How to Make a French Family

I started reading this and thought the author’s story sounded familiar. I later realized I had read her earlier memoir “Seven Letters from Paris”.
This second memoir follows Sam as she moves to France to be with her husband and his two children. She explains the differences in the French culture that she had to adjust to as an ex-pat living in France. Her relationships with the children, her husband, neighbors and friends are explored. While she is experiencing a new culture, she is also learning to be a stepmother, trying to become fluent in a language, navigate making friends as an adult, dealing with miscarriages, and assimilating into a new family.
I enjoyed the author’s honesty in presenting her story. I also enjoyed reading the recipes included in the book, and might have to try a few of them.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via NetGalley.

What happens after you reunite with the Frenchman you fell in love with 20 years ago, and the two of you marry in a romantic, fairy tale California wedding? In Samantha Vérant's How to Make a French Family we learn what happens after she marries the love of her life and moves to southwestern France to live with him and his two young children.

What I love with regards to How to Make a French Family is that Vérant doesn't sugarcoat things concerning the various difficulties she has initially with adjusting to life in a foreign country in addition to her role as a step-mother. She faces resistance, isolation loneliness and the occasional humiliation (due to the odd unintentional language faux pas) and yet gradually she learns to adjust to her new life in France all while making a couple of new friends too. Through it all, Vérant draws you into her world with her gorgeous prose and teleports you along her in moments of both sadness and joy.

As a person who loves travel and food, this book was a pleasure to read. Food plays a major role in How to Make a French Family and Vérant provides readers with recipes of dishes that she or her family members/friends have made that were mentioned in the book. Once again, Vérant has written another gem that has you cheering her on as she tackles her challenge of "how to make a French family".

This is the second part of her memoir , the first being Seven Letters From Paris, but one does not need to have read the first to be able to enjoy this one, although I highly recommend both as they are both so full of wonderful stories and people. The first one gives us more, about her life before moving to France, and about how she met Jean-Luc and then reconnected with him 20 years later.
In this book the Author Samantha, moves to France to live with her Love, Jean-Luc and his two children her now step children. She goes through a lot, of both joy and fears as she gets used to living in France, from the language, meeting new friends and getting the acceptance of her stepchildren, everything is new and a challenge, but one she is determined to master.
The Author is a wonderful writer, making us feel like we are a part of her journey. We can all relate to some of the things she has gone through and that I think draws us even more into her story.
I really hope she continues to write about her life and her families lives, as the years go on.
I thank NetGalley for the ARC copy.

A fun read about a woman learning to live in the French countryside, forge connections with her neighbors and family and live happily as an expat.

An absolute delight to read! Samantha writes about the challenges of adapting to life in France with her long-lost love and his two children. The writing is honest, uplifting, and oh so real. Now I need to seek out her first book!

Love, laughter and tears-a delight to read.

I loved the concept of this: A memoir with recipes. A lovely warm tone at the start, I could tell instantly it was a book I was going to enjoy. A lovely, lighthearted look at life and love.

I must confess I have Samantha Verant's first memoir-but not read it yet. I wondered whether to read it first or dive straight in this new book. Could it stand alone too? I definitely think it can, you can read them in any order.

There's a really happy, bubbly feel to this. It would make a very pretty, heart warming film-but it's not just a fictional feel-good movie-it's Samantha's real life-and it makes wonderful reading. So the fairytale begins-but does it continue happily ever after? There are unexpected humorous events right after getting home from their honeymoon.

I really enjoyed this memoir combined with recipes symbolising the perfect ingredients for happy and contented family life and the spontaneous changes to those recipes along the way; the ups and downs that life throws at you. A wonderful read, a real feast of a book. I loved it all the way through, from start to finish. Love, laughter and tears-a delight to read.

A delightful insightful novel about the American who after a disastrous first marriage reconnects with a former French boyfriend that she knew briefly as a younger woman. It begins with the aftermath of their wedding and how she begins her new life with two step children and is interspersed with recipes from the meals that are part of her new French life. The wonderful characters she encounters as well as the ups and downs of living with the children and also trying for her longed for baby. Something to make you smile, laugh out loud and even cry.

Perfect book in its category- I read the first book so for the first part of this new Samantha
Verant title I found myself wondering if I had read this one before too- impossible as
that is-as I read on the uniqueness of the second book was apparent. I liked best her ability
to capture the challenges of relocation/relationships free of sugar coating. I think if I had to pick
I would choose this title over the first one

Thank You to Sourcebooks for providing me with an advanced copy of Samantha Verant's memoir, How to Make a French Family, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- In her early thirties, Samantha Verant found herself divorced, working as a dog walker, and living at home with her parents in California. Thinking about her past, she decides to send an apology letter to Jean-Luc, a Frenchman whom she had met in her late teens while traveling in Europe. Verant had promised to stay in touch with Jean-Luc, but failed to keep her promise. Now, nearly two decades later, she discovers that Jean-Luc is a widower with two teenage children, Max and Elvire. Jean-Luc and Verant quickly fall back in love, marrying a year later. Verant's memoir captures the joys and frustrations of moving to a foreign country and becoming a step-mother to two French teenagers. 

LIKE- I've read many "fish-out-of-water" memoirs about living in foreign country, but Verant's unique details make How to Make a French Family, compelling. Verant is not only living in a foreign country, but she is now the step-mother to two French chidren. As a American step-mother to two Swedish children ( and a former dog walker, divorcee and Californian), I could relate to Verant. We still live in the United States, and only have the children on holidays, but it's not out of the question that we could one day move to Europe. I admire Verant, as she is both tough and brave following her new destiny in France. Luckily, Max and Elvire are accepting of Verant, and normal teenage issues aside, they accept her as part of their family. 

Verant is in her late 30's/early 40's, when she decides to try for a baby with Jean-Luc. Verant suffers multiple miscarriages, but the support of her French family, allows her to embrace the idea of her current family being enough. Although Max and Elvire were happy about the prospect of a new sibling, both time and the loss of the babies, gave them the courage to express to Verant that they feared she would not view them the same as a child of her own. Verant came from a blended family. and was very close to her own step-father, so this was the last thing that she wanted Max and Elvire to think. This frank dialogue and love, is what I liked most about Verant's family. 

If you're a Francophile or simply curious about French culture, Verant peppers her story with her American perspective of living in a foreign country. She certainly has some frustrations and mishaps, but most of her writing reveals an affinity for her new home. 

Food is a huge part of French culture and Verant includes the recipes for all of the meals mentioned in, How to Make a French Family. Do not read on an empty stomach!

DISLIKE- Nothing. Verant's memoir is entertaining and it will warm your heart. 

RECOMMEND- Yes! How to Make a French Family is proof that your life can shift course when you least expect it. Verant has a beautiful life to share, and it will certainly make you want to visit southern France.

For some reason I didn't think i would like this book but I actually loved it and really enjoyed reading it. Like someone else said, it is very honest and it was also quite heartbreaking at times. I liked the truthful way the relationship between Sam and her step-children developed too. It was a really enjoyable read and put across how isolating it must feel to be in another country, using a different language and having to get used to different social norms. I love books about France (being a dedicated Francophile) and would recommend this one.

What a lovely and charming book! The key, I think, is the big heart for Verant's new family, even with all the ups and downs everyone experiences. I especially liked that this was set in the South versus in Paris, making it all the more about settling in. Great local color, great characters- you will root for this family to succeed. I did not read the first book but that wasn't a problem at all. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Choose this one for a good light read.

How to Make a French Family is a wonderful, funny, embracing memoir of a Chicago girl who marries an older French man , becomes step-mother to his children, and moves to a small French city. This novel speaks on themes such as love, loss and family, and it is written in an honest voice that gives the reader a close intimate relationship with the author.--Le Coeur de l'Artiste

This is a wonderful story of adjusting to change, trying new things, and developing family. The recipes sound delicious and don't take up too much of the book. If you're not a food person, you can enjoy the story without missing much at all. The author balances the book perfectly, showing just enough of her family and her feelings to draw you in, but not exposing too much private information or dwelling too long on the hard things. She manages to convey depth of negative feelings with wallowing, which is a pretty remarkable feat for a memoir.