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 

From the Writing Desk of Alison Morton

From the Writing Desk of Alison Morton

From the writing desk of Alison Morton

 

Welcome to the French Village Diaries interview feature, From the Writing Desk, where this week, as part of the blog tour for her latest novel, Double Identity, I am delighted to be (virtually) joining author Alison Morton at her writing desk in France.

 

Alison writes thrillers featuring tough, but compassionate heroines including her award-winning Roma Nova series which one kind reader called “intelligent adventure thrillers with heart". Alison puts it all down to her deep love of anything Roman, six years’ military service, a masters' in history and an over-vivid imagination. Now she blogs, reads, cultivates a Roman herb garden and drinks wine in Poitou Charentes where she lives with her husband and where part of her new thriller Double Identity is set. As she hasn’t much to do, she’s drafting a sequel to that at the same time as her next Roma Nova novel. 

#DoubleMirrorTour

 

Your writing space

Alison, how important is your desk space to your writing? Is your desk tidy and well-organised or creatively cluttered? 

Alison: Down in the dungeon, sorry basement, lies part of the garage area we converted into an office using the IKEA Contract desking from my old UK office. That still looks good; the paraphernalia strewn over it, not so much.  But it’s large enough to accommodate a standing desk with a Mac desktop and a sitting-at desk with a laptop.

 

Do you try and write at regular times of the day?

Alison: [Collapses in laughter] More seriously, I try to work on the current book draft in the morning. Usually it’s writing, but sometimes research which can be a huge time suck and complete enthrallment. Often, I get a second burst of writing push in the early evening when I’ve dragged myself off social media and other marketing delights.

 

Do you prefer to work to a deadline, and if so, do you set yourself daily or weekly targets?

Alison: I set a vague deadline, e.g. I must get this book out this year, but the biggest impetus is the fanbase that I’ve built up over the past eight years. I’m very aware they are waiting for the next book. At least, that’s what they say…

 

Wordcounts, hm. I aim for 500-1,000 a day. It varies so much because of research. You might have to spend half a day checking the calibre of Glock pistols, Roman warfighting tactics or the SNCF timetable for the Paris-Strasbourg TGV. Other times, I fly through the day and end up with 2,500 words.

Writing during Covid-19

As a writer, with a desk and computer at home, work would have continued for you throughout lockdown, but has the pandemic affected your motivation to write? 

Alison: Ha! Yes, to some extent. I ended up writing a blogpost about it and nine ways to try to remedy it (see here). But it’s not easy. The key is balance between guilt and kindness to yourself.

In August, I was fed up with my dilly-dallying so set myself a 30-day challenge to write a daily blogpost on a writing theme. The pressure of doing that got me back into the groove. I did spread it over six weeks in the end as there was other stuff going on that I needed to blog about.

 

Do you think the content of your future writing projects will be influenced by the pandemic?

Alison: This is a great debate among writers! It depends what kind of book you are writing. I’d completed Double Identity when the pandemic hit and the story would have been impossible with masks and social distancing. If you were writing a story set specifically in 2020/2021 including the pandemic and consequences, those elements would need to be an integral part of the story. Very many fellow writers are not including it; I tend to prefer that as I feel we need escapist books at present.

Double Identity Alison Morton

Your latest novel 

Double Identity is a very different book to your previous Roma Nova series, can you tell us a bit about it and where the inspiration came from? Is this a standalone novel, or will there be more from Mélisende des Pittones?

Alison: I can’t seem to keep away from thrillers! There two motivators. Conn Iggulden, the (rather wonderful) historical fiction writer, was reviewing the draft of INSURRECTIO, the third in the Aurelia series of the Roma Nova books. He gave me a terrific front cover quote, but also messaged me, 

‘You clearly have the knack for fast plotting tension. I kept coming back to see what happened next.’ 

He suggested I recast one of my Roma Novan heroines into a modern day European agent and write a story as a crime thriller. So I did. Double Identity is the result. The second inspiration was that I wanted to write a heroine with strong French connections, preferably with one born and brought up here in Poitou.

This is the first of your books that is set in France, around the area where you live. Did you enjoy bringing your corner of France into your writing?

Alison: I loved it! Mel/Mélisende has a French father and English mother which reflects the dual French/English life I lead here (when not cowering in the house during the pandemic!). Poitou is rural, yet an ancient land peopled by the Pictones tribe before the Romans appeared on the scene. Mel finds tranquillity here and is very attached to her family and terroir, but she feels she has no role here. So at eighteen, she joined the French Army as a trainee NCO and has been very successful in her career. As well as some time in London, Double Identity takes Mel to other French-speaking areas – Brussels and Strasbourg – and she even has a bruising encounter with Canadian French! Spending ten days in Montréal and Québec certainly gave me an insight into it!

Life outside of writing 

What do you look forward to, when you’ve saved the document and switched off the computer, as your treat at the end of the writing day?

Alison: A large glass of red wine or sometimes a more elegant flûte of Saumur bubbly

 

I know I have really missed a French café terrace, a café alongé and a spot of people watching, what aspect of normality have you missed most in the last year? 

 

Alison: Lunch, definitely lunch out, and chatting to our neighbours over a glass of something. But I also miss the wider mental freedom to bumble about places e.g. a walk along the Thouet riverbank or though the centre of Poitiers without having to worry about being within two metres of others.

 

How would you normally celebrate the release of a new novel, and was it different this year?

Alison: I used to have big launch events both in the UK and France, carry out book signings and speak at events throughout the year, especially conferences. There’s nothing to compare with talking to readers at events, milling around between sessions and generally chilling surrounded by books. In 2020, three of the UK festivals where I was due to speak were cancelled.  But for Double Identity, it’s Facebook, Twitter and blogs. I’m currently on this blog tour with another historical fiction writer ‘turned to crime’, Helen Hollick, then I go on a solo one in March. Hopefully, the sequel will be launched in person!

 

Thank you for taking the time out of your writing day to let me join you at your writing desk. 

Double Identity the first in a brand new thriller series was released on 7^th January 2021 and is available in paperback and ebook formats. Links to Amazon can be found below.

 

Buying links for Double Identity 

Amazon universal link  

Other ebook and paperback retailers 

 

Read my review of Double Identity here

 

Double Identity Blurb

 

Deeply in love, a chic Parisian lifestyle before her. Now she’s facing prison for murder.

It’s three days since Mel des Pittones threw in her job as an intelligence analyst with the French special forces to marry financial trader Gérard Rohlbert. But her dream turns to nightmare when she wakes to find him dead in bed beside her.

 

Her horror deepens when she’s accused of his murder. Met Police detective Jeff McCracken wants to pin Gérard’s death on her. Mel must track down the real killer, even if that means being forced to work with the obnoxious McCracken. 

 

But as she unpicks her fiancé’s past, she discovers his shocking secret life. To get to the truth, she has to go undercover and finds almost everybody around her is hiding a second self.

 

Mel can trust nobody. Can she uncover the real killer before they stop her? 

 

A stunning new thriller from the author of the award-winning Roma Nova series, fans of Daniel Silva, Stella Rimington and Chris Pavone will love Double Identity.  

 

 

Alison Morton

Social media links

Connect with Alison on her thriller site 

Alison’s writing blog 

Facebook author page 

Twitter     

Book review of An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse

An Ordinary Life, Amanda Prowse

An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse

From the bestselling author of The Girl in the Corner comes a tale of love, loss—and one last extraordinary dance.

Christmas Eve, 2019. Ninety-four-year-old Molly lies in her hospital bed. A stroke and a fall may have broken her body—but her mind is alive with memories.

London, 1940s. Molly is a bright young woman, determined to help the war effort and keep her head up despite it all. Life becomes brighter when she meets and falls in love with a man who makes her forget everything with one dance. But then war forces her to make an unforgettable sacrifice, and when she’s brought to her knees by a daring undercover mission with the French Resistance, only her sister knows the secret weighing heavily on Molly’s heart.

Now, lying in her hospital bed, Molly can’t escape the memories of what she lost all those years ago. But she is not as alone as she thinks.

Will she be able to find peace—and finally understand that what seemed to be an ordinary life was anything but?

 

Blog tour An Ordinary Life, Amanda Prowse

My review

In the 1940’s, Molly was an independent young woman, determined that the life of housewife and mother, tied to a kitchen sink and sticky toddlers, wasn’t for her. She embraced the opportunity to work that the war had provided, and with excellent language skills, knew she was making a difference. A chance meeting, a dance with a young man and a walk along the Embankment, changed her ideas, her dreams and her life. 

Looking back with Molly, we move through the years, visiting the defining moments in her life; the happy times, the sad times and the difficult ones where the decisions she made had far reaching consequences. We meet those she loved, those she lost and those she made sacrifices for. We join her during the bombing raids in London, in Occupied France and at her cosy cottage post-war. With each new decade, we subtly notice how life, society and the expectations of the new generations of her family are changing.

This is a book that dragged me into its pages. The vivid descriptions, especially of the traumatic events, left me feeling like I was there. I felt Molly’s grief and anger at the injustices of what she went through, and the hurt when those who should have supported her, turned her away. I even woke one morning recalling that my dream had mirrored the chapter I’d read the night before. 

This is also a book filled with love and a strong sense of family that packed such a punch of emotion it will take some time to diffuse. 

There were times it felt like a knife in my heart or a blow to my stomach, other times, there was so much love it was like I was wrapped in a warm hug.

If you are looking for an emotional page-turner with strong characters, family secrets, social history and more, look no further.

 

Purchase Links

 

 https://bit.ly/_AnOrdinaryLife_

 

Amanda Prowse

Author Bio

Amanda Prowse is an International Bestselling author whose twenty six novels and seven novellas have been published in dozens of languages around the world. Published by Lake Union, Amanda is the most prolific writer of bestselling contemporary fiction in the UK today; her titles also consistently score the highest online review approval ratings across several genres. Her books, including the chart topping No.1 titles 'What Have I Done?', 'Perfect Daughter', 'My Husband's Wife', 'The Girl in the Corner', 'The Things I Know' and ‘The Day She Came Back’ have sold millions of copies across the globe.

A popular TV and radio personality, Amanda is a regular panellist on Channel 5's 'The Jeremy Vine Show' and numerous daytime ITV programmes. She also makes countless guest appearances on BBC national independent Radio stations including LBC and Talk FM, where she is well known for her insightful observations and her infectious humour. Described by the Daily Mail as 'The queen of family drama' Amanda's novel, 'A Mother's Story' won the coveted Sainsbury's eBook of the year Award while 'Perfect Daughter' was selected as a World Book Night title in 2016.

Amanda's ambition is to create stories that keep people from turning the bedside lamp off at night, great characters that ensure you take every step with them and tales that fill your head so you can't possibly read another book until the memory fades...

An Ordinary Life, Amanda Prowse tour banner

Praise for Amanda Prowse:

'A powerful and emotional work of fiction' - Piers Morgan
'Deeply moving and emotional, Amanda Prowse handles her explosive subjects with delicate skill' - Daily Mail
'Uplifting and positive, but you will still need a box of tissues' - Hello!
'A gut-wrenching and absolutely brilliant read' - The Irish Sun
'You'll fall in love with this...' - Cosmopolitan
'Deeply moving and eye opening. Powerful and emotional drama that packs a real punch.' - Heat
'Magical' - Now magazine

Social Media Links 

Say hello on Twitter  

Friend me on Facebook  

Tag me on Instagram  

Visit my Amazon Author Page   

Check out my website 

French Village Diaries book reviews

For the love of cheese

Tartiflette, comfort food at its best

Seeking comfort in cheese

All in all, it’s been a bit of a weird week. The weather has been miserably cold and wet, and finding out three local friends have been quite poorly, including our eighty-year-old neighbour Dominique, who is in hospital, did nothing to improve my mood. This coupled with the shocking news that two friends on Facebook lost their husbands this week, really has brought home how fragile life is.

 

Mini, cosy on the sofa

Even Mini the dog has been out of sorts. She is now thirteen and I know we can’t expect her to be immune to the aging process, but it was still quite a shock to have to deal with a soggy sofa and dog bedding on Tuesday morning. The older she has got, the more relaxed we’ve been with our rules, so as well as the sofas, she can often be found curled up on our bed or Ed’s. I guess I was therefore quite lucky as it could have been a much bigger clear-up, on a cold and wet day. Hopefully it was just one of those things, but being a super-hoarder, the sofas are now covered in washable cot protector sheets, bought in Mothercare twenty-one years ago, and the bedrooms are out of bounds once more.

 

Cyclocross by Brompton

Our cycling, along with the weather, has been extreme, although not in terms of kilometres covered. We’ve been out in cold winds and temperatures as low as -3º, that left our faces burning and gloved fingers numb and sore. Rides have been brief, rather than leisurely and enjoyable, but whatever the weather, it’s been good to get out. One afternoon, desperately seeking something a bit different, we decided to take the road less travelled and investigate some routes previously undiscovered by us. The road we chose wound up to an old vineyard, before becoming more of a track as it rolled gently towards the woods, where the gravel become a muddy path through the trees. Soggy soon became too wet to cycle, but the great thing about the Bromptons is they can easily be lifted up, the saddles resting on our shoulders, as we splashed through the puddles to drier land. It was certainly an adventure, although I think I was the only one having fun puddle splashing, as Adrian is far too sensible for that.

Cauliflower and pasta cheesy bake

 

It has been one of those weeks where I have turned to the comforting and healing properties of cheese. Dinners have included a cauliflower and pasta cheese bake and tartiflette, one of my favourite comfort food meals where the Reblochon cheese melts into sliced potatoes, onions and lardons. There is just something about cooked cheese dishes in cold weather that make everything feel better. We even treated ourselves to a local goat cheese in this week’s vegetable basket, whose creaminess went down very well as an early Valentine’s treat with a glass of our homemade sloe port. Valentine’s Day certainly seems the perfect excuse to indulge in our love of cheese, so tonight, we will be celebrating with a slightly unusual Sunday evening meal of homemade pizzas, fully loaded with cheese. 

 

After a strange week, hopefully things have now turned a corner. The weather is forecast to get warmer and as if to prove it, this afternoon we’ve been treated to flocks of cranes flying low over the house, on their annual migration north. It is always a spectacular sight to see that never fails to make me feel better. Spring will be with us soon.

 

Sending you all lots of Valentine’s Day love from France. 

For Valentine's Day, a selection of books set in France, on the theme of love

Book review of Double Identity by Alison Morton

Double Identity Alison Morton #DoubleMirrorTour

Double Identity – the first in a brand new thriller series,  pub. 7 January 2021

 

Today, as part of the #DoubleMirrorTour blog tour, I am delighted to be reviewing Double Identity, the new thriller from local author Alison Morton.

 

#DoubleMirrorTour Alison Morton and Helen Hollick

Synopsis

Deeply in love, a chic Parisian lifestyle before her. Now she’s facing prison for murder.

It’s three days since Mel des Pittones threw in her job as an intelligence analyst with the French special forces to marry financial trader Gérard Rohlbert. But her dream turns to nightmare when she wakes to find him dead in bed beside her. 

 

Her horror deepens when she’s accused of his murder. Met Police detective Jeff McCracken wants to pin Gérard’s death on her. Mel must track down the real killer, even if that means being forced to work with the obnoxious McCracken. 

 

But as she unpicks her fiancé’s past, she discovers his shocking secret life. To get to the truth, she has to go undercover and finds almost everybody around her is hiding a second self.

 

Mel can trust nobody. Can she uncover the real killer before they stop her? 

 

A stunning new thriller from the author of the award-winning Roma Nova series, fans of Daniel Silva, Stella Rimington and Chris Pavone will love Double Identity.  

 

My review

Mel wakes up, cold and disorientated, in a hotel room in London, her fiancé dead in the bed next to her; the life she had planned, gone before it’s begun. She soon becomes caught up in the murder enquiry and as a former soldier in the French army, highly skilled in combat and surveillance, she goes from suspect, to being seconded to the investigation. It is a crime that goes far beyond murder and reveals secrets from Gérard’s life she finds difficult to understand.

 

Mel is fiery, fearless and powerful, and leaves nothing to chance, especially if she thinks she is being followed. Her policy is to bring them down, secure them, then question them later. I will admit my heart was in my mouth every time she left somewhere by herself, as despite not being one to be messed with, she had a lot of enemies happy to try. 

 

As the links between Gérard and the list of suspects became evermore entangled, the more the mystery deepened, and the more dangerous the situation became for Mel. She might be feeling vulnerable and let down by Gérard, but she’s not one to show it, especially to Jeff McCracken, the Met detective she must work alongside. With different backgrounds and working practices, theirs was not an easy pairing, but one that gave great value to the reader.

 

This was one of those books where I never knew who to trust or where it would take me next. With financial fraud, blackmail, international criminals and a multi-unit investigation centred in Brussels, London and rural France, there is no shortage of action or thrill to the plot. 

 

Mel moves rapidly from safe houses to an undercover role, to full military combat, whilst trying to understand the actions of a man she thought she knew and establish the hidden identity of who it is who holds all the answers, before they silence her.

 

This book may have been a bit different to my usual reads, but I enjoyed the fast pace and the constant character analysing that went on in my head as I attempted to piece it all together. Mel is certainly a character I’d like to revisit, so I’m looking forward to the next book in this series.

 

Next week Alison Morton will be joining me back here on the blog for a new interview feature, From the Writing Desk, where we will be talking about her writing, the pandemic and getting some behind the scenes info on Double Identity.

Join me next week for a new interview feature
From the Writing Desk

 

Double Identity is available in ebook and paperback format and links to Amazon can be found below.

 

Apple 

Kobo 

B&N Nook 

Books2Read 

 

Alison Morton

About the Author

Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough, but compassionate heroines. She blends her deep love of France with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical, adventure and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.

 

"Grips like a vice - a writer to watch out for" says crime thriller writer Adrian Magson about Roma Nova series starter INCEPTIO. All six full-length Roma Nova thrillers have won the BRAG Medallion, the prestigious award for indie fiction. SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO were selected as Historical Novel Society’s Indie Editor’s Choices. AURELIA was a finalist in the 2016 HNS Indie Award. The Bookseller selected SUCCESSIO as Editor’s Choice in its inaugural indie review.

 

Alison now lives in Poitou in France, where part of Double Identity is set and is writing a sequel as well as continuing her Roma Nova series.

 

Social media links

Connect with Alison on her thriller site here 

Facebook author page 

Twitter  

Alison’s writing blog 

Instagram 

Goodreads  
Alison’s Amazon page 

Newsletter sign-up 

French Village Diaries book reviews

Book review of The Dressmaker of Paris by Georgia Kaufmann

The Dressmaker of Paris by Georgia Kaufmann

My review today is for The Dressmaker of Paris by Georgia Kaufmann.

 

Rosa Kusstatscher has reached a pivotal moment in her life. From a troubled and difficult childhood, she went on to build a global fashion empire that has taken her around the world, but there are some things from her past she’s never shared. As she prepares for an important meeting, she opens up and each chapter of her life begins with an observation of something in her bathroom that she couldn’t be without, be it nail varnish, cotton wool or aspirin. Its presence triggers a memory, and the next instalment of her story unfurls.

 

I found her an intriguing character from the beginning. We don’t really get introduced to present day Rosa, and it takes almost the entire book before we discover who she is talking to, where she is off to and why it is so difficult to choose just the right look. The book moves at the gentle pace of an older lady remembering an extraordinary life. We meet those who let her down and those who helped her move on, those who loved her and guided her, and those who left her. 

 

As well as Paris, this book took me to some unexpected locations including the Nazi invasion of an Italian mountain village, Switzerland, Brazil and New York. Rosa became good at running away, but Paris was where she found her niche in the fashion world and turned her life around. She may have gone on to make her fortune, but the price she had to pay was a high one and it took a lot more running and searching before she found peace in her heart. 

 

Rosa’s story was one that stayed with me long after I put the book down each night. As well as the glamour and love, alongside hard work, high risks and heartbreak, there was always something to ponder on as I tried to work out where her story was going.

 

If you are looking for a book to draw you in, that will give you history, travel, fashion and love, then The Dressmaker of Paris should tick all these boxes and more. 

French Village Diaries book reviews