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I See London, I See France
(I See London, I See France #1)
by
I see London, I see France, I see Sydney’s underpants.
Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and half weeks traveling through Europe with her childhood best friend, Leela. Their plans include Eiffel-Tower selfies, eating cocco gelato, and making out with très hot strangers. Her plans do not include Leela’s cheating ex-boyfr ...more
Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and half weeks traveling through Europe with her childhood best friend, Leela. Their plans include Eiffel-Tower selfies, eating cocco gelato, and making out with très hot strangers. Her plans do not include Leela’s cheating ex-boyfr ...more
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Hardcover, 378 pages
Published
July 11th 2017
by HarperTeen
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Tiffany
This does not seem to be a young adult book at all, its more like a poorly written New Adult book.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of I See London, I See France (I See London, I See France, #1)

This was a really cute summer contemporary! It was also definitely one of the better YA travel novels I've read. I felt like I was back on my own backpacking trip in Europe that I took earlier this year, so the nostalgia definitely helped me enjoy it more, especially since I've been to all but one of the places they went to! I do have quite a few thoughts to share so I will do a video review as soon as I'm caught up with them (I have a ton to do still)
...more

DNF @ 35%
i really,,,,wow this book was awful. and i couldnt even make it through amsterdam.
IM REALLY SAD BECAUSE I THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE CUTE WHY
i could supply you with a list of reasons why this book didn't do it for me, but i dont have the energy for that.
just know that resting on the top of that list is when the main character's best friend's ex CHEATED on her all it took was this explanation:
"“It was just a stupid kiss. It didn’t mean anything. I was freaked out. We’re only nineteen ...more
i really,,,,wow this book was awful. and i couldnt even make it through amsterdam.
IM REALLY SAD BECAUSE I THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE CUTE WHY
i could supply you with a list of reasons why this book didn't do it for me, but i dont have the energy for that.
just know that resting on the top of that list is when the main character's best friend's ex CHEATED on her all it took was this explanation:
"“It was just a stupid kiss. It didn’t mean anything. I was freaked out. We’re only nineteen ...more

1.5 stars?
I don't know what to say about this book. I feel like what I read was not the same book from the synopsis.
Sydney was a decent enough MC. I struggled with {okay, straight up hated} her BFF Leela. Their dynamic was toxic and though I could get over a bit of lingering resentment, I got tired of reading Leela do whatever she wanted and Sydney just taking it.
The travel portion of the book was good. I did feel like I had actually gone on parts of this trip. It definitely didn't read like a ...more
I don't know what to say about this book. I feel like what I read was not the same book from the synopsis.
Sydney was a decent enough MC. I struggled with {okay, straight up hated} her BFF Leela. Their dynamic was toxic and though I could get over a bit of lingering resentment, I got tired of reading Leela do whatever she wanted and Sydney just taking it.
The travel portion of the book was good. I did feel like I had actually gone on parts of this trip. It definitely didn't read like a ...more

Jul 22, 2020
Olivia (Stories For Coffee)
added it
I’m not sure how to feel about this. While the premise was fun because I’m a sucker for a travel novel, this book was incredibly frustrating because the friendship between Sydney and Leela was so toxic and exhausting in the way they hardly communicated, the way Leela walked all over Sydney and manipulated her. Their friendship ruined the book for me, and I feel like the book could have been heavily edited down. Idk. Just a forgettable contemporary, for me.

One of the best ways to travel, as a mother of three children, who cannot take a month off from life to backpack around Europe is to read books! I love picking up books set in Europe because it is one of my greatest dreams to travel the continent someday and soak in the rich history and beautiful sights. Unfortunately, in it not in the cards...or the budget during this phase of my life. When I saw I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski was published this summer, I was quick to add it to m
...more

1.5 STARS ✨
Listened to this on Audible & it was my first time listening to an audiobook! Kinda wish I'd picked a book I actually liked, but oh well 🤷🏼♀️
I didn't think the characters were likable or relatable, at least not to me. They were actually incredibly annoying & immature.
I saw in one review that they thought the mental illness aspect of this book "felt like an afterthought", and I couldn't agree more.
Even the traveling bits were subpar. Just not a good book, with ABSOLUTELY no plot ex ...more
Listened to this on Audible & it was my first time listening to an audiobook! Kinda wish I'd picked a book I actually liked, but oh well 🤷🏼♀️
I didn't think the characters were likable or relatable, at least not to me. They were actually incredibly annoying & immature.
I saw in one review that they thought the mental illness aspect of this book "felt like an afterthought", and I couldn't agree more.
Even the traveling bits were subpar. Just not a good book, with ABSOLUTELY no plot ex ...more

It's a rare book that makes me laugh out loud, and Sarah has definitely achieved that here. This was a delightful book and I'm so excited to see more are coming.
...more

Yeah this book is not what I imagined it to be.
I was hoping for a cute, fluffy story but what I got was a teenager who can’t stand up for herself and a best friend who is hella annoying.
Sydney is the girl who handles everything. She takes care of her mom back mom, which I really liked. But she still worries every 2 seconds while she’s on vacation. I get it its her mom but she had to trust her sister to take care of her while Sydney is away. She also can’t stand up for herself. She practically pl ...more
I was hoping for a cute, fluffy story but what I got was a teenager who can’t stand up for herself and a best friend who is hella annoying.
Sydney is the girl who handles everything. She takes care of her mom back mom, which I really liked. But she still worries every 2 seconds while she’s on vacation. I get it its her mom but she had to trust her sister to take care of her while Sydney is away. She also can’t stand up for herself. She practically pl ...more

Meh. Too juvenile for me..but it did get a little teensy bit better at the end. I love all the food and sightseeing references.

Jul 13, 2017
Tiff at Mostly YA Lit
rated it
did not like it
Shelves:
contemps,
ya,
romance,
pub-harper-collins,
pub-harper-teen,
new-adult,
friendship,
travel-or-road-trip
Review originally posted on Mostly YA Lit:
Review: I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski
Yikes. I would have DNFd this book at 30% had it not been for a mutual silent agreement with my pal Michele of Just a Lil Lost that we were going to power through together. I really, really hoped that it would get better, that the mental health representation would go deeper and be a little stronger, or that I would like the characters and the premise more. But nope.
Sydney has just finished her first ...more
Review: I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski
Yikes. I would have DNFd this book at 30% had it not been for a mutual silent agreement with my pal Michele of Just a Lil Lost that we were going to power through together. I really, really hoped that it would get better, that the mental health representation would go deeper and be a little stronger, or that I would like the characters and the premise more. But nope.
Sydney has just finished her first ...more

May 26, 2017
Jennifer
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
edelweiss,
coyer-summer-2017-read
3.5/5 stars
I See London, I See France is the first book in a new series. I believe that the next book will have different narrators, but be set in the same world (there was a small sneak peek at the end of this story which leads me to believe this).
The book is being touted as Young Adult. But I'm not completely sure what I think about that. The main characters are all 19 and have completed one year of university. There are sex and drugs in this story. However, these scenes are not graphic (which ...more
I See London, I See France is the first book in a new series. I believe that the next book will have different narrators, but be set in the same world (there was a small sneak peek at the end of this story which leads me to believe this).
The book is being touted as Young Adult. But I'm not completely sure what I think about that. The main characters are all 19 and have completed one year of university. There are sex and drugs in this story. However, these scenes are not graphic (which ...more

I'll keep this short like my attention towards this book.
What's Good?
*Little, though shallow and saccharine, tidbits about each city they visited (I've visited several and, to tell the truth, it's the reason why I finished this book).
*Short chapters.
What's Bad?
*Bland characters. I forgot Sydney's (the protagonist) name throughout the book because she bored me to no end (Her family drama, sadly, added nothing). Leela was a manipulative snot to the point of being an antagonist. Kat was o ...more
What's Good?
*Little, though shallow and saccharine, tidbits about each city they visited (I've visited several and, to tell the truth, it's the reason why I finished this book).
*Short chapters.
What's Bad?
*Bland characters. I forgot Sydney's (the protagonist) name throughout the book because she bored me to no end (Her family drama, sadly, added nothing). Leela was a manipulative snot to the point of being an antagonist. Kat was o ...more

Jul 13, 2018
Yusra ✨
marked it as to-read
what's funny is that if england won the semi-final... this book would have predicted the world cup final????
...more
...more

E ARC from Edelweiss Above the Treeline
WARNING! THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL!!!
NONONONONONONO!
I love this author, I love books about traveling around Europe, but Sydney and her friend Leela travel around, smoke pot and see a sex show in Amsterdam, get drunk, and have sex. It made ME wildly uncomfortable. This isn't even for high school students, in my opinion. Definitely that New Adult category. Although not as much cursing. While I wish my own travels around Europe had included hot guy, t ...more
WARNING! THIS IS NOT A BOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL!!!
NONONONONONONO!
I love this author, I love books about traveling around Europe, but Sydney and her friend Leela travel around, smoke pot and see a sex show in Amsterdam, get drunk, and have sex. It made ME wildly uncomfortable. This isn't even for high school students, in my opinion. Definitely that New Adult category. Although not as much cursing. While I wish my own travels around Europe had included hot guy, t ...more

Update 24/05/2020: I filmed a video in which I reread this book and read 4 other YA travel novels just like this one if you'd like to check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzrX5dHnvA
------------------------------------------------------
FIRST READ: DECEMBER 2017
This book gave me such a bad case of wanderlust! I've just returned from my semester abroad in Europe, and now I REALLY want to go back so I can explore it some more!
I loved how "real" this story felt. I felt like this story cou ...more
------------------------------------------------------
FIRST READ: DECEMBER 2017
This book gave me such a bad case of wanderlust! I've just returned from my semester abroad in Europe, and now I REALLY want to go back so I can explore it some more!
I loved how "real" this story felt. I felt like this story cou ...more

This was such a great story about backpacking, and I definitely liked the plot. It was fun to read about travelling through Europe when you live in Europe yourself. The things that I didn't really like were the clichés, and Leela's behaviour. Leela was so egocentric sometimes, it was just so annoying at some points.
...more

Review to come!

If you're like me and all you want to do is travel the world and you have this epic dose of Wanderlust, this book will be a perfect read for you!
Backpacking Europe is on a to-do list of - I'm pretty sure - 99% of the people. I mean who doesn't want to spend a summer in Europe?! I am lucky enough to live in Europe so I travel all around, all the time (See my Instagram), but Sydney and Leela only have one summer to do it. To spend a month traveling around Europe, where they visit some of the mos ...more
Backpacking Europe is on a to-do list of - I'm pretty sure - 99% of the people. I mean who doesn't want to spend a summer in Europe?! I am lucky enough to live in Europe so I travel all around, all the time (See my Instagram), but Sydney and Leela only have one summer to do it. To spend a month traveling around Europe, where they visit some of the mos ...more

Jun 28, 2017
Stacey (prettybooks)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-in-my-twenties,
young-adult-fiction
Yesssss. I am loving all the summery travel stories that 2017 has thrown at us. I went from accepting that I'll never get to go on holiday to constantly thinking about my next trip, even taking my first solo holiday this year. In The Girl's Guide to Summer (titled I See London, I See France in the US), 19-year-old best friends Sydney and Leela are off on a once-in-a-lifetime European adventure, visiting England, France, Italy, Switzerland, just to name a few.
I live in Europe, but I've never been ...more
I live in Europe, but I've never been ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

Nov 14, 2017
Starry-Eyed Jen
rated it
liked it
Shelves:
2017,
audiobooks,
contemporary,
library,
summer,
post-hs-ya-new-adult,
feel-goods,
road-trip
If you like a book with a definitive happily ever after, this is not the book for you. Most of the time, I'm okay with that, but considering Sydney's trip and the implications of her summer romance, I need some sort of closure. More than a few words in a text, at any rate. Beyond that, this book was fun. I've always wanted to backpack across Europe, and though I could have used way more description, it kind of felt like I was on said trip. And some of Syd's travel tips just might come in handy i
...more

Catfairy’s First Thoughts
Sarah Mlynowski is an author I have heard about through the Whatever After children’s series and when I found out she was writing a book about two best friends that go on an insane European adventure I just had to pick it up!
One of the first things I love about this book is the title of the book and the cover! The overall representation of the book just sucked me into my own little book vortex and I just had to gobble it up asap! The writing of this book is light and flu ...more
Sarah Mlynowski is an author I have heard about through the Whatever After children’s series and when I found out she was writing a book about two best friends that go on an insane European adventure I just had to pick it up!
One of the first things I love about this book is the title of the book and the cover! The overall representation of the book just sucked me into my own little book vortex and I just had to gobble it up asap! The writing of this book is light and flu ...more

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH
This review is also on my blog https://princessofbookaholics.wordpre...
About: Sydney is spending the summer traveling around Europe with her best friend Leela. They have everything planned out but their plans detour a little as they meet Leela’s ex and his friend and all goes haywire. The places they see and the things they do are all described in this book.
Characters: The book is told by Sydney’s POV. I love Leela though she’s a bit disregardful of Sydney sometimes. Syd ...more
This review is also on my blog https://princessofbookaholics.wordpre...
About: Sydney is spending the summer traveling around Europe with her best friend Leela. They have everything planned out but their plans detour a little as they meet Leela’s ex and his friend and all goes haywire. The places they see and the things they do are all described in this book.
Characters: The book is told by Sydney’s POV. I love Leela though she’s a bit disregardful of Sydney sometimes. Syd ...more

DNF 60%
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Okay my heart hurts on how much I dislike this book I tried to stick it out but I just can’t. I want to start with a major issue that I found and work my way down. I really wanted to like this, since I’ve read and loved maybe fifteen books from this author.
So the major issue I had with this book was that it made around three seperate terrorist jokes (keep in mind this was published in 2017) one example:
*they are in Paris this girl is interning from NYC*
“Your not nervous?” ...more
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Okay my heart hurts on how much I dislike this book I tried to stick it out but I just can’t. I want to start with a major issue that I found and work my way down. I really wanted to like this, since I’ve read and loved maybe fifteen books from this author.
So the major issue I had with this book was that it made around three seperate terrorist jokes (keep in mind this was published in 2017) one example:
*they are in Paris this girl is interning from NYC*
“Your not nervous?” ...more

Im freeee!!! I did it i finished this book i really was gnna give up lol but i did it! There was so much about this book i didnt like. First of hated Leela so whinny and wanted to babyed and wanted everything to change just cause she said so. Hated Matt the douchiest of exs. Annoyed as hell by Sydney i did not feel at all bad for her like seriously. The only one I actually found tolerable and didnt wanna rip out my hair was Kat. Also the romance with Sydney and Jackson was not even insta love it
...more

If Anna and the French Kiss and Just One Day had a baby, it would look a lot like this book. But with less angst and more laughs.
Sydney is nineteen, has just finished her first year of college, and is traveling through Europe on a last-minute trip with her childhood BFF Leela. She struggles to balance her need for a break from life and worrying about her mother and sister back home. Leela is no walk in the park either. Seriously, girlfriend is a Drama Queen with a capital D. Even fictional me w ...more
Sydney is nineteen, has just finished her first year of college, and is traveling through Europe on a last-minute trip with her childhood BFF Leela. She struggles to balance her need for a break from life and worrying about her mother and sister back home. Leela is no walk in the park either. Seriously, girlfriend is a Drama Queen with a capital D. Even fictional me w ...more

Contemporaries usually aren't my cup of tea but I decided to pick this one up because the plot sounded too fun to pass up. And the plot was probably my favorite thing about the entire novel. Basically it boils down to this: Sydney has been best friends with Leela her whole life, but now they're in colleges in two different countries and never see each other anymore. So for the summer they decide to go on a backpacking trip through Europe in order to rekindle their friendship. Unfortunately for L
...more

Ok. So it's that time of my life where I kind of realized that I'm tired of making myself finish books that simply don't deserve it. I stuck it through until they came to Amsterdam, okay? page 137. i really tried. first of all, let's start with the fact that this is one of THE whitest shit i have read lately.
she goes to london, and like, a man talks to them, and he has a british accent, and our brilliant main character goes "oh my god, i wonder if he knows mary poppins"?? what? what does that me ...more
she goes to london, and like, a man talks to them, and he has a british accent, and our brilliant main character goes "oh my god, i wonder if he knows mary poppins"?? what? what does that me ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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What's the Name o...: SOLVED. YA Travel book about a girl and her BFF in Europe. [s] | 3 | 18 | Dec 03, 2020 05:05PM | |
Hume-Fogg Readers: I See London, I See France | 1 | 3 | May 02, 2018 07:29PM | |
HopelessBookAddicts: I See London... | 2 | 13 | Aug 30, 2017 03:14PM | |
Goodreads Librari...: Please edit page number | 3 | 16 | Jul 14, 2017 01:04AM |
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Sarah was born in Montreal, Canada. After graduating with an honors degree in English literature from McGill University, she moved to Toronto to work for Harlequin Enterprises. While she never met Fabio, she used her romance publishing experiences to fuel her first novel Milkrun.
Since then, Sarah has written four additional novels for adults: Fishbowl, As Seen on TV, Monkey Business, and Me vs. ...more
Since then, Sarah has written four additional novels for adults: Fishbowl, As Seen on TV, Monkey Business, and Me vs. ...more
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“A friendship can't survive on childhood memories alone. We have to create new experiences, or the friendship will shrivel up.”
—
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“What house do you belong to?” “Ravenclaw,” I say. The clever one. The woman hands me the blue Ravenclaw scarf. “You’re also kind of a Hufflepuff, don’t you think?” Leela asks. “Hardworking, loyal . . . Although last night you were a total Gryffindor. So brave.” “Maybe I’m Divergent,” I say. I pose under the Platform 9¾ sign, point my wand, and smile for Leela’s photo.”
—
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