• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Connect With Me
    • Request An Honest Review
    • Beta Reading Requests
    • Testimonials
  • Review Archive
    • Review Archive
    • Audiobook Review Archive
    • Spooky Children’s Book Review Archive
  • Referral Links
  • Podcast Recs
  • Policies
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter

Erica Robyn Reads

a horror book review blog

[Book Review] The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain

February 11, 2017      Erica Robyn      Leave a Comment

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain book photo

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain was an adorable little romance. If I needed to choose one word to describe it, that word would be “charming.”

I read the book in a couple of hours and I adored every second of it. This book is a great pick for anyone looking for a quick and fun romance.

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 

The book begins with a woman named Laure walking up to her front door late one night. Before she could make it inside, someone attacks her and steals her purse. While still dazed from the attack, she realizes that her head is bleeding, but she doesn’t know how serious her head wound is. Because she cannot get into her apartment, she wanders across the street to stay at a hotel for the night.

The next morning, a man named Laurent is walking to his bookstore when he sees a purse abandoned in a trash bin. He tries to turn the purse into police, but ends up taking it home. When he looks through the purse to try to figure out who the owner is, he stumbles across a red notebook.

As the book continues, we follow storylines for both Laure and Laurent.

I thought Laurent was a wonderful main character! I loved that he was so determined to reunite the mystery woman with her purse. There was only one thing that he did that really irked me, but hey, it added to the drama! I also really liked Laure, and really enjoyed learning more about her at the same time that Laurent did until she awoke from her coma.

The romance was definitely one that I was rooting for and the trope of the mystery woman was absolutely lovely. The ending was excellent. I thought the summarizing method the author used to tie up loose ends was very clever!

The book layout was a bit strange to me. The chapters didn’t have numbers or any kind of indication of which character was the narrator of that section. So you just had to dive in. Though the authors writing was so perfect that you could always tell which character it was very quickly. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the very short chapters, many which I thought could have been combined. But I didn’t feel that these two things took away from the story at all, it was just more of a personal irk.

My Favorite Passages from The Red Notebook

It took only a second for fear to travel through her veins all the way to her heart where it burst into an icy rain.

Laure looked around. The road was empty. The man was clearly not coming back, but it was difficult to control her fear, and it’s hard to distinguish between the irrational and the possible at almost two o’clock in the morning.

How many things do we feel obliged to do for the sake of it, or for appearances, or because we are trained to do them, but which weigh us down and don’t in fact achieve anything?

That sentence was so unexpected and it’s still lingering in my mind, bouncing around inside my head like that ancient video game with two lines either side of the screen and a dot going back and forth between them.

My Final Thoughts on The Red Notebook

I gave this book five stars! I can’t wait to reread it again!


Snag a copy through Bookshop to help support local indie bookshops:

Thanks for reading!
What are your favorite cutesy romance reads?

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hello there!

Erica Robyn of Erica Robyn Reads
I run on hot tea, good books, and loud music. She/Her.
 

Search This Blog

Sign Up For Post Notifications


Loading

Recent Popular Posts

  • [Book Review] Home & Other Stories by P.J. Blakey-Novis
  • [Book Review] Four by P.J. Blakey-Novis
  • [Book Review] Ten Years Gone by H.P. Newquist
  • [Book Review] Corpsing by Kayleigh Marie Edwards
  • [Book Review] The Easton Falls Massacre: Bigfoot’s Revenge

An Easy Guide to Locating Horror Reviews Without Losing Your Mind created by Lori of Barks At The Ghouls
Shirley's Book Blogger List

Categories

ericarobynreads

Sickness Is In Season by Aiden Merchant has everyt Sickness Is In Season by Aiden Merchant has everything a horror fan craves! From light and spooky, to full-blown spine-chilling terror, this collection of short stories is a killer mix.

No matter what your personal favorite sub-genre of horror is, you’ll be sure to find something that sinks its teeth into you within this collection!

#supporthorror #promotehorror #sicknessisinseason #aidenmerchant #crossroadspresss #horrorbookrecs #horrorshortstories #horrorbookstagram
My April book haul 😍🖤🙌 My April book haul 😍🖤🙌
NH friends! Don’t miss the book event with @greg NH friends! Don’t miss the book event with @gregorybastianelli.author tonight in Exeter at @waterstreetbooks! 

I’m SO peeved my back pain flared up and I can’t drive out… but I am so excited that Waterstreet Books sent a signed copy my way! 😍

I can’t wait to see photos from the event!!
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling is a totally The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling is a totally captivating but nerve-wracking tale that is certainly not for those that fear tight spaces… While reading this tale, I felt so horribly claustrophobic. But I couldn’t stop. I had to find out what happened next!

#supporthorror #promotehorror #ladiesofhorrorfiction #horrorbookstagram #horrorbookrecs #theluminousdead #caitlinstarling
The Workshop of Filthy Creation by Richard Gadz is The Workshop of Filthy Creation by Richard Gadz is a chilling gothic horror story about what it means to be human. In these pages, you will see plenty of the darkness that humanity can create, but you will also see the light!

Ready to dive into a dark and dreary tale about gruesome medical practices set in Victorian London? Go pick up The Workshop of Filthy Creation today! I can’t wait for you all to meet Maria!

#supporthorror #promotehorror #gothichorrorreads #horrorbookrecs #theworkshopoffilthycreation #richardgadz #horrorbookstagram
Max is one of the most hilarious people that I fol Max is one of the most hilarious people that I follow on Twitter! I originally learned who he was after seeing him participate in the KillerCon 2020 Virtual Event. I went to follow him and his publishing house, Perpetual Motion Machine (that he runs with Lori Michelle), immediately after his reading.

Within the PMM publishing house, they also have the imprint, Ghoulish Books, which launched in January of 2022. Max’s latest book, Maggots Screaming!, launched today April 12th, 2022 from that imprint. In celebration, I’m so excited to be sharing this interview with Max!

Check out the full interview on my blog today! 

#horrorauthor #horrorauthorinterview #maxboothiii #supporthorror #promotehorror
Diaries of the Damned by Ivan Radev is a collectio Diaries of the Damned by Ivan Radev is a collection of tales that span numerous dark fears. But as always, even in the darkness, there’s a bit of light.

In the foreword, the author warns that this is a book of fears, and boy does he play on fears wonderfully! Each tale is presented to readers in the first person to really get readers in the characters shoes. Please use caution here when you dive in. The author does not shy away from the darkness.

Phew, this read will take readers on quite the journey! It was the perfect read for a dark and rainy spring weekend.

#bookreview #horrorbookreview #horrorbookstagram #diariesofthedamned #IvanRadev #horrorbooks
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 Erica Robyn Reads