In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a sucker for any book involving Paris and The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux sounded like it would be right up my alley. Sophie Valroux is a French-born American chef who dreams of one day running a Michelin-starred restaurant. When she's sabotaged by a fellow chef and her career seemingly over, she also finds out that her grandmother, the woman who taught her how to cook, has suffered a stroke. She immediately flies out to Paris and discovers that her grandmother's old home has expanded to become a beautiful château, complete with two restaurants, that she's successfully founded and runs. It's quite a shock to Sophie, especially as her grandmother expects her to help cook in her absence, which is where the fun begins. The best thing about this book is the food. The author spares no detail when it comes to describing the elaborate meals Sophie creates. Her passion for food and how it brings people together was so beautifully expressed. That and Sophie's relationship with her grandmother were certainly the highlights for me. But it's not just about the cooking. This unexpected opportunity gives Sophie the chance to reconnect with her roots and old friends, make new friends, and find the confidence within herself to move forward. It does take a while for Sophie to start making those strides which did make the first half of the book feel slow but once she hits the ground running, so does the story.

Do I recommend? | If you want to crave all the French food (and read a good book!), I would definitely recommend this.

🍷🍷🍷🍷.5 #Review of The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant

"This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all, have fun." - Julia Child

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux is a charming contemporary romance that begins in New York City but takes readers to small town in France where one woman must learn to trust herself again. I'm not normally a fan of contemporary romance, but the synopsis of this book intrigued me since our long-awaited trip to Paris had to be canceled this year 😭 and because I have a passion for cooking myself. It also gave me a chance to brush up on my (very limited) French.

The story follows Sophie, a French-born American chef with the dream of one day being the head chef of a Michelin-starred restaurant. Right away readers are embraced in the struggle of being a woman in a male-dominated field. Sophie has to work harder, longer, and better than her male co-workers. Just when she thinks that she is getting a little bit closer to achieving her goal, Sophie is sabotaged by a jealous ex-boyfriend, resulting in not only the loss of her job but her reputation as well. Depressed, disheartened, and ready to give up on her dreams she hides away from the world....until she receives a call that her grand-mère in France has suffered a stroke and needs her help. Sophie doesn't know what to expect when she arrives at her family's French château, but it isn't the grand establishment worthy to rival any NYC restaurant that she walks up to. Nor is the surly driver the same boy she remembered from her childhood.

Author Samantha Verant weaves a rich tale of rediscovery, reconnecting, resilience, and a dash of romance in The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux that was an absolute delight to embark on. With a family saga, second chance romance, and delectable delicacies I loved every minute of the tale. Sophie was an authentic character that experiences many highs and lows throughout the story, I couldn't help rooting for her. The château staff was fun and supportive, adding levity to the plot, and her grand-mère a true gem. I could easily imagine the backdrop of Southwest France with it's lavender fields and local markets while reading. I enjoyed this book so much that I purchased a paperback copy for my shelves, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes found in it myself. 😊 A heart-warming tale with an enchanting setting that I recommend.

I really enjoyed this book. Sophie is forced to leave her dream behind and is torn about accepting center stage in a dream she feels she didn't earn. I did receive an ARC from Netgalley, but only had time to read it just now, and opted for the audiobook instead. The audiobook was fantastic! Imani Jade Powers had a great range of believable accents that made the story all that more engrossing. If food and love in the French countryside is right up your alley, this book is for you! (Also, DO NOT read this if you're hungry without the possibility of eating soon....).
Recommended for those who enjoyed The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah, Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave or you want a warmer/fuzzier version of Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

Eu gostaria de agradecer a Penguin Random House Internacional pelo envio do livro. (Thanks for the free book, @PRHGlobal/@prhinternational)


Sophie Valroux trabalha em um conceituado restaurante em Nova York, é noiva fake de seu melhor amigo (que é gay) e corre atrás de seu sonho que é ser uma chef com estrelas Michelin. Até que seu ex, Eric sabota seu trabalho e acaba com sua carreira e ela perde tudo. Os amigos de profissão lhe viram as costas e ao chegar em casa descobre que Walter se assumiu e agora não precisa mais do noivado fake. Tudo na vida dela desmorona. E quando liga para a avó, descobre que sua única família está num hospital. Sophie, então resolve pegar o primeiro avião e tomar conta da avó e do Chateau que ela comanda. Ao chegar na França, porém as coisas estão mais mudadas que Sophie imaginava.


Eu nunca tinha lido nada dessa autora e estou extremamente feliz em poder dizer que essa foi uma ótima experiência. Não só por mostrar que sonhos podem mudar e o que não podemos fazer é desistir.


Acontece tanta desgraça com a Sophie, ela é traída pelos amigos, seu trabalho é arruinado e apesar de ter momentos que eu pensei que ela fosse realmente desistir, ela não faz. Ela se levanta e luta pela avó, luta pelo legado da família e para reconstruir uma nova vida. Ela é talentosa, fiel e leal a seus princípios e isso foi o que mais gostei nela.


Há romance no livro, mas esse não é o foco. Rémi, é o melhor amigo de infância de Sophie e é apaixonado por ela desde os nove anos, mas quando a garota não voltou mais para a França, eles acabaram perdendo o contato e ele seguiu a vida. Todos seguiram a vida, apesar dos desencontros.


Enfim, essa história é deliciosa e eu queria muito que essa história sobre família, superação e se reencontrar viesse para o Brasil.

Sophie has it all—she's chef de partie at a restaurant about to receive it's third Michelin star and her career is right on track. Unfortunately, that third star doesn't come. And Sophie finds herself blamed. And fired.

Left with nothing, the final blow comes when she discovers that her beloved grandmother is in the hospital recovering from heart surgery. So she packs up and returns to France, a trip so long overdue that nothing looks familiar anymore.

Her grandmother's chateau is now a fancy resort with two restaurants. And her grandmother has her own award from Michelin. But she can't run it from a hospital bed. And so it's up to Sophie, who hasn't stepped foot in a kitchen successfully since losing her job, to take over. It's a job that comes with much weight, and Sophie isn't sure she can be up to the task. But being back in France serves as a reminder of all the things that set her on this path to begin with. And if anything can bring her back, it's her grandmother's faith in her abilities!

Verant makes her fiction debut with The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux.

Sophie really does feel like she has the world at her fingertips at the beginning of the book. She's confident both as a person and especially as a chef. But when she's sabotaged, by a cheating ex and fellow chef, she loses even her faith in her own talents. (Except that the sabotaging chef in question wants her to come work for him!).

She spends weeks holed up in her room and ignoring the kitchen. And her first attempts to dig herself out of the funk are disastrous.

And then she learns that her grandmother is sick.

Sophie's backstory is quite interesting. Her mother had mental health issues, which Sophie actually becomes convinced might plague her as well. And there's a secret hidden in this backstory as well—the reason her mother left France in the first place and prevented Sophie from returning for so long.

This is a character-driven family drama perfect for any foodie Francophile!

Thanks for the free book, @PRHGlobal/@prhinternational
Okay, confession time – when I got the widget from the PHR International team, I thought I was getting a totally different book. The one I had in mind was actually “Mrs. Graham’s Cold War Cookbook” by Celia Rees, which I still want to read, by the way. Well, I was about 20-25% into the book when I realized what I was reading had nothing to do with spies or wars. However, by that time, I was already intrigued and enjoying a real culinary fiction book (which I don’t think Rees’ book actually is), that has a touch of romance tossed in as a garnish (yes, you may expect me to fold some foodie puns into this review. Sue me!). Mind you, there is a bit of spying that happens in this book, so that is some small compensation.

So, now it is up to me to review the book I read, and not the one that I thought I was going to get. My initial thought was that there’s quite a bland trope here – girl on the cusp of getting everything she ever wanted and then her whole world deflates like an over-cooked soufflé, and as she picks up the pieces of her career, she also finds a bit of love to spice things up in the form of a childhood sweetheart, Rémi. My regular readers know that I’m not into romance novels, but thankfully, this novel doesn’t have Sophie swooning over some guy, at the expense of her taking hold of her life. In fact, I appreciated how Vérant practically went out of her way to make sure that Sophie concentrated on herself and her career much more hungrily than she did over a bunch of muscles. I also liked how Sophie’s drooling came more often while confronted with fresh produce, than when staring at Rémi. Most importantly, I appreciated how Vérant made this into a self-empowering, coming of age story, which also celebrated the life of Sophie’s grandmother.

All of these aspects earn this novel quite high marks from me, but I have to admit that there were a few things that weren’t all to my liking. For example, I believe Vérant made Sophie a bit too insecure throughout the novel. Yes, I understand that a blow to one’s career can do that to someone, and they often need to wallow for a while before they can begin the process of coming back into their own. However, Vérant allowed Sophie’s uncertainties to continue far too long for my taste. Plus, there were a bit too many ups and downs in Sophie’s progress towards becoming more self-assured. Of course, it can be argued against this that there’s always the worry behind any artist or professional (in any field), that one success after failures is just a fluke. The thing is, Vérant tells us that Sophie had been steadily rising the ranks of a two-starred Michelin restaurant for the past five years. You’d think that this experience would have helped her get back her mojo faster, and with fewer pitfalls. Also, I found the ending to be a bit too sweet and conveniently concluded, but readers will be thrilled to get some actual recipes from Vérant’s grandmother at the end, so that made up for this nicely.

I have to say that with all this, and considering it wasn’t the book I thought I was getting, I really did enjoy this novel very much. Vérant’s writing was really attractive, and as I said in the intro to this review, that easily kept me from having regrets for downloading this book. I can easily imagine that those readers who enjoy a really good contemporary women’s fiction novel that includes some romance along with an empowering, coming of age theme, will be giving this book a full five stars, for me, it was worthy of a very healthy four out of five. By the way, although the sophistication of the language here (including the additional bits in French) makes me classify this as adult fiction, I can see this appealing to young adult and new adult readers as well (and no, there are no steamy sex scenes, thank heavens – only a few passionate kisses).

An entertaining, foodie escape to France! When Sophie had nowhere else to trun, she went back home to France and her ailing grand-mere to find her love for cooking again. This novel combined two things I love--French culture and food--so it was the perfect read for me. I loved all the French words and phrases--I took two years of French in college and understood them (but don't worry, there's translations or context to know what is being said). This was definitely an enjoyable read.

Fabulous French cooking meets family mysteries! I enjoyed the food descriptions and details about the French cuisine. The recipes made me hungry! I also thought the relationship between Sophie and her grandmother was wonderful!! I enjoyed the mystery about her mother's death. I thought that some sections kind of dragged on a bit, maybe too much overthinking by Sophie. Also enjoyed the romance, would have like more of that with Remi!!
Food descriptions were very rich with adjectives and definitely made me imagine the food! I appreciate including recipes in the end. I liked the character growth shown in Sophie's cooking and her relationship with her grandmother.

Fun, light, delicious book that makes me want to go to France and eat great food - and bonus, there are a few recipes at the back of the book!

Sophie is a chef in NYC who's dream is to be the head chef of a Michelin starred restaurant. But when her ex-boyfriend sabotages her career, she loses her job and career. She gets a call about her grandmother in France; the woman has had a stroke and they don't know how long she will live. Sophie gets on a plane and heads to her grandmother's chateau, a place she hasn't visited since she was 13 years old.

During her stay in Champsvert, Sophie learns her family's history and secrets. She gets to know her grandmother and her recipes and her love of cooking and life is rekindled. There are friends and romance and discoveries.

So, why not 5 stars? I got so irritated with the flip-flopping of English and French. Some words were defined and some weren't, like not at all. People would be talking and then end a sentence with, 'mon cher' or something and I'm thinking, 'why not just have them say, 'my dear,' I mean the rest of the sentence is in English.' There was a lot of repetition of the same phrases, like having to do with 'finding her stars,' among others. A couple times would be fine, but it felt super repetitive to me. These may be petty, but they happened a lot, at least in the ARC. Hopefully the final copy will have fixed some of it.

My thanks to Berkley/Penguin and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read and reviewed this book and will provide the details directly to the publisher during the next round of this review process.

I love France and everything to do with French Cuisine and this book was perfection in those areas!! This is a wonderful story about a woman who has everything ripped away from her: her dream job, her life, basically everything she had worked so hard for.

So starting at rock bottom, she finds herself running to France to care for her ailing grandmother and trying figure out what to do next in her life. It is such a moving and wonderful story that has wonderful descriptions !!!

AND THE FOOD!! My god the food that is described in this book makes me so hungry as well as longing to go to France!!!

This book is perfection about finding yourself and discovering what your true passion is and how to recreate yourself !!! I loved it a lot ! Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux
by Samantha Vérant
Read an Excerpt
Berkley Publishing Group
You Like Them
Berkley
Women's Fiction
Pub Date 08 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 08 Oct 2020

A lovely, romantic book which I will recommend to those who love to dream of far off places. Not my favorite book for myself, however. Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC. Great recipes are included.
4 star

THE SECRET FRENCH RECIPES OF SOPHIE VALROUX has a lot of drama mixed in with cooking, menus, and recipes. Sophie is trying to make it in a man’s world and become a renowned chef at the well-known Michelin-star rated restaurant she works at in New York City. When things don’t go as planned, no one comes to her defense when she’s accused of something she didn’t do, and her life spirals out of control.

Sophie finds herself blackballed as a chef and hides in the apartment with her fake fiance, who is her gay best friend with his own love interest. When she finds out her French grandmother is very ill, she hops the next plane to France to help.

The story picked up for me once it settled in France, Secrets are revealed, and we find out if Sophie has what it takes to get back in the kitchen—in this case, a kitchen in her grandmother’s large chateau, including two restaurants and a vineyard (among other businesses.) Her grandmother employs many people from the small town, including Sophie’s friend, Remi, whom she hasn’t seen since she was thirteen, when she used to summer with her grandmother.

The characters are rich in depth and the story flows nicely. The descriptions of the food and scenery made made me feel like I was there. I loved the detailed menus that were displayed for various occasions and could smell and taste the food. French words and phrases are sprinkled throughout in the telling of the story. The cover does real justice to the book (and makes me want to visit the French countryside!) The discussion questions at the back of the book were thought provoking.

Ms. Verant is a new-to-me author, and I look forward to reading what she pens next. I was highly entertained by THE SECRET FRENCH RECIPES OF SOPHIE VALROUX.

3.5/5
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A huge thank you to Berkley for this ARC of The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant! I highly recommend you check it out if you are a fan of:
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🍇Food, glorious glorious food! (Seriously, nonstop mouthwatering food!)
🇫🇷 Novels set in Europe (Beautiful France!)
💕Heartwarming stories of redemption, love, and family!
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Sophie is a chef de partie at a prominent French restaurant in NYC that is on the verge of earning its third Michelin star. Being a woman in the cooking industry is no easy feat, so the notoriety of working at a restaurant so acclaimed would be what Sophie needs to advance her career and achieve her culinary dreams. However, after a vicious set up, Sophie is left with no job, no offers, and no confidence in the kitchen.
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After Sophie’s beloved grand-mere falls ill, Sophie travels to France to help take care of her and her sprawling chateaux. This is the part of the book that I loved ...to live somewhere beautiful, where the focus is on fresh food, a slower pace of life, and enjoying the day-to-day occurrences rather than the constant rush of ‘getting stuff done’ really spoke to me. The author truly made me feel like I was cooking alongside Sophie in the beautiful French chateaux. There were parts where the story dragged a bit and the romantic story was a bit contrived, but overall, I enjoyed how uplifting and heartwarming everything was.
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I 100 percent recommend this charming novel. Just have all the snacks with you while you read!

This was a delicious, romantic, sweet book! I completely fell in love with Champvert and the Chateaux.....I felt as if I was there,

Grandmere Odette stole my heart and I adored her character. Remi was easy to like and I was so thankful his distance from Sophie didn’t drag out forever.

The writing is beautiful and makes you feel like you’re part of the story! I love that! A thoroughly enjoyable book!

Perfect for the armchair traveler during this travel crisis. Sophie Valroux a chef in a top restaurant in New York City finds herself disgraced and fired. She's worked so hard to get to where she was, now she doesn't even want to leave the apartment of her "fiance" who is really her gay best friend who she's covering for. He has not come out to his family. Then she gets the call that her grandmother Odette is in the hospital. Sophie decides to hid out in the family home in France and see her grandmother, while she's still got the chance. Sophie has not been home for a visit in many years, because her mother and grandmother were estranged. She's shocked to find the family chateau is not the broken down place she recalls, but one of the top chateau accommodations in France including one of the top restaurants too. The chef with all the accolades is her very own grandmere Odette. Sophie works to embrace her family and culture and at the same time gains back her cooking mojo. She even manages to find romance too. It was such a pleasure to escape to the French countryside with Sophie and the cast of characters of the chateau. #TheSecretFrenchRecipesofSophieValroux #NetGalley

I usually wait 24hrs to digest a book before posting its review. This time, I cannot turn my computer on fast enough so I can share my feelings about The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux. My cheeks are still damp with tears of happiness and warm emotions. This was a fantastic story of deceipt, loss, mental illness, and most importantly family, cooking, love and second chances.

Sophie Valroux had to figure herself out after getting fired from her job at NY restaurant Cendrillon as Chef de Partie. She decides to go back to Champvert, France, to visit her grandmother that she hasn't seen since she was 13. Her grand-mere Odette has noble blood. They are the Varloux de la Tour de Champvert. The story really begins when she arrives at the Chateau. From there, the story is pure magic.

I particularly enjoyed the recipes (detailed at the end of the book), the reader's guide, and the intricate themes of love, family, and loss. This read brought out a lot of beautiful emotions within me. Nobody is perfect, sometime we might do things that might come back to haunt us, but we need to go with our guts. I also loved the facts that many characters initially come across as bad guys, but as you learn their story, you understand that this is just a wall they built to protect themselves.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to live in a fancy chateau in Southwestern France, loves reading about food and second chances, and anyone who enjoys reading about strong female characters.

A big thank you to author Samantha Verant who pulled a few strings in order to get me this memorable e-ARC, to publisher Berkley, and of course Net Galley.

There are some really great aspects to this book - The setting, the food descriptions and some of the characters. But then there are some major downsides - the main character has some flaws, I founds a few parts to be either predictable or unbelievable and the mix of English with French words to indicate a person was speaking french was jarring. First for the good. I really liked the majority of the secondary characters, they were really fun! I loved the setting of the Chateau and the descriptions of it, I just wish there had been more. I also loved the descriptions of all the foods. Despite those great parts of the book there were enough parts that I didn't like to knock it down to three stars. Sophie spends nearly half the book wallowing and whining. No one wants to read that for that long. Once she makes it to France things are a little unbelievable, at least for me. I don't want give away any spoilers so I'm not going into specifics but I found myself rolling my eyes a couple times. Overall it was a pretty good read and there were some things that could have been great but ultimately it lacked something for me.

Wow, when I saw this book, I didn't hesitate to read it, I'm a fan of books that have to do with chefs and even more if it has recipes. This story made me laugh, cry, it's fantastic, I can see how Sophie feels when she gets fired from her job. Sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone to be able to do something we like. I wish I could make the recipes that have this book, I can't wait. If you like books with family secrets, good food and more if you are French this book is perfect.

Like any good foodie novel, there’s a crisis in the career plans, there’s romance in a romantic place and there’s food, lot of it, along with recipes. Its not a recipe book, but the recipes compliment the story line. And, of course, at the end, Sophie discovers Michelin stars aren’t the best part of one’s life.