Tempesta is grieving. He father has just passed on and she was excluded from the will. Her brother got it all. She's not surprised because she had always felt like the blacksheep of the family. However, her mother had left her money in her will. She decided to move to a small town in Provence. And, there, she finds herself.

Many thanks to HarperCollins Focus and Net Galley for an audio ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this lovely story of family, food and love. The characters are well done and I was transported to Provence. There was a bit of magical realism that felt just right in the story. I was reminded of the book Chocolat, which is a favorite of mine. The narrator did a great job with the accents and language, I’m glad I listened to this one.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced audiobook. All opinions are my own.

his book is one that makes the reader think about the meaning and importance of family as well as the idea that life is something more than how much money we make or how many hours we work. The narrator, Tempesta, suddenly loses her father after having lost her mother when she was a teenager. Her grandmother is cold to her and makes Tempesta feel as if she doesn't belong in her family. Tempesta works as a food critic in the United States but decides to go to her mother's village in France and buys a small house there with the small inheritance from her mother (her brother got the lion's share, from the father), sight unseen. Although she is not initially welcomed by everyone there (some call her a witch), she comes to make a life there, coming to understand that a life is more than going to work each day and making money. She gets out of the rat race and discovers that the community is all around her and she finds her own true talents, in spite of the pressure placed upon her by her brother who wants her to come home to help him run the family business, that is literally making him ill.
There are wonderful characters in this book, beautiful descriptions and important and meaning messages for the reader (without being didactic). I definitely look forward to reading future books by Ms. Runyan.
The narrator, Caroline Leavitt, was absolutely wonderful. She had a difficult task, properly pronouncing all of the French words and phrases. She really brought the protagonist to life, right from the beginning, making us feel her frustration with her family after her father's death. Given that this book focuses almost exclusively on this protagonist, it is absolutely crucial to have a narrator who "feels" like the character and Ms. Leavitt did.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Muse/Harper Collins Focus for providing me with the opportunity to read this wonderful book.