I will send a copy of Bon Appetit by Sandra Byrd to a randomly selected person who leaves a comment on my blog from Oct. 20 to Oct. 24.
This novel is a light and engaging confection about Lexi and her adventures in her new home in a small village outside of Paris, where she is enrolled in a pastry school, which is run by a severe pastry chef who is not fond of Americans.
Lexi is twenty something, and made a dramatic move away from her parents and her ex-boyfriend Dan in Seattle, to a sojourn at the cooking school.
There are tantalizingly delicious recipes included here, descriptions of delectable pastries, and Bible verses, as Lexi studies the Scripture of Jean, which is French for John. She chalks up on an extra menu board the verses from Jean that her church is studying. Lexi is beguiled by a delightful child named Celine and Celine’s widowed father Philippe adds a bit of spice to Lexi’s life.
For tension in her life, Lexi encounters “faux amis” or false friends, who may be sabotaging her in the pastry school. “Faux amis” also refers to words that sound alike in French and English, as Lexi learns to her embarassment when she tells a chef that Americans add preservatives to pastries. The English word “preservative” and the French “preservatif” have shockingly different meanings.
As you read, you will wonder if Lexi will end up with Dan or with Philippe, if she will pass the pastry program which is very difficult, and where she will live in future: in France or in Seattle.
I imagine that the previous novel “Let Them Eat Cake” and a sequel in this French Twist series to be published in 2009, are certain to be as much fun to read as “Bon Appetit.”
