Review: Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars by Samantha Verant

About the Book:

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 Château de Champvert, the beautiful estate that she inherited from her grandmother. She and her fiancé, Rémi, 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 Rémi. 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?

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/sophie-valroux-s-paris-stars-by-samantha-verant

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56845743-sophie-valroux-s-paris-stars

My Thoughts:

Chef is cooking again in author Samantha Verant’s Sophie Valroux’s Paris Stars. In this sequel to Sophie Valroux’s Secret French Recipes, we readers get more of all the inhabitants of Chateau de Champvert and more. Ms. Verant deftly takes from Sophie’s past to her present and gives us a peak at her future.

As in book one, Sophie has great talent that is somewhat hidden by her lack of confidence and her bumpy-road past. Her grand-mere has just passed away and left everything to Sophie, but can Sophie run the kitchen and the business well enough to keep her family’s interests alive? The incredible characters who work at the Chateau and become her friends are amazingly supportive and believe that all will work out. It is only Sophie who is not confident about it. It is partially her past, partially the grief that still blankets her every day, and it is partially the elusive chase for Michelin stars.

I loved the female characters. The sisterhood and support adds so much to these stories. In this second book, I was less enamored with Remi, Sophie’s childhood friend who has become a boyfriend. He is still supportive, but in a more controlling way as he tries to be Sophie’s partner instead of her sidekick.

To some degree that is Sophie’s problem and life lesson. What is important to her? What will make her happy? Are those Michelin stars in her future? You’ll need to read the book to find out!

P.S. I am definitely going to try a couple of the recipes in the back of the book.

About the Author: Samantha Vérant is a travel addict, a self-professed oenophile, and a determined, if occasionally unconventional, French chef. Over the years, she’s visited many different countries, lived in many places, and worked many jobs— always on the search for the one thing that truly excited her. Then, one day, she found everything she’s 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 she’s 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 she’s not trekking from Provence to the Pyrénées, 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.