Summer Reading: To Capture What We Cannot Keep

The next selection on my summer reading list was To Capture What We Cannot Keep by Beatrice Colin. This is the type of book that I keep reading hoping that it will get better. It didn't. Caitriona Wallace is a recently widowed Scottish woman with limited financial means. She accepts a position as a chaperon to siblings Jamie and Alice Arrol on a European tour. While in Paris, she has a chance encounter with Emile Nouguier, an engineer working on the construction of the Eiffel Tower. She is dazzled by him but soon must return to Scotland with her charges. In despair she is about to enter a marriage of convenience with a wealthy man she does not love when she is suddenly given the opportunity to return to Paris as chaperon to the Arrols once again as Jamie, an aspiring engineer, has been given an internship to work on the Eiffel Tower. She is soon reunited with Emile and they embark on a forbidden romance. Gag! The pace of the narrative is so slow! It takes forever for Caitriona and Emile to get together!  When they finally do get together I didn't really buy into the conflict because the reasons why they can’t be together are preposterous.  I didn't understand Emile's hesitation. He comes from a wealthy family and worries about his mother's reaction but he has defied her at every turn, refusing to work in the family business to pursue building the tower. Why does her opinion suddenly matter? I also didn't understand the shocked reaction from his contemporaries because every other character's behavior is very Bohemian. Why the sudden judgement? Apparently Caitriona is too respectable for Emile to dally with (his fellow artists have no problem with his on-again off-again relationship with an opium addicted prostitute) but not respectable enough for his mother. Then she decides to break it off with him, despite the fact that he now realizes that he loves her, because she suddenly has a big secret (which has not been referenced before) and must leave him for his own good without telling him the reason. To me this is such lazy storytelling and it is the reason why I don't really like romantic comedies. If characters would only talk about their issues all of this heartbreak could be avoided but then again there wouldn't be any conflict. It is so contrived! Another weakness is that the narrative spends a great deal of time on the antics of Jamie and Alice Arrol and I found them to be incredibly unsympathetic. The two of them make one bad decision after another but there are no consequences for their behavior. Every issue is resolved rather conveniently, especially a subplot involving Alice (I think I rolled my eyes at this explanation). Finally, I was baffled by the epilogue. Years later, when Emile finds Caitriona again, they have this special moment but nothing is actually resolved. I suppose we are meant to think that they live happily ever after because they embrace dramatically. Ugh! I did really enjoy the details surrounding the building of the Eiffel Tower but these were not enough to overcome the uninspired story. Does anyone want my copy?

Note:  Have you read To Capture What We Cannot Keep?  What was your reaction?  I am definitely in the minority on this one.