A free copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The French for Christmas is the story of chef Evie, who having recently suffered a stillbirth which has led to the end of her marriage with celebrity chef Will, retreats from the overwhelm of Christmas in London to stay at her friend's home in France over the holidays. There, Evie gets to know the locals and even meets handsome doctor Dider.
So first of all, while this novel has got romance in it, it is not a particularly romantic story. Instead The French for Christmas focuses more on Evie's journey to recuperating after the trauma of her daughter's stillbirth and finding her way back to being the person she was before. All the while, she also meets her new neighbours in France, all of whom help her in some way to deal with her grief. Valpy never really flinches from the residual trauma of losing a child that Evie is suffering from and I think this makes the novel the better for it. I really found myself rooting for Evie and engaged in her struggle to deal with her depression and I have to say, certain parts of the story, particularly the relationship that develops between Evie and her neighbour Eliane did make me cry a bit. The writing just felt thoughtful and didn't try to rush Evie out of her grief and into a relationship where everything is sunshiny straight away again. It made it much more meaningful and by the time a bit of a love triangle popped up at the end of the novel, it just felt a bit shoehorned in for the sake of this being chicklit.
Characters that I was rooting for and a deeper than expected plot really had me hooked. 4.5 stars.

I've had this book sitting on my NetGalley shelf for years now, a symptom of falling out of love with reading and reviewing I'm afraid. Having got back into the swing of things, I decided to tackle my NetGalley shelf starting with the Christmas books and I'm so glad I did because this book turned out to be exactly what I needed right now.

I loved the beautiful setting in the heart of rural France with just a few neighbours nearby. I'd absolutely love to spend Christmas in rural France surrounded by beautiful scenery, and although it seemed cut off from the world, with the right people nearby you'd never feel lonely. I adored the Neighbours themselves, especially Eliane. She has an amazing outlook on life despite having lived through tough times and turns out to be just the tonic that Evie needs having had a recent tragedy herself.

Seeing Evie's love of cooking come back to her was a joy to see as I became invested in her, hoping for some light to shine through and help to chase away some of the darkness within her. After what she'd been through I was really hoping that she could find some way to live again and although she could never forget what had happened I wanted her to find some way to bring happiness into her life again.

This was a lovely short Christmas story, emotionally charged but also fulfilling and showing what Christmas time is really about, and it's not about what we have, but who we have around us.

This is the first book I have read by Fiona valpy and I will be on the look out for more books by Fiona valpy.

This book keeps you reading I loved the descriptions in this book it made me want to visit France in the near future.

The storyline tugged on my heartstring made me laugh and smile i loved all the characters.

I would like to thank netgalley for letting me review this book

the french and christmas - nothing is better than that