Blanche Amour is the sequel to YA romance novel Once a Year by indie author Charlotte Rose.

Right, first things first, I know this author personally - she’s a family member. So, feel free to take what I say with a pinch of salt or disregard entirely if you feel it’s inappropriate of me to review it. At the same time, I really want to support what this author is doing and get some more eyes on her work - plus my brain won’t allow me to not review every book I read anymore. I will be giving an honest review, however, and after having read Blanche Amour, I’m pretty confident that I would come to the same conclusions about it even if I didn’t know Charlotte, simply based on the type of reader I am. So let’s get into it.

Blurb

Every chalet girl has her own story. And this girl’s story is a wild one not to be missed. Delphine, young but by no means naive, escapes to the Alpine mountains in France to leave her shattered heart behind. On an adventure to overcome the heartbreak of her past, the last thing Delphine expects is to stumble upon an unlikely romantic possibility. In between skiing, partying, and baking a lot of cakes, she soon realises that this is not the start of something new she had in mind. She didn’t expect to be tested to her limits. She didn’t expect the mountains to be so dangerous. She definitely didn’t expect to be putting her heart in such a precarious position again. And skiing isn’t the only potential danger of the mountains. There’s a girl out to destroy Delphine, but will she succeed in ruining everything Delphine cares about? White love, one that was always there, but a little out of sight. Like a white rose in the snow, beautiful but hidden, the question is, will Delphine ever be forgiven?

Review

Just like Once a Year, when I picked up this book to start reading, I felt myself get sucked right in and I binged it in a couple of days. It’s not a particularly long book, at least not compared to some of the books I’ve been reading lately, but it felt like I was flying through it because it’s such a fun read. I can see how well the author has grown as a writer compared to Once A Year, which, while good had some pacing issues. By contrast, the pacing, plot and characters in Blanche Amour are all excellent. There’s never a moment in the book where it dragged or I felt bored. The cast of characters are vibrant and fun, and a lot of attention has been paid to developing them further - both the new ones and the returning cast. The plot is uplifting and fun, but also tackles deeper issues to do with mental health and abuse - and I liked how they were handled in the context of a feel-good book: full of acceptance and affirmation, but also pacing these moments well throughout the story. In the previous book there were a couple of moments I felt were a bit melodramatic in a “Mamma Mia” sort of way, but Blanche Amour remains a lot more grounded with just the right amount of drama while remaining believable. Delphine’s growth in particular is handled very well: she starts off deeply affected by the aftermath of the previous book, and the book doesn’t erase them. They stay with her, but she’s able to move on.

In terms of style the book is written in first-person present-tense, a creative decision which I questioned at first, since Once a Year is written in past-tense. But I quickly vibed with it and, honestly, it works better this way. I’m not someone who really goes for present-tense reading - I often find it difficult to get into that style - but actually Blanche Amour is an example of present-tense done very well, at least for me. The book is also listed as for young-adult audiences, which is fine. There is a non-zero amount of profanity and sex references throughout the novel. Does that impact its status as YA? I have no idea, I’m not a YA aficionado, but I do know that most of the teenagers I have known in real life swear like sailors, so it seems perfectly reasonable to me to have it in a book about that age group. So on that, your mileage may vary, but I was fine with it.

Some time ago, I tweeted about the type of reader I realised I had become. I am perfectly happy to forgive a lot of technical deficiencies as long as I’m enjoying a book - things like engaging characters, great pacing and an enjoyable plot are far more important to me as a reader (as a writer, that all goes out of the window for my own work and I’m incredibly self-critical). It’s only when I’m not thoroughly enjoying a book that the technical issues become a distraction. For example, my review of Consider Phlebas is pretty harsh, and while I did enjoy my time with Dune, the slower pace and general dourness allowed things like typos and typesetting problems to stand out like a sore thumb.

How does this relate to Blanche Amour? Well, there are technical deficiencies in the book and it would undoubtedly benefit from a polish - a copy-edit in particular would go a long way. At the same time, more attention needs to be paid to typesetting. But how much did that impact my enjoyment of the story? With the exception of one particular typesetting error that had a couple of half-blank pages, the issues barely registered for me. The book was so enjoyable that I didn’t care about the odd typo or substitution.

Overall I had a really great time with this book. It was a cracking story, and I will absolutely be reading Charlotte Rose’s next one.