How to Make a French Family

February 13, 2017
Verant combines one part second chance at romance, on part travelogue, and nearly three dozen recipes in this heartfelt account of how she reconnected with a lover 20 years after their affair and started life over in France with an instant family. When Verant was 19 and traveling through Europe, she had a brief encounter with a Frenchman named Jean-Luc. Not ready for something serious, she never responded to his ardent letters. Two decades later, divorced and in debt, Verant reached out to Jean-Luc, who had been widowed, recently divorced his second wife, and become the solo parent of his two young kids. The undeniable chemistry was still there, and a year later they married and moved outside of Toulouse. In her new environment, Verant had to navigate the laborious bureaucracy and red tape that come with being a foreigner living abroad, learn how to speak French more fluently, and understand vast behavior and cultural differences (such as the French habit of being very direct and making intense eye contact). Most critically, she had to figure out how to bond with her stepchildren, who were still dealing with grief and distrust after Jean-Luc’s ill-advised second marriage. In the end, as Verant warmly writes, food—and her cooking—gave her a sure-fire way in with the family, as they often prepared meals and dined together.

January 15, 2017
A determinedly positive memoir about starting life over as mother to a family in southwestern France.Verant's first memoir (Seven Letters from Paris, 2014) chronicled the author's fairy-tale romance with a handsome French rocket scientist she had met 20 years earlier and then pursued after a divorce and a business failure left her in debt. This book is the happily-ever-after follow-up, in which the two marry and the author takes responsibility for her new husband's two children, preteen Max and teenage Elvire. Rugby-playing Max took the new situation in stride; "porcelain doll" Elvire was less taken with her new stepmother. In short, peppy chapters, the author describes the stages of her adjustment to life in France. She got her driver's license, made some expatriate friends, gradually increased her knowledge of the language, learned to scuba dive and ski, wrote her first memoir, and, along with her husband, renovated their house. As a "glass-is-half-full, not empty kind of girl," Verant touches on but doesn't explore deeply the emotional pain of miscarriage. Instead, she provides accounts of family vacations, holiday get-togethers, the self-created "Stepmother's Day," and delicious meals, for some of which she supplies recipes, including one for "frushi" (French sushi). Her husband, Jean-Luc, can be "a little bossy," but they never "argue, yell, or fight," instead employing the "bonobo strategy" of using sex to defuse anger. The author's descriptions tend toward the generic: one friend's husband is "tall, dark, and handsome," and another's "dashing and charming." So do her insights: "life is a bowl of cherries, even when there are pits"; "even with its twists and turns, nature eventually takes its course." Those looking for a breezy read about a transplanted American in France may be satisfied, but the book dwells more on Verant's personal life than on observations of the world around her.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2017
Change is never easy, especially when it's in another city or, better yet, another country. Verant (Seven Letters from Paris, 2014) managed to do it, with a few challenges along the way, and provides readers a charming and witty look at how in this memoir. The Chicago girl moves to southwestern France to be with her new husband and his children, and is enthralled by a new life in a quaint city, but it's not everything she expected. After many struggles while trying to raise her stepchildren (and having them develop into testy teenagers), along with not always seeing eye-to-eye with her husband, and dealing with a terrible tenant, Verant's doubts about her new life continue to grow. Luckily, Verant and her husband's love of cooking has always helped bring them together, giving them a foundation that is unbreakable. Verant's memoir touches on universal, real-life themes, like love, loss, and family, while mixing in plenty of delicious French flavors (and actual recipes) that make for a tasty read that's true to the heart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)