This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Zarina de Ruiter
The small commune of Fogas in the French Pyrenees is a source of unexpected romance, rebellious children, buried secrets and most of all plenty of drama. From the villagers' own escapades to local politicians putting the small town at risk as a proposed merger with a neighbouring village could lead to Fogas being absorbed completely and losing its own identity.
I've been putting off writing this review, which is never a good sign. As soon as I opened the pages I realised this novel was part of a larger series, none of which I had read prior to this one. It didn't necessarily follow one particular storyline explored in a previous instalment, but I did feel that I was missing important background information from the characters, which for the first few chapters made it hard to differentiate between the wealth of people mentioned and understand all their underlying connections and relationships.
Furthermore, because there were so many characters, there wasn't one protagonist the story focused on – unless we count Fogas itself – which not only made it a struggle to keep them all apart, but it also didn't provide much space for characterisation and relatability. This made it near impossible to sympathise with what the characters were going through and this lack of connection I felt led to me almost not finishing the novel. After all, if I don't care what they get up to next or how the story ends, what it the incentive for me to keep reading until the final page?
While the descriptive writing made this also quite a slow novel to digest, it did create an excellent sense of place. I really felt myself being transported to the French Pyrenees and despite having never had a particular desire to visit, author Julia Stagg made the village sound so charming that I instantly wanted to pack my bags and travel down to a picturesque little town in the French mountains and perhaps even get the opportunity to witness an authentic fête.
If you're already familiar with Julia Stagg's The Fogas Chronicles and would like to know more about the villagers and their lives, then A Fête to Remember will no doubt be right up your alley. But if Fogas is as of yet unfamiliar territory then perhaps the fourth novel in the series isn't the best place to start reading about the rural French town.4/10