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A review by shelfquest
How to Make a French Family: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Faux Pas by Samantha Verant
5.0
How to Make A French Family is a delightful follow-up to Seven Letters from Paris. In this book, Samantha has moved to Cugnaux, a small town in southwestern France with her husband, Jean-Luc, and her stepchildren, Elvire and Max. Moving to a new country, newly married, and suddenly being a mom are all huge life events. Samantha shares the struggles of her experience without dragging the reader down; she adequately describes the difficulties while still keeping an upbeat tone, which is consistent throughout the entire book.
One thing I really love about her writing is that the tone makes you feel happy and like everything is going to be okay. This is a happy read from the very first sentence and doesn't stop, despite painful and uncomfortable topics (miscarriages, telling your step-daughter you're having "asshole" for dinner). There were several moments where I laughed out loud (see "asshole" note in previous sentence) and some where I wanted to cry (or give them a hug) for what this family I have grown to care so much about through these two books we're going through. It was also really neat to read about how Seven Letters from Paris came to be.
The positive tone of this book is contagious and makes me feel hopeful for my own aspirations to write and become fluent in French. Merci, Samantha, for another truly wonderful book. I'm already eagerly awaiting the next one! ;-)
I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
One thing I really love about her writing is that the tone makes you feel happy and like everything is going to be okay. This is a happy read from the very first sentence and doesn't stop, despite painful and uncomfortable topics (miscarriages, telling your step-daughter you're having "asshole" for dinner). There were several moments where I laughed out loud (see "asshole" note in previous sentence) and some where I wanted to cry (or give them a hug) for what this family I have grown to care so much about through these two books we're going through. It was also really neat to read about how Seven Letters from Paris came to be.
The positive tone of this book is contagious and makes me feel hopeful for my own aspirations to write and become fluent in French. Merci, Samantha, for another truly wonderful book. I'm already eagerly awaiting the next one! ;-)
I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.