Published on October 19th, 2021 by Berkley Books
Summary:
In this delectable novel, a chef on the rise fuels her passion for cooking while enduring the hardest challenges she’s ever faced after a debilitating injury.
Everybody wants a piece of grand chef Sophie Valroux. With her once-destroyed reputation fully recovered and then some, Sophie is making her mark in the culinary world. She’s running the restaurants of ChĂąteau de Champvert, the beautiful estate that she inherited from her grandmother. She and her fiancĂ©, RĂ©mi, are closer than ever, and she’s even bonding with his daughter Lola. Everything should be perfect.
Yet, Sophie still feels something in her heart is missing.
When she’s invited to cook at an exclusive event her culinary idol is attending, she thinks this could be the thing to catapult her to greater heights, maybe even bring her one step closer to her one and only dream of achieving the stars–Michelin stars.
But fate has other plans for Sophie. After she accepts to cook for the Parisian elite, her world crumbles. She suffers a fall and loses her senses of smell and taste. Certain that her career will vanish if people find out, she keeps this secret to herself, not even telling RĂ©mi. She fakes it all: the menus for every meal, the taste of fresh figs, the juicy cherries in the orchard. All she has to do is get through life–and the event–tasteless without missing a single step. Fake it ’til you make it…right?
Review:
If there were recipes included, I might have had to âSpend my year as Sophie Valrouxâ. This was blog I loved that was done by a fan of Julia Childs. I know that Samantha VĂ©rant, the author of âSophie Valroux Paris Starsâ must be able to cook, otherwise her very own protagonist wouldnât be writing about food so deliriously delicious! Visit Paris is on my Bucket List, now eating at a Michelin Stars Restaurant has been added. I cherish books that make me feel this connected because of its intimacy. Samantha wraps us up in the story as if we are part of it. There is an elegance to reading it, just as there is an elegance to top star dining! There is commitment to it, just as there is commitment in dating a man with a child.
There is a delivery of beauty and lights and aromas you can only absorb by opening these pages. The same goes for friendship and love.
This is your ticket to Paris! This is your invitation to experience it until you can get there in real life. If you canât get there in real life, Samantha Verantâs second installment in the Series will satisfy the aches you had about not going. Trust me!
Sit, read, sip your drinks and snack on your charcuterie and go spend some time with Sophie! Youâll be so glad you did!
5 Michelin Stars!
Author Bio:
Samantha VĂ©rant is a travel addict, a self-professed oenophile, and a determined, if occasionally unconventional, French chef. Over the years, sheâs visited many different countries, lived in many places, and worked many jobsâ always on the search for the one thing that truly excited her. Then, one day, she found everything sheâs been looking for: a passion for the written word and true love. Writing not only enabled her to open her heart, it led her to southwestern France, where sheâs now married to a sexy French rocket scientist she met over twenty years ago, a stepmom to two incredible kids, and the adoptive mother to one ridiculously adorable Charteux cat. When sheâs not trekking from Provence to the PyrĂ©nĂ©es, tasting wine in American-sized glasses, or embracing her inner Julia Child while deliberating what constitutes the perfect boeuf bourguignon, Samantha is making her best effort to relearn those dreaded conjugations.
The Write Review 
I read the first one and I liked it, but… not enough to follow onto reading more, I’m afraid. Glad you’re enjoying them.