I'm clearing out books that I requested ages ago and have been on sale for years! I really enjoyed this title.

I loved the characters and the story in this book! A group of friends who have known each other for years have gotten together for one of their birthdays. There are glimpses into the past as well as glimpses of what is happening in their lives in the present time. There are intricate relationships between them. They think they know each other well, but do they really? The story is about friendships, love, and parenting. I was mesmerized by the characters, both by their pasts and what happens to them now.

I enjoyed this book. It reminded me of The Big Chill, in that a group of close college friends get together for a weekend to reminisce their youth and face harsh realities of an ever-changing life. The stories and emotions felt relatable. The characters were well written and you root for each of them. The character of Juliette seemed like an odd one to place in the center, but worked to serve as an outsider's perspective - like a narrator. Scenes, memories, and emotions were written in picturesque detail, and the twists and surprises helped move the story along in an enjoyable way. Although the ending seemed a bit incomplete, I felt satisfied. I would recommend this book as a quick beach read to anyone who leans toward the nostalgic.

Lovely story, but not what I expected. I thought, “A wedding! France! Cheese! Pastry!” And I got a wedding… but not until the very very end; France… well a part of France caught very much in between England and France in language and culture; cheese… yes, but not everyone liked it; and pastry… oh the very best pastries and cakes made by chef Juliette.

Juliette set aside her personal baggage to be Max’s personal chef. For Juliette, life was even easier that way. When Max invited a bunch of friends to stay at his home for the weekend, Juliette was ready to cook for them like a madwoman. But things went wrong at every turn due to the shadow Max’s mood cast. Whether he meant to or not, Max kind of ruined everything for his friends and his chef. And that kind of ruined the story for me.
Good writing, good plot, depressing main character.

https://randombookmuses.com/2017/07/08/review-a-french-wedding-by-hannah-tunnicliffe/

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2053956443

A French Wedding
By  Hannah Tunnicliffe

A enthralling novel that is reminiscent of "The Big Chill ", that keeps you glued to each page from beginning to the end.

With characters that are cohesive and situations true to life. I give " A French Wedding"  4 stars.

I graciously received this ARC through Netgalley from Doubleday Books for a honest review.

This book borrows much from The Big Chill and it's equally entertaining. Six college friends reunite 20 years later for a 40th birthday celebration at a beautiful home in Brittany belonging to Max, now a wealthy rock star. The core group is joined by a few outsiders who can never really fit in and the interactions are all overseen by chef and housekeeper Juliette who had issues if her own to deal with. A few secrets that are revealed surprise the reader but the wedding that they gather for the following year seems anticlimactic and the health issue that brings the original house party to an abrupt end is never explained or resolved. The ending is flat but it's still a fun beach read.

Juliette runs a very nice restaurant in Paris called Delphine. She has always loved to cook since she was a girl growing up in Brittany on the west coast of France. Sadly, her mother is very ill and in the hospital. Therefore, she must go to Brittany and help her father take care of her. Not long after her mother passes away, her father follows. During that time, Juliette has decided to sell her restaurant and remain in Brittany. She knows all of the people in her town and all of the markets and great foods. Soon, she sees an ad for a housekeeper/chef for a wealthy rock star, Max, at his large home in her town and she is happy to get the job.

Max and a number of his college friends are heading to his home to help celebrate his 40th birthday. The one person Max is anxious to see is Helen. He has always loved her but theirs is a friendship-only relationship. Now, he plans to propose to her.

As the couples arrive, they spend time catching up and talking about the fun they had during their college days. Most everyone seems to be having fun, but one husband is bored because he met and married his wife later and does not know these other people well. The anger between him and his wife makes for some tension. As the days pass, we see that things are not perfect for everyone. But, whose life is perfect?

Ah, but the highlight is Juliette as she prepares beautiful meals using local seafood and produce. The platters of fresh caught shellfish, homemade breads, perfectly cooked vegetables and luscious cheese plates are all described perfectly.

I was drawn to this book because I have enjoyed visiting the Brittany area several times and loved the local seafood and lamb. Quite honestly, I found the conversations and the problems the friends have to be mundane and rather boring. But again, the food descriptions are delicious.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book has been compared to The Big Chill, and the comparisons are easy to see: a group of college friends reunite at the home of one of them, during which secrets are revealed and new relationships formed. Some of the characters, too, could fit in with the Big Chill crowd. Yet A French Wedding is different in scope and feel.

At one point in the not too distant past, Max was a successful rock star. He's a guy who had it all - and who trades on that for concupiscent companionship. To celebrate turning 40, he invites five friends from college to join him at his home in Brittany: Eddie, a former member of an early band of Max's who brings his young girlfriend Beth; Lars and Nina, an unmarried couple who has been together since the beginning and who bring their teenage daughter Sophie; Rosie, who at one time dated Eddie but now is married to the awful Hugo, with whom she has two sons; and Helen, Max's best friend and the woman he plans to ask to marry him. Overseeing all of the festivities is Juliette, a chef and housekeeper who has a sad soul.

As the outsider, Juliette represents you, in a way. She watches over the group, finding cracks and strengths. Her quiet steadiness belies an inherent melancholia. She's alone, yet she finds herself drawn to Max's group of friends. Hanna Tunnicliffe also delivers her story from other characters' points of view, but the primary lenses are Juliette's and Max's. Of the two, you get to know Max a little better, as Tunnicliffe shows you how he wound up still alone, yet hopeful for the fantasy of marriage to Helen.

In fact, for such a pivotal character, Helen remains a bit of a mystery. You get some background on her family, but even at the end of the book, you don't feel as if you know her well. I would have liked to have had her more solidly fleshed out. Juliette, on the other hand, is richly complex. She is one of those "still waters run deep" people, and her sadness is heartbreaking. When Juliette musters her courage to ask for what she wants, you will cheer for her,

One thing Tunnicliffe does quite well is create the atmosphere around these people, incorporating the setting - both physical and emotional - into the story. Max's home is on a beach, where the tides deliver and take away, much like the characters do. Some of them will form new bonds, some will break their bonds, and some will strengthen them. Max plans a proposal to go along with his birthday. Whether he gets his wish or not is almost beside the point. What does matter is this group of people, coming together and supporting each other.

Intrigued by the blurb and the teased wedding, I thought that the surprise bride and reconnection of college friends would provide a novel rich in depth and emotion, all backed up with the scenery and food. Unfortunately, from the beginning to end, this story was a mess. Third person voice for each character with no distinction between them made the story awkward: better suited to a third person omniscient narration. Then we add in characters – so flat as to be wooden, and utter stereotypes to boot. It’s fine to have one or two secondary characters that are “just” that, but when no effort to provide distinction or depth is evident, then I’m left frustrated, hoping that the dialogue may just give a bit of personality or oomph.

And then, the dialogue is wholly inappropriately phrased and felt as if it were ripped from the mid 1800’s: antiquated words (indubitably?!!), too much back and forth, repetition and no actual appearance of an emotional investment in the statements so casually bandied about. And while these are workable in the most part, if the story crafting and plot are moving forward, with big secrets and reveals appearing for each character, the story would have had some redeeming features. But, the ham-handed foreshadowing, the all tell no show writing and the absolute lack of forward motion with the plot all contributed to a lack of interest for this reader.

As I was reading, I kept wanting to skim and skip over the over-long passages that just felt like ‘filler’, none of those passages added to drive the plot forward, or bring a wandering thread around to a point. What I was left with was the feeling that this book was written to a word count, without consideration of characters, readers or an editor’s touch. Not a great introduction to this author’s work, but I find muself uninterested in trying another title.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review. All conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=” http://wp.me/p3OmRo-8Rt” > <a> I am, Indeed </a>

I loved the premise of this book (and the beautiful cover!) but just couldn't get into the story and connect with the characters. The multi-character perspective in this one just didn't work for me on this one.

Food + France + Friends = a recipe for a book I am guaranteed to love. The descriptions and setting and characters in this book just made me warm and happy, even though the events themselves weren't warm and happy all the time. Tunnicliffe created a sumptuous read that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since finishing the book - I want to be a part of this group of friends and live in this area of France and eat all the delicious food and see all the beautiful things!

There is just one tiny thing that brought this down to a 4 star from 5 star for me, and that's a twist toward the end that I wish hadn't been a twist - I wish it had been a natural part of the story from the beginning, not a big reveal. No spoilers, but you'll know what I'm referring to when you read it!

If you understand what it's like to hit adulthood (and middle age) and realize that you are actually growing up, and that all your friends are too, this is the book for you. If you have friends you've known forever, and love books about France and food, add this to your TBR list immediately!

It took me awhile to get used to the rhythms and the writing of this book. For the first couple of pages, I really thought I was going to DNF this book. But then I got caught up in the story of Juliette (why the blurb seems to focus on Max, I'm not sure since the POV switches up and, really, I thought hers was really the story they all seemed to orbit around.)
Juliette is back in her hometown; rather than cooking in Paris at her own restaurant, she's the housekeeper for rocker Max who is just about to turn forty and has invited his six best friends to celebrate with him. Two are involved with each other and bring their rebellious teen daughter, but we're given hints that it is not a halcyon relationship. One of his friends, Rosie, is married to a man the rest of them hate. Eddie is bringing his very young girlfriend along. And Helen, the one that got away (from Max), is coming and bringing her sister.
It's a book that has it's issues, but it still drew me in and made me care about the characters. I wish we had learned more than the rather thin epilogue and that the beginning was a little less rough but I overall thought three and a half stars.

This book comes out June 6

A beautiful, delicious, and predictable book. A French Wedding by Hannah Tunnicliffe is enjoyable and has a gorgeous setting. The beginning of the book is set in Paris, and later on the bulk of the book is set in Douarnenez, which is a delightful-sounding town on the coast of France. Juliette is a chef and owner of a restaurant in Paris, and when her parents fall ill, she returns home to Douarnenez and ends up working for Max as his personal chef. Max is a famous musician, and he’s about to turn forty and decides to have a party/reunion of his college friends, who haven’t all been together for awhile. Max’s friends are Eddie (and his girlfriend Beth), Lars and Nina (who have been together since college) and their daughter Sophie, Rosie and her husband Hugo, and the elusive Helen, who Max has always been in love with. Helen’s sister Soleil also arrives to stir things up as well.
I enjoyed all of the characters. While Max is that typical rich-boy with a party lifestyle (women, cocaine, alcohol, etc), he still retains a likeable quality. Juliette is harboring secrets, and when she’s in the kitchen she truly creates masterpieces. Besides Max and Juliette, the other person we get to see into the mind of is Rosie, as she deals with her obnoxious husband Hugo and tries to balance her friends, her husband, and her own wishes. I wish we had gotten to see into the mind of Helen: the mysterious Helen, whom everyone seems to be in love with. Helen has a solitude to her that is never fully explained, and I was interested to know more about Helen and her life.
The biggest thing about this book is the food. Oh my word, there are so many mouthwatering dishes that Juliette creates! The seafood, the cheeses, the wine, the salads. It all sounded delicious and perfect and made me outrageously hungry. But as much as I loved reading about all the food Juliette was creating, the one dish I wanted to try the most was the Kouign-amann, a delicious sounding cake that is a specialty of Douarnenez.
The plot was predictable; it was fairly clear who was going to be married, and the romantic attachments were obvious from the start. I get suspicious when I notice authors deliberately leaving details out, and I didn’t quite understand what the big deal was about the “reveal”. It seemed a bit like trying to create mystery when none was really there.
I thought A French Wedding was enjoyable and a good read. While it was predictable, sometimes you just need to read a book that has predictability to it, and predictability isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes you just want to read a book where you know what the ending will be, and the book isn’t so much about the ending, but how you get to the ending, and the atmosphere along the way. So enjoy A French Wedding, preferably with a baguette, some cheese, a bottle of wine, and a beautiful sunset while you read. Or if you’re lucky, with some Kouign-amann.

Bottom Line: Delicious and enjoyable. Predictable, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The blurbs compared this book to "The Big Chill" and that is exactly a correct statement. While I saw the movie, I just remember a bunch of friends getting together for a reunion, not much more.

In this story, a group of six friends (and their spouses/and or girlfriends and children) get together to celebrate Max's 40th birthday. It has been years since they have all been together and are able to pick up right where they left off. There is also another plot going on with Juliette (Max's chef, who also attends to the house while Max is gone and at home) whose life has changed drastically with the death of her parents coinciding so closely.

Some of the outliers (husbands and girlfriends), okay a husband of one of the main six is really quite the arse and I loved reading the ending and finding out his fate. :)

The story was well written and had me engrossed from the beginning. The characters really came to life for me and I enjoyed hanging out with them. While these six people have known each other for a long time, do they really KNOW each other? Lots of secrets, discussions and downright fist fights come about with this reunion, some good, some bad.

Huge thanks to Doubleday Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Special note: This was also the first time that I discovered that through Kindle you can not only get the translations for other languages, but you can actually hear them spoken. A new addition (for me) which truly added to my enjoyment!

A French Wedding covers the lives of college friends who have kept in contact, who spend several days at the house of an aging, washed-up rock star, Max, gathering for his fortieth birthday celebration. However, Max’s ulterior motive is that he also wants to settle down and declare his love for his best friend Helen. Max’s private chef, Juliette, after a recent nasty break-up, becomes the force who manages to bring out the various relationships and events as they emerge during this weekend. The book was interesting and provided an interesting overview of small-town life in the French countryside, with some good descriptions and ideas about local French cuisine—both of which I personally thought were the best part of the book. The book is filled lots of things (past resentments, past love interests, etc.) that bubble over during the weekend, with musings about the past, and about long ago dreams and how they match up with today’s reality. The friends come across as individuals, without much chemistry, making me wonder how and why they were close college friends and remained such after school ended as they drifted off, each in his/her individual, diverse way. The author has definitely included a motley group in the story, but, in my opinion, could have done so with a stronger plot and not in such a disjointed, often boring way. In reality, the real plot begins after the half-way mark, with not much besides basic, background filler before that. This book will appeal to the reader who enjoys a good, easy book, especially one set in France, with lots of good French descriptions. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

This book is a great story that will make people believe in love. I believe.

When old friends get together to celebrate the 40th birthday in France lives are reexamined. Choices made long ago are questioned and the spouses, partners, and siblings found in their mix struggle to find a place in the group. A story of life, love, and deep friendship that is perfect read for a summer day.

Loved this book so much! Love and drama go hand in hand with this story and it is captivating to a tee. Loved it!!

Every movies and books tries to recreate "The Big Chill". A group of friends, reuniting, dancing, singing, food. Many movies and books fail at doing this in a good and interesting way.

A French Wedding by Hannah Tunnicliffe does it right. Max is a almost washed up rockstar, and the first of his friends to turn 40. He gathers his college pals to celebrate at his house in a small town in France. What follows is a story of romance, heartbreak, love and the true meaning of friendship.

A quick, enjoyable read that I didn't expect to like as much as I did. A special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for this review.