Book review of The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

🥖🥐🥖🥐 Grab your passport for the first in the European Escapes series 🥐🥖🥐🥖

No home. No job. No boyfriend.

When Lia loses her job straight after a break-up, she escapes to the Molins’ family-run boulangerie in Toulouse – the place she was last happy, far away from her cheating ex.

Sworn off men, she isn’t prepared for the spark she feels for charming cheesemaker Jean-Luc, nor for things heating up at the family’s country home in Gascony when handsome, self-assured vineyard-owner Théo asks her out.

Torn between the two and her connections to the Molins family, Lia has some tough decisions to make.

Lia loves being back in France with the people she cares about, helping in the boulangerie. On discovering it is under threat of closure, she is devastated and resolves to do everything in her power to help it stay open.

Will she succeed? And will she be able to choose between the two handsome Frenchmen and live her happily ever after?

For fans of Gillian Harvey, Rebecca Raisin, Jo Thomas and Veronica Henry.

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

My review

This book cleverly illustrated the good and the not so good in the life of a family run boulangerie in France, plus a whole lot more that kept me turning the pages, wonderfully absorbed in Lia’s adventures in France. 

Following a tough time, Lia takes the dramatic decision to return to the boulangerie in France, where she had spent a short but happy part of her youth. She is warmly welcomed by her former host family, and with the maturity that comes with age, now sees their lives in a different light. In some ways, everything is just as she remembered: the bedroom, the scent of freshly baked bread (that I am sure I could also smell), and the love of the family. She now also appreciates the important role the boulangerie has in the neighbourhood and the difficulties for the family as they juggle the unsociable hours and long days with family life.

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

As the pressure mounts for the Molins family, Lia wants to do all she can to help them out. Learning who to trust when you are new to an area is never easy, but I certainly enjoyed meeting the local characters alongside Lia as she took her first steps helping in the shop. I am a great believer in always saying yes to new opportunities, especially if they take you out of your comfort zone and Lia did just this, which gave us an exciting and entertaining read, full of French promise.

The comfort of the baked goods, the love of the family, plus the simmering heat of romance and the spark of an idea that could change her life forever, all set with the beautiful city of Toulouse as a backdrop - I couldn’t have asked for anything more from this book. 

Purchase links

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Amazon link 

Ebook – all digital retailers  

 

Susan Buchanan

Author Bio  

Susan Buchanan writes contemporary romance, women’s fiction and romantic comedies, usually featuring travel, food, family, friendship, community – also Christmas!

Her books are Sign of the Times, The Dating Game, The Christmas Spirit, Return of the Christmas Spirit, A Little Christmas Spirit, A Taste of Christmas Spirit and Just One Day – Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, The Leap Year Proposal, You Can’t Hurry Love and The Boulangerie on the Corner.

As a freelance developmental editor, copyeditor and proofreader, if she’s not reading, editing or writing, she’s thinking about it.  

She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors. 

She lives near Glasgow with her husband, two children and a crazy Labrador. 

When she’s not editing, writing, reading or caring for her two delightful cherubs, she likes going to the theatre, playing board games, watching quiz shows and eating out, and she has a penchant for writing retreats.

Social Media Links  

Facebook 

Twitter 

Instagram 

Threads @authorsusanbuchanan

Website 

The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

Giveaway to Win a signed and dedicated paperback of The Boulangerie on the Corner (Open to UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Gleam box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Win a signed and dedicated paperback of The Boulangerie on the Corner (Open to UK Only)

Book review of The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Vérant

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Vérant

My review today is for The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Vérant.

 

This book starts on a high. The buzz of excitement and anticipation in the kitchen of a prestigious New York restaurant can be felt as the chefs await an important phone call. Then wham! In an instant it’s all taken away and Sophie sees her dream of being a Michelin recognised chef disintegrate around her. As her name is ruined, I felt the dull ache of pain in my chest at the injustice of what had happened to her. Sophie spirals into despair as she loses her way, both in life and in the kitchen, and the risk of turning into a broken woman, like her mother, suddenly seems very real. 

 

A little bit of French magic can help to heal even the most broken of hearts and that is just what is offered to Sophie. Although it has been many years since she spent any time in France with her Grand-mere Odette, a telephone call to say Odette is not well, is enough for Sophie to pack her bags in New York and fly into Toulouse to be with her. She may have pushed her happy memories of summers in France to the back of her mind, since her mum died, but being back in the chateau and seeing familiar faces brings them alive once more, and she begins to realise what she has sacrificed to follow her dream. 

 

In order to move forward, Sophie needs to understand more about the past and together with Odette, they slowly work through things that have been too difficult to voice for many years. Not everyone is happy with her sudden arrival, and it will take time and work to regain her confidence and prove her place in the chateau. With support from a few special people and the strength she has from Odette and her notebooks, Sophie tries her best to rebuild her life and her dreams. 

 

There was a lot to keep me entertained in this book, including a great fun and sometimes quirky cast of characters. Sophie came to life through the emotionally charged moments, from the despair at the beginning to the understanding and acceptance that came with the family secrets revealing the missing pieces of her life. I found it easy to visualise the chateau, the markets and the streets of Toulouse, as well as the smells of the kitchen and the produce from the garden and vineyards, and as an added bonus there are recipes included for some of Sophie’s favourite dishes. The more I read, the more I was filled with hope that she would find herself and her home. 

 

If you enjoy novels with strong characters, a sense of place and a little bit of French magic, you will love this one. 

The great news is that the second book in this series, Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars will be released in October this year. Links to Amazon can be found below.

 

Samantha Vérant has also published two memoirs about her extraordinary love affair with France and her Frenchman, and the kindle version of How to Make a French Family is currently reduced on Amazon.

 

Read my reviews here:

Seven Letters from Paris

How to Make a French Family

 

Read Samantha’s France et Moi interview here 

Book review of What have we got Toulouse? by Nikki McArthur

What have we got Toulouse? Nikki McArthur

What have we got Toulouse by Nikki McArthur

 

It seems to have been a while since I read a moving to France memoir, but it was good to be back nosing into someone else’s life and enjoying someone else’s experience of their early days in France.

 

Nikki and her family arrived just after we did in 2004, so many of her experiences were familiar to me, except the biggies of giving birth here and having (lots of) young children to cope with alongside settling in and renovating. Theirs really is quite an extraordinary story. Their family is bigger than most of us who pack up our belongings and move here. The watermill they purchased is a considerably bigger property than your average rural dwelling and they took on the challenge of renovating and running holiday accommodation alongside a gardening business and nursery, that in the early days often saw Nikki alone with the children while husband Gary worked in the UK. Chapeau Nikki, and you had time to write a book too, I’m most impressed.

 

This book is an account of their first years in France, including house-hunting, moving, finding schools, the medical system and more, but it isn’t written chronologically, and I thought the flow between the topics she covers worked really well. As well as their experiences of family life in France Nikki has also included helpful hints as to what to do or what to expect if you are planning a move here in the future. 

 

This very readable account will appeal to all those who dream of moving to France as well as being a useful guide for those who are hoping to make that dream a reality.

Book review of the French Summer Novel series by Laurette Long

Biarritz, Pays Basque

For my latest installment of all things Basque, let me introduce you to the French Summer Novel series of books by Laurette Long.

Bairritz Passion by Laurette Long

Biarritz Passion

In the first book in this fabulous trilogy, Biarritz Passion, as well as sisters Caroline and Annabel, we meet an extended family who reunite every summer in the holiday home originally owned by their grandparents, the Villa Julia in Biarritz. It is a place where four cousins, living different lives in different countries all come together for a close-knit family summer in the Pays Basque. In this first book, (read my full review here) what stood out for me most was the emotions that ran throughout the novel and the sense of place; it really does open up the magic of the Pays Basque to the reader.

 

Hot Basque by Laurette Long

Hot Basque

Book two in the series, Hot Basque, is set during the following summer and adds to our character list when Caroline’s friend Jill joins them at the Villa and spends most of her holiday touring with Edward’s friend Antoine, learning about the area, the people (and love) and taking us along for the sightseeing ride. It is another book with fire and passion aplenty. There is more emotional blackmail from Caroline’s sister Annabel, and more drama and hurt for Caroline, but this year she is not alone. She has Edward, and with his love and his family tightly packed around her, Annabel’s shocking behavior is easier for her to cope with. Caroline has become one of them now, and Villa Julia has become a place that is very special to her too. 

 

Biarritz-Villa Julia by Laurette Long

Biarritz-Villa Julia

Villa Julia, the third and final book in the series takes place later in the same year as book two, when the family gather for a late summer celebration for the 60^th birthdays of twins Julie and Anouk, mainly organised by Caroline and Edward from their flat in Toulouse (another great French location we get to discover more about). In this book it is Edward’s cousin Claudie and her new man Pete who get a good slice of the action. Pete is a top London chef, in charge of the birthday cake, and accompanied on his first visit to the Villa by his mother, the formidable Hibiscus, or Hibby for short. Things between Claudie and Hibby get off to an hilariously bad start and it would be true to say Claudie’s Basque spirit meets its match in Hibby.

Once the birthday party is done, it’s full swing into preparing for Caroline and Edward’s spring wedding, keeping tabs on Annabel and following the developments of Jill and Antoine as their life takes on a new and unexpected direction. 

Like in the previous books there is no shortage of drama and short-fuses in this final novel and the fire and passion I fell in love with in book one is still burning brightly here. I was sad to get to the end and realise there will be no more, but it was great being back and I was left with a nice feeling of contentment at seeing each couple’s stories through to a conclusion.

 

The Passage of Desire by Laurette Long

The Passage of Desire, the prequal

Although I had this on my kindle before book three, I didn’t read it until I’d finished the trilogy! This meant that around half way through book three I found myself in a new location, with new characters and a feeling like I’d been dropped into a different book. However, I quite enjoyed the mystery and sense of adventure this gave me, and I soon worked out where it was taking me. Reading the prequal certainly expanded on Caroline and Annabel’s early years.

This series gives you everything Basque; the scenery, the local festivals, the food and a real sense of place. It also gives you passion, emotions, love and drama. For someone who has been lucky enough to visit the Basque a few times, these books take me right back, so if you can’t get to Biarritz or the Pays Basque, you will at least feel like you’ve experienced a short break just by reading them.

What next Laurette?

Here are a few of my previous posts about the Pays Basque you might like:

Lunch in Biarritz, our first taste of the area

Cycling in the Pays Basque, from our first stay in 2014

A week in the Pays Basque, when I truly fell in love with this area

Col d’Ispeguy

Book review of Four Seasons in a Day, a travel memoir

Book review of Biarritz Passion, the first in a series of novels set in Biarritz

Book review of The Only Way is West, a Camino memoir

Update on my 2019km cycling challenge

#KTTinyTourer Ile de Ré

2019 Cycling Challenge

This year, with my new bike Katie the Tiny Tourer, I have challenged myself to cycle 2019km, which is a significant jump from the 700km I managed in 2018. As the end of the first three months draws near, I thought it would be a nice idea to update you on how I am doing.

I’ve never really been keen on cold winter rides and even less keen on wet and windy ones, so I was expecting to complete the majority of my kilometres during the summer months. However, a new bike, a challenge and the need to have something positive to focus on (Brexit still pops into my headspace all too often and with negative effects), combined with mild weather, and I have done better than I thought. Splitting the kilometres over the months equally, I should have cycled 505km by now, whereas I’ve actually managed 611km.

Ile de Ré

So far it has been a case of little and often that has accumulated my kilometres, but we have also had a couple of proper days out with café stops, picnics and fun in the sun on the Ile de Ré. On our last visit I couldn’t resist treating Kate the Tiny Tourer to a mascot, something small and fun that can travel with us as we make our pedal-powered way along the back roads of France. 

 

Annie the Ile de Ré donkey

I’m delighted to introduce you to Annie, the Ile de Ré donkey. Fascinating fact time: the Ile de Ré is probably the only place in the world where donkeys traditionally wore pyjamas and I think you’ll agree Annie looks particularly fetching in hers. Donkeys were used on the island for agricultural work, kelp harvesting on the coast and working on the salt beds, as well as the main form of transport between the villages. The salt marshes on the island attract flies and mosquitos that attacked the donkeys, so to protect them they were dressed in trousers made out of recycled shirts. 

 

Ile de Ré donkeys

In the summer you still see dressed-up donkeys, as the tourists like it (possibly more than the donkeys), but at our out of season visit the donkeys were happily munching the grass and wandering around naked.

 

Cycling the Canal de la Garonne Cicerone guide book

Canal de la Garonne

Next month, if all goes to plan, I should get even further ahead of my target as we make our way from Bordeaux to Toulouse along the Canal de la Garonne, on a six-day, 350km tour. Adrian has the route and accommodation all sorted, has ensured we have enough spares and luggage to carry everything, and has even planned for emergency coffee stops. As we will be early in the season and following the towpath, rather than back roads from village to village, this time we will be taking our new lightweight trekking stove and Bialetti coffee pot with us. We just need to create ourselves a Bialetti bracket to hang the coffee pot from a bike, photos to follow, I promise.

Yoga

We still have a few weeks left to get as bike fit as possible before we set off and thanks to Marc, my new yoga teacher, I’m feeling in good shape. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed a regular yoga class until Phoenix Yoga set up a couple of weekly classes in a nearby village, but I’m loving it and even hoping Adrian will join me.

Book review of The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse

The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse

My review today is for the new release from Kate Mosse, The Burning Chambers, that is now available in hardback, ebook and audiobook formats.

Synopsis provided by the author

The Burning Chambers is the first in a sequence of historical novels set against the backdrop of the French Wars of Religion in the 16th and 17th centuries. A Romeo & Juliet story, it tells the story of a Catholic girl, Minou, her Huguenot lover, Piet, and a feud between two families stretching over three hundred years. Betrayal and intrigue, a missing will and a stolen relic, it is a diaspora story and the action ranges from Languedoc and Paris in the 16th century, to London and Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th centuries, and finally to the New World and the Cape in the 19th. The series begins and ends in the small town of Franschhoek in 1862, where several Huguenot families had fled persecution to begin a new life, discover that old sins have long shadows. I’m having a wonderful time researching and writing the novels, so I hope readers will take Minou and Piet to their hearts.

My review

I have to start my review by saying that Kate is a brilliant storyteller and although her books may look rather daunting as they are so big, don’t be afraid. I found that once I’d slipped inside the pages, time stood still, the magic of her storytelling took hold and I loved the fact we followed seemingly unrelated stories of different characters in different places, and then bit by bit the relationships and links between them all became apparent. A Kate Mosse book is a very satisfying experience and this one was no exception.

I become quite attached to Minou and Piet and the struggles they faced in a difficult time. They were from different sides of an unnecessary war, but both were honest, strong-willed and judged others on their actions, not beliefs. Following a chance meeting in Carcassonne, they then find themselves in Toulouse, just as tensions between the Catholics and the Huguenots are rising to burning point. It was a time when you no longer knew who could be trusted and as the action took hold I was often on the edge of my seat.

The siege of Toulouse was very moving and in places was difficult to read; the barricades, the bodies, the blood, the people we have come to know slip away, then reappear, and I was always wondering if they would make it to safety. There were times I had to take a deep breath, pull up my big girl pants and keep reading; when half of me wanted to turn and run, the other half was so gripped by the action that I couldn’t have run if I’d tried.

It never fails to amaze and sadden me, the atrocities some are able to do to their fellow men, in the name of religion. The characters in this book feel little was learned from the Cathar murders some three hundred years before the Huguenot troubles in 1562. Some five hundred years later man is still at war with man, in the name of God. We have learned nothing.

Once I’d started The Burning Chambers, I couldn’t put it down and I just know readers are going to love it as much as The Languedoc Trilogy. The scene has been set for part two and I can’t wait for this journey to unfold through the centuries.

If you enjoyed Kate’s previous trilogy, or are an historical fiction fan, I am sure you will love her latest novel.

The Burning Chambers is out now in ebook, hardback and audio book and links to Amazon can be found below.

In case you missed my France et Moi interview with Kate, you can read it here and you can find Kate at her website here and follow her on social media here – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

Lazy Sunday in France with Laurette Long

Lazy Sunday in France with Laurette Long

Welcome to another #LazySundayinFrance and today I am delighted to welcome author Laurette Long who is taking us to the Tarn and Toulouse for her lazy Sunday.

A LAZY SUNDAY IN THE TARN

Lazy Sunday in France Laurette Long

Off to a sybaritic start with coffee and tartines grillées heaped with our neighbour’s confiture de prunes à la menthe – a taste-bud treat. Then a lazy day in front of the fire with a pile of books. Within minutes I’ve travelled back to the Toulouse of 100 years ago, la ville rose, capital of Occitania.

As World War I comes to an end, one man is thinking about the future.

Cafés in Toulouse

Dusk was falling over the pink city as Pierre-Georges Latécoère stepped out into the immense square. La Place du Capitole, the heart of Toulouse, was busy at this hour. The cafes under the arcades were filling up with workers and shop girls stopping off for a glass of Lillet or Dubonnet before catching the tram back home. Children shrieked as they dodged between tables, excited chatter filled the air, bursts of laughter from couples strolling arm in arm on their way to the dance halls, and the new craze sweeping the country, the tango.

There was something in the air this spring evening, something uplifting and joyous like the fragrance of the Toulouse violets that Latécoère stopped to buy from the flower seller on the corner. A sense of hope, of optimism, the possibility of starting afresh. A chance, finally, to turn the page on the terrible years that had gone before.

Latécoère was the visionary industrialist who laid the cornerstone of French civil aviation with his ‘Lignes Latécoère’ (later the legendary ‘Aéropostale’). His dream was to open routes carrying the mail from Toulouse to Spain, from Spain across the Mediterranean to North Africa, and finally, the biggest challenge of all, across the mighty Atlantic from Dakar to South America. The bureaucrats declared him mad.

Hotel du Grand Balcon, Toulouse

In my imaginary account above, he’s on his way to a boarding house just off the square, l’Hôtel du Grand Balcon, today one of the city’s historic monuments.

It was here, in the 1920s and 1930s, that Latécoère’s young aviators had their lodgings, under the watchful eye of the three genteel Marquez sisters, whose job it was to make sure their intrepid young men were well fed, and, more importantly, got a good night’s sleep before taking to the skies in flimsy machines on missions so perilous that many never returned. Naturally, the intrepid young men, aware that each night may well be their last, persuaded the good sisters to organise impromptu dance evenings in the salon, waited for them to retire, then hoisted their demoiselles over one shoulder and carried them up the creaking staircase for a night of love while their hostesses pretended to slumber.

In the Hotel du Grand Balcon

Today in the hotel salon three enormous photographs dominate one wall. Jean Mermoz, Henri Guillaumet, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, three of the Ligne’s most famous aviators, one of whom would write a book which has sold more copies than any other apart from the Bible, Le Petit Prince. The three met in Toulouse, became life-long friends, sharing adventures and exploits which, like those of their American counterparts years later - Chuck Yeager, Gus Grissom, John Glenn - became the stuff of legends.

My few words about them today are simply an amuse-gueule, which I hope will whet the appetite of bookworms, history lovers, aviation buffs and Francophiles to find out more.

Room 32, Saint-Exupéry's desk

For those wanting to ‘push the envelope’ why not treat yourself to the out-of-body experience of a night in Saint-Exupéry’s former room? While the rest of the hotel has been renovated, Room 32 has been preserved dans son jus, as close as possible to how it looked when its famous occupant was in residence: the bed with its brass and iron headboard, the twenties furniture, the ancient fireplace with its black marble top. Step across the impressively creaking floorboards to sit at the writing desk by the window and imagine St-Ex himself looking at the same view, dreaming of the books he would write about his camarades and their extraordinary lives: Terre des Hommes, Vol de Nuit.

Vol de Nuit (Night Flight) describes unforgettably those terrible, lonely flights through the vast blackness of the South America night, where pilots braved the unforgiving peaks of the Andes, racing to deliver the mail between Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Chile and Paraguay, yearning for the dawn ‘like a beach of golden sand’.

This year, the 100^th centenary of the founding of les Lignes Latécoère, is a time to remember this thrilling chapter in the history of aviation and the men who wrote it, visionaries and heroes.

Lazy Sunday in France for French Village Diaries ©LauretteLong2018

Merci, Jacqui, for inviting me to share a lazy Sunday with you and your readers.

Thank you, Laurette. For this weekend only Laurette’s first novel in the French Summer series, Biarritz Passion, is FREE on kindle. You can read my review of it here and find links to Amazon, and to follow Laurette on social media, below.

https://laurettelong.com/

https://twitter.com/laurettelong1

https://www.facebook.com/LauretteLongAuthor

https://www.amazon.com/author/laurettelongfr81