Hitting the Books

Bon Appetit

French Twist Book 2

Sandra Byrd

Summary: In this second book in the French Twist series, readers join Lexi Stuart in a crème de la crème adventure!

Deciding to leave her familiar home in Seattle and her could-be boyfriend Dan, Lexi moves to a quaint village in France to pursue her dream of becoming a pastry chef. Life among the French initially proves to be less than easy as Lexi is challenged by her coworkers, missing her friends, and failing to master the perfect baguette.

Determined to find her place, Lexi settles into the culture and life becomes la perfection. She finds a church, meets a new friend, and makes the acquaintance of a child named Celine—as well as Celine’s attractive, widowed father, Philippe. Even Patricia, the gruff pastry cook, shows a softer side as she mentors Lexi in the art of baking.

Fast, fun, and packed with French culture, foodie appeal, and unique recipes readers will love accompanying Lexi on her journey in Bon Appetit as she tries to choose between two countries, two men and the faith to lean on God while savoring the surprises life brings!

After reviewing Let Them Eat Cake last year, I was looking forward to book two. And I wasn’t disappointed. Lexi is just as real and funny as she was the first time around. The story moves along quickly (it was an easy evening’s read) and if the situations and characters aren’t always exactly realistic, they are at least very believable. I am curious how Ms. Byrd is going to solve Lexi’s love dilemma, but I suppose I’ll have to wait until next year for the answer to that.

The only things I found problematic with both Let Them Eat Cake and Bon Appetit are all those loving descriptions of the sweets and pastries and other yummy yummy things that I can’t eat any more. Pout. (Refined sugar and I do not get along at all.)

So…I definitely recommend Bon Appetit (in fact I already have–my mom liked it too). Yes, it is a delightful bit of air and sweet fluff. But so are cream puffs, and I absolutely love cream puffs. (”Anybody have a good recipe for sugar-free cream puffs?” she asks plaintively.)

The stress level in our house sky-rocketed yesterday when I realized somewhere between Georgetown and the Smithsonian that my wallet was AWOL. Talk about a whirlwind of activity. My wonderful hubby came home early from work (the Punkin and I were still on the train coming home) and started calling everybody. Thank God he did that, since I can’t even remember everything that was in the wallet, let alone calling up and canceling cards, reporting them missing, etc. How long will it take for this chaos to settle down to “normal’ again? And when will my brain stop pretending it’s a bowl of pudding?