a student dropping off or picking up her baby, slinging a diaper bag alongside her backpack (loc. 418). This particular description of Jacques's...virtues...goes on for another two paragraphs, and that's not the only place we hear about them. He laughs at Keira's prom dress, calls her fat, finds it hysterical that Levi is overweight and doesn't dress according to societal expectations, sneers at Keira's accent when she tries to speak French, criticises her for eating anything other than salad... I legit don't think we ever hear anything good about him except that he's French (if one's nationality can be 'good' or 'bad'), and yet I'm not sure Keira's ever truly over him in the course of the book. It's...not great. She realises that he's a douche of the highest order, but really only because he calls her fat; everything prior to that just...doesn't really register. Doesn't make me trust Keira's judgement all that much.

The mother: Is terrible. One of the first things we see her do is call Keira a slut because Keira likes a boy. She blames Keira for everything possible and judges her for everything else. She does a miraculous turnaround at the end of the book, but it's too little, too late. But hey, let's come back to the question of whether or not we can trust Keira, yeah?

Levi: So...as I said earlier, I like that we're seeing representation of somebody who's not neurotypical. I also like that this is at least in theory more of a sibling story than a romance (i.e., although Keira immediately falls for any semi-attractive boy with a non-American accent that she sees, she doesn't end up with a happily ever after). But oh man. Neurodivergence is something that has to be handled so carefully in fiction, and I just don't see that here. We're told at the beginning of the book that Levi's just been given a tentative diagnosis of autism, plus possible schizophrenia and possible bipolar. So great! Put him on meds and send him to France with his boy-obsessed older sister! No problems with that at all. I'm not sure why it's important to the story that these are recent diagnoses rather than older ones, but it leaves me with all sorts of questions about the presentation of his maybe-autism, the severity of all of his diagnoses, what his personal limits are, how much he understands about his diagnoses...and, just, none of this is addressed. At all. I don't need to know every detail, and I certainly don't want everything to come back to his diagnoses, but if this is going to be a Major Plot Point, then it needs much, much more careful exploration than it's given.

Keira: Thing is...Keira's trying to do the right thing. She changes her plans in a major way for the sake of trying to help her brother. But...problems. First, her idea of helping her brother entails showing him her dreams. I think she figures that if he sees Paris, city of her dreams, it'll be enough to make him want to live again. I'm not sure she ever asks herself if Paris is actually a place that would interest him. What are his dreams? We don't know. Keira doesn't ask. She's willing to accept that Levi's autistic, but she rarely seems to realise that the things that annoy her might have to do with brain chemistry, or genetics, or the way Levi experiences the world, rather than just Levi being a difficult brother. It's...rough. There are other things, other major things, that she doesn't ask: she doesn't ask what any of the medications Levi is on are supposed to do. She doesn't ever ask him if he's taking his meds. She doesn't ask if it's safe to leave him on his own. Keira gets upset that her parents didn't trust her to take care of Levi, but she shows no indication that she's responsible enough to do so. Literally the first time a boy shows interest in her, she leaves Levi in the hotel room for 6 hours that rapidly become 11 hours. How long is it safe to leave him alone? We don't know. We don't know where he is in terms of IQ or street smarts or suicidal ideation. I don't think Keira knows either, which is the bigger problem. She's much, much more worried about seeing Versailles and eating Nutella crepes (pretty sure she and Levi don't eat anything significant other than crepes and pastries) and showing off her French and—omg! Is that a boy? It's a cute boy! Omg. Does he like me? He might like me but who cares because I like him and omg he's cute and he has an accent and he hasn't insulted me yet and omg I hope he proposes. Brother? What brother?

[bookspixscoffeefix · Rating 5 out of 5]

AHH we have a cover!! It's gorgeous!

[Kelly Gunderman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Check out this and other reviews on my young adult book blog, Here's to Happy Endings!

**Actual Rating: 2.5/5 Stars**

Maybe in Paris was the kind of book that had a really strong premise, and I expected a lot from it. As a book that features a character on the Autism spectrum, I really hoped for the best here, because there aren't enough books out there that accurately portray autism. My almost eight year old daughter was diagnosed with Autism when she was three, so I get it, I do. And this was not what I was hoping for. This book just didn't really display autism in a positive light, and I'm going to talk more about this later on in my review.

Keira has always wanted to go to Paris. She loves everything to do with it and spends her time obsessing over French culture - including dressing as Marie Antoinette for prom. In fact, she loves it so much, she has had a crush on a French exchange student all year, and is planning a trip to go to Paris during the summer. She has saved up a lot of money to make her dream come true, and is just about to go, when something unthinkable happens - her autistic younger brother, Levi, tries to kill himself.

She finds herself upset that she cannot go to Paris now, not when her brother is in the hospital and clearly needs to be looked after. But then she comes up with a great idea - why not try and help cheer Levi up by asking if he would like to go to Paris with her?

"Levi and I have something in common. We both want to leave this place. The only difference is that I want to come back. I want to shepherd him out into the world, show him how beautiful it is, and come home again carrying sparks inside us. Maybe if she sees the world, sees everything it has to offer in a brand-new corner of it, he'll want to stay in it."

While Keria's motives are good, she isn't sure their mother will let her take him with her. However, once he receives the green light from his doctors, their mother reluctantly decides to give her a chance.

Once they get to Paris, it isn't what Keira was expecting, however - Levi doesn't have any interest in doing the things she has planned for them. He doesn't want to visit museums, or eat at a French café - instead, he wants to stay in the hotel room and eat at McDonald's. When the two of them do go out and explore, Keira is upset by Levi's reactions to everything - he is distant and uninterested, and constantly insults both Keira and the things she likes.

When Keira meets a guy, things change for her - she is instantly falling for him and starts leaving Levi behind in the hotel room to go and do things with him instead of Levi, not even noticing that Levi isn't doing so well and that he is upset about things. When something serious happens, Keira is forced to look at things in a new light.

I really wanted to like this book. I absolutely love books that focus on travel, and I thought that a book that takes place in Paris with a young girl and her autistic brother could be a really fantastic read. Paris is somewhere I would absolutely love to go one day, and that part of the book was amazing - the author did a fantastic job talking about the sights in Paris, the delicious food, and the way she painted the picture of a quaint little bakery that Keira and Levi visited every morning made me fall in love with that aspect of this. I just wish my love for this could have carried on a little bit further than just the setting.

I absolutely hated Keira and Levi's mom. I mean, for starters, she seriously called Keria a slut in the beginning of the book, and she is constantly telling her daughter (her daughter!) how much of a failure she is, no matter what she does. Whether it's falling for a guy who doesn't like her back or dreaming of going on vacation - everything single thing is wrong. It drove me crazy. I hated the relationship that they had - it wasn't healthy for Keira to constantly been told that she will never be good enough. At least her stepdad, Josh, was a pretty awesome guy. He made sure to make Keria feel loved, even when her mother didn't.

Another thing I had a hard time really liking about the book was Keira's character. She was incredibly self-centered and really didn't seem like she had anyone except her own best interests at heart. She does have a few instances where she actually appears to care about Levi, such as when she actually asked him to go to Paris with her, but they seem far and few in between. I mean, honestly - who takes their autistic brother to Paris and leaves him alone in a hotel room while they hang out with a random guy? Yeah. Well, Keira does. At least I can say that she does seem to grow up a bit by the end of the book, finally realizing that she's being a bit selfish and starts to come to terms with her family life.

Speaking of Keira's autistic brother, Levi, we are informed in the beginning of the book that he has autism, the possibility of schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Not only that, but he wasn't diagnosed with any of this until he was sixteen years old. So...his parents never really paid attention to any of this, or else they were really just that clueless? I don't know, but seriously, how can you not tell your child has possible mental disorders, and just continue on with your life until that child is sixteen years old? I had thoughts about my daughter's socialization and development when she was only two, so not really sure how you manage to ignore that for such a long time. Sure, there are instances of this happening I guess, but the way that Levi's conditions were referred to in this book made it obvious that he has had issues way before the present, so why weren't they looked into?

All in all, I thought this was a nice read for summer, even if it's for the setting of the book alone. I do think that the way Keira and Levi's mother treat Keira is horrible, and that Keira needed to grow up a bit more, but other than that, the book does have its upside.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

[Carrie Westmoreland Kurtz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly don't have much to say about this book. To be completely real with you, I didn't even get all the way through it. I read about half of it and skimmed the rest. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I did not like this book.

Maybe in Paris was such a disappointment to me! I had such high hopes. The back sounds pretty good. However, within the first little bit of the book you find issue after issue... Not good.

Kiera is probably one of my least favorite book characters ever. She seems selfish, clueless, and boy crazy. All of the french boys are jerks. There were just so many problems in this book!

I thought that I may be wrong. Maybe, just maybe, I was alone in feeling this way about this book. So, I looked at some other reviews. I am not alone! Not at all!

I absolutely HATE writing a bad review on a book! I cringe with every word I type! But, this is unavoidable.

*Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Sumeet Bhamra · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend wrote a book and it was a very beautiful book! I'm still crying.

[S.F. Henson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you close the back cover. It's the story of Kiera, a teenager who is trying to process her brother, Levi's, recent suicide attempt and subsequent autism diagnosis. The author wrote it from her own experiences of living with an autistic brother, and I think it's an important angle to consider. Just as there are readers with autism who need stories where they are the main characters, there are readers who, like Kiera, are siblings, and facing their own struggles of learning and processing. Kiera's arc reminds me of Haddie Braverman in the show Parenthood. She doesn't always get it right, and in fact gets a lot wrong, but she's growing and trying to be a better sister to Levi. This book shows that it's okay to mess up and it's okay to not know how to handle it when someone you love goes through something traumatic. It shows that patience is something that takes practice, and that love isn't always easy, but it always prevails.

[Hannah Bettis · Rating 2 out of 5]

one of the worst books I've ever read. what a whiny main character!!

[Brigitte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gross treatment and representation of mental illness.

[Carole Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I really, really want to go to France. I mean...that has always been a dream destination for me, but now I'm twitching because of how bad I want to go.

Anyways...

The story follows Keira is an American girl who is addicted to anything French. She loves the language, the food, the culture, the history, the art, and Marie Antoinette. She is a girl of my own heart in a lot of ways. She reminded me a lot of High School Carole. Well, Keira has had a plan to go to France with the hot French foreign exchange student once she can get him to love her. She has some hope when she invites him to the prom and he says yes. Well...no spoiler alert since it is on page one, it does not go well at all.

After the debacle called "prom", Keira is brokenhearted, but things get worse. During the night, for some reason, her brother decides to kill himself. They save him and send him to the hospital for help. After some tests and whatnot, the doctors diagnose him with a form of Autism, bipolar disorder, and depression. Poor kid! How did no one realize there was something seriously wrong with him this whole time?? Bad parenting I would say.

Things happen and the doctors say it might be good for the brother and Keira to go on a France trip. What could go wrong with a selfish teenager and a teenager with Autism being alone in Paris? Again...bad parenting.

At first, things go okay. Levi does well with very few issues. Sure he says some inappropriate things when they have to wait in line or for some of the weird food Keira makes him eat while he just wants McieDs, but the first few days go fine. Then they go to Versailles and that is where things start to go wrong.

Levi says some hurtful things about Keira's love of the palace of and of her favorite queen. However, I did enjoy their conversation about historical figures they would save if they could time travel. Keira lists a huge list of some tragic figures like Marie Antoinette. Levi says he would save Hitler. Keira and I were all WTF dude? But then he explains that he wouldn't save his life when he tries to kill himself. He says that he would save Hitler from himself. He would go back far enough before he took power. Maybe help him get into Art school or not get into the army. He would save him by finding him a nice life as an artist or some such career. I was really awed by this. And it made me sad because I really felt it spoke a lot about Levi calling out for help in a way. It was a lovely scene for sure.

After that scene, things did get sour. Sure, Keira met a hot Scottish boy who is there in Paris with his band. They hit it off of course. You can't blame a girl, but then she started neglecting her brother. I won't spoil anything, but honestly Keira! You idiot you. You have a brother who needs to be watched...>_> Again, the parents AND the doctors should've said no. It should've been a family trip or something not just the two of them.

I liked the characters even though I felt the mom was a foolish woman who wins worse Mother of the Year. Josh, the stepdad, was the better parent but even he was an idiot. Yes, everyone did something dumb and bad...however...Levi and Keira are teenagers...they shouldn't be expected to know right from wrong in ALL scenarios. Levi needed help YEARS before any of this happened. Sighs.

This was a really good book. I could hardly put this down. Sure the parents were idiots, but what do you expect from a YA? I enjoyed the journey everyone had to go on. The ending was good and I liked it. It fit. I hope they all learned and grew from the experience. They seemed to!

Yes, this was very YA, but I feel like the author did a good job not making it TOO YA or TOO adult. It was a nice mix. I honestly felt like I was reading Keira's diary. It worked well.

My only complaint, besides for the terrible parenting styles, was the format. There were parts were Keira would read a text or read a note and there would be no indications whatsoever. The text was italicized or quoted or anything. It just blended in with the rest of the paragraph. I had no idea when the note or text was over. Very frustrating.

In the end, this was a good read for sure. I was hooked from page one! A couple issues, but easy to look over because I enjoyed the journey of the characters. I especially enjoyed following Keira while she explores Paris. It made me hungry and want to travel there right now! I'll give this 4 stars.

[Nina Rossing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wonderful! Loved it!
The story has humor and depth, and the characters are utterly realistic and believable.

[Wendy MacKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story about Keira, whose family life is strained by the mental health needs of her brother Levi. After a particularly harrowing incident, Keira decides to take Levi with her on her dream trip to Paris, both in hopes of repairing their relationship and of giving him an exciting experience. Paris is everything she'd hoped it would be, despite managing Levi's needs. They make local friends, and when she meets Gable, a Scottish musician, things really look up. But despite how things seem, Levi is struggling...

This book touchingly captures the difficulty of being a sibling of someone struggling with issues that overwhelm everything and everyone. The juxtaposition of the glory that is Paris against the mess that is Keira's family life Is well done and compelling. I really enjoyed this book; it felt fresh and interesting. The author made me want to keep turning the page!

[Joanne]

Note to self:

Will never read due to ableism. See Cait's review.

[Wendi Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review*

This novel was an exercise in anxiety. Oh. My.

Keira's younger brother, Levi, has tried to commit suicide. He's also been newly diagnosed as having Autism. All this happens just at the end of Keira's school year, during prom and then graduation. Keira and Levi have always been close, but to put it in Keira's own words:

When something feels good, I got at it full throttle. When something feels the slightest bit bad, I completely wipe it from my mind.

And that's really Keira's personality in an essence. She loves her brother, but she's also in love with Paris. She's saved up for a big after high-school trip, and in lieu of her brother's new fragile condition, thinks that maybe seeing the world might be good for him too.

Here's where I had to suspend my disbelief. His doctor is okay with this idea. Their parents are okay with this idea, just as long as the kids wait two weeks first, for Levi to acclimate back to home and normal life circumstances. Levi has medicine, so he should be okay as long as Keira watches after him.

Cue my anxiety. Levi's diagnosis is so severe that his doctor predicts he might never leave his parents' home. Keira is a totally nice (and well meaning) person, but she's easily distracted. She also has lots of expectations for this Paris trip, which might not be feasible with a very sick brother in tow.

There are so many things I like about this novel. I totally get where Keira was coming from, even though I sometimes wanted to throttle her. Her relationship with her family seemed very real. Keira and Levi certainly bickered the way I and my brother do. I also liked the relationship the siblings formed with a neighborhood baker and her brother.

But ultimately, I worried about Levi like he was a real person. I wanted him to get real help, not just medication, but therapy. Maybe therapy for the entire family. I wasn't convinced his illness was being taken seriously by anyone, and I was afraid for him.

[Leanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review



Keira’s younger brother Levi has tried to take his own life and which this leads to a new diagnoses of Autism or even the word schizophrenia was used as a possible diagnoses. Keira’s dream was to spend the summer in Paris with a boy but when that doesn’t work out and with the money she had worked hard to get still in her presence she decides that perhaps a trip would benefit Levi also. So despite her mothers constant disapproval she and Levi go off to Paris together where we get to experience Pair but it’s really an emotional roller coaster.

Ok, I’m going to firstly begin with what I liked about this novel and that was the Paris setting, the descriptions when it came to each landmark or museum was great, it added to the reading experience and really made you place yourself into the Paris setting.

Now onto the points I didn’t like which is quite a lot, I found this book to be problematic simply because it was told from someone who wasn’t suffering themselves, yes I understand that any mental health diagnoses can be a strain on a family because they want the best for said relative but with this, I felt like it was told in the wrong way. Keira continuously felt sorry for herself when Levi would say hurtful things to her and I just felt it was all self centred.

Then in enters a boy whom she only meets and decides to spend the entire day with forgetting the time, could this happen in real life? Yes she’s a teenage girl but she’s also an adult whom knows her brother was along in a place he didn’t feel comfortable being in and had already informed her of that.

Then there was the mother, don’t get me started on my disliking for this character, slut shaming from the beginning then she continued to make her daughter feel like she didn’t matter throughout most of the novel.

The only characters that were likeable where the people who made the delicious croissants , Josh the stepdad and Levi himself

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh where do I begin with Maybe in Paris?

Ok, so my love of Paris and being a self confessed Francophile made me select this book. The thought of travelling to Paris and seeing the sights and falling in love with the city sounds like absolute heaven to me so understandably I liked the idea of this novel. And whilst I cannot say that Rebecca Christiansen writes in a bad way (because she doesn’t) I cannot say I enjoyed this book.

Pourquoi? I hear you scream.

Well it had such unlikable characters. Let’s start with Keira and Levi’s mum. Within the first few chapters she has basically called her daughter a slut. Makes out that she is some wanton harlot. Now if that was the case then why hasn’t the mother taken some parental responsibility and tried to speak to her daughter before basically writing her off and feeling that it was ok to speak to Keira like she was muck on her shoe.

Then we have Keira who, yes, is a little bit flighty which can be forgiven but she is also incredibly selfish and naive and really takes no responsibility in her actions. She thinks she is right all of the time and acts on instinct which nine times out of ten is wrong.

Then we have the younger brother, Levi. Levi quite clearly has mental issues alongside a potential diagnosis of autism. It feels that, at times, Christiansen uses his autism to justify some of his actions which are just plain arsey which is unfair to those who have autism.

Overall, I feel that the story would have been better if Christiansen had made her characters much more likeable.

Maybe in Paris by Rebecca Christiansen is available now.

[Emily Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe in Paris tackles the tough subject of what it’s like to have a sibling who is autistic and suicidal, with honesty, compassion, and humor. Keira loves her brother Levi but she also wants the things many teens want and need like love, adventure, and most of all the chance to become herself. It can be hard being the sibling ‘without issues’ and Christiansen beautifully captures the roller-coaster of emotions Keira goes through as she tries to balance her own hopes and desires against the realities of her brother Levi’s situation. I especially appreciate that she doesn’t depict Kiera as a selfless saint or Levi as a label or a diagnosis, but rather conveys how a whole family struggles and sometimes makes mistakes when one member needs help. The opening to Maybe In Paris was absolutely heart-wrenching but this novel also has many lighthearted and delightful moments. I cheered Levi and Keira on as they sampled the sights and pastry(yes!) in Paris, even as I worried. Maybe in Paris is a beautifully written, thought provoking, compelling, at times heartbreaking and at other times fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read 10% of Maybe in Paris the first day, and read the rest the last day.

There are few mistakes in french like this "bon matin", never, never say it, the french don't use it, they only say '"bonjour", nothing to separate morning or afternoon. Though you may find it in other french-speaking communities like maybe in Canada. But overall the french used in the book is quite good.

It's about a teenager going to Paris with her brother and trying to make it work even if they have a complex and complicate relationship. I found her relatable with all her problems, her doubts, and how reality crush her hopes. Her behavior was understandable. To be honest, I understood a lot more the MC and didn't like much her brother though I get the times when she admires sometimes her brother.

The novel also answers satisfyingly why she likes Marie-Antoinette and there are also self-realizations moments. It was also an interesting visit in Paris. I am not fascinated by the baguettes but I like too the croissants or pains au chocolat. Cakes or yogurt would have be nice too.

I won the book in a giveaway.

I also won't claim for any knowledge about the mental issues.

[Tori M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was like one big, fat reality check for multiple people in the book - mainly Kiera and her mom. I teared up a few times at some of the sensitive parts; Levi being found, Levi’s suicide note, her note back to him, the ending when he rested on her shoulder, the mom hugging Kiera and explaining why she walked away. This book really did tug at my heart strings.

The story was good. As a social worker, I had an issue with the perception of mental illness, 5150s, psychiatrists, and medications to treat DSM diagnoses. I figured I would look past this part because a lot of people remain uninformed about specific things like that, unless they have researched or studied it. Sure, research should’ve been done and language should’ve been severely tweaked.... but going off the story and the emotions I felt while reading - 4/5.

[Melissa McGuire · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adventure to Paris with her brother who recently tried to kill himself and is sick. Sounds like a interesting book right down my alley. At the beginning I couldn't put this book down. Once Keira got to Paris the book got really boring. It was just a lot typical Paris talk that any tourist would do which I do understand that Keira is a tourist but it wasn't necessary to only have that. I skimmed most of the book until the end until it got interesting. I knew something like that would happen because it did not make sense to me to let Levy go to Paris after a suicide attempt. He should have gotten used to his meds first and in the routine of taking them.

[Kurt Stainton · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has first hand experience with mental illness being clinically diagnosed with OCD. I feel that the author did very well capturing the guilt, and shame that often plays on our minds in her character Levi especially for being a debut author.

The pacing was a little different than what I am used to and the character Keira ground my gears in her naivety at times. Nevertheless reading Maybe in Paris still gave me that beautiful melancholy that you get when finishing a good book; where you don't want it to end but are still happy that it did. I am looking forward to seeing how Rebecca Christiansen develops as an author.

[Cay-lamity · Rating 2 out of 5]

T H O U G H T S:

never mind the instalove and ridiculous plot. if your autistic brother has survived a suicide attempt and months in the psych ward, how stupid do you have to be to think that he's "just quirky" and that traipsing around paris without adult supervision is a good idea? very. our protagonist's attitude toward mental health and disabilities is alarming, if not infuriating.

but what if keira's love for her brother overwhelms her ability or willingness to see how crippled he is by is disorder? how long can keira wallow in denial and distraction, pretending the problem isn't as real or as devastating as it really is? if you look at the story from another perspective, it is a bold, unidealized look at how disorders and disabilities affect an entire family - and how difficult and crucial acceptance is.

R A T I N G:

plot // 2
pacing // 3
language // 2
story world // 4
protagonist // 2
antagonist // 2
secondary characters // 2

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautiful in any way.
I love to read books taking place in Paris. Reading this one was like reading my own thoughts. All the enthusiasm Keira has I can understand it all.
What I love about this book is that it combines a 'typical' teen story with some real life problems. It shows the struggle nd coping in day to day life.
I really love the idea the author had and I really love the book.

[maddie kizer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved that this book was different than I expected. I thought it would be very romantic based, but I appreciated it was more focused on sibling relationship, autism, and family dynamics first, romance second. I loved the main character, Keira, and her ability to find wonder and awe in every aspect of Paris, and her struggle to make her brother Levi see the good in life. A cute and quick read!

[Josie]

That someone somewhere thought it was a good idea for a young guy (who just attempted suicide is and is recently diagnosed with other mental health issues) and his young sister to travel alone to Paris asks for a total suspension of belief that I couldn't afford these characters. This was a DNF for me.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet and moving story of a girl who has a simple dream - to visit Paris and to fall in love there - but whose life is anything but simple. This debut is a love letter to Paris, for sure, but more than that, it is also a wonderful tribute so the power of sibling love and commitment too.

[insy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It pains me to give a book a rating lower than 3 but it had to be done.

I'm pretty sure other reviews are much better at expressing how I feel about it, so read that.

2 stars for the descriptions of food and Paris