A beautifully layered historical romance that transports you to WWII France and post-war Paris, The French Kitchen is filled with secrets, betrayal, and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers story that unfolds across dual timelines.

Spanning the chaos of the 1940s to the complexities of 1952, the story blends espionage, deception, and redemption with rich atmospheric detail. Multiple POVs and timelines add depth, though at times made it a bit tricky to follow. The beginning was slow for me, but that ending? Totally worth it.

Julia Child fans will enjoy her charming (though brief) appearance, adding a splash of flavor to an already emotionally satisfying story. If you’re in the mood for a historical fiction read that rewards your attention, this is it!

🥖🖤🕵🏻‍♀️

The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron had me scratching my head. The story is told from two different heroines' perspective, then told in two different time periods. As I was reading, I had a hard time keeping the two stories apart. While I love a good World War II spy novel, I really was drawn into the concept of the story, but it sadly did not deliver for me. The action was a little on the downside, and the romance really was not there. It wanted to be, but it was weak at times. The surprise ending was nice, but I felt like the story really didn't set up to have that type of reveal. I enjoyed the setting. I liked traveling through Europe during a horrific time in world history. Cambron does a good job at allowing her readers to see and feel the setting. Her prose is nicely handled. I loved how she crafted some sentences and used words to convey a feeling or color that I would not have thought of to describe things, but it worked perfectly for the story. Overall, The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron really did not deliver the type of story that I was promised to have been given. I wanted more suspense. Maybe just one heroine in the two different timelines.

I received a complimentary copy of The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron from Harper Collins Christian Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." ~ I Corinthians 13:12

Reading this new title from Kristy Cambron felt a bit like looking in a dim mirror -- in the first part. We have two timelines - 1952 and 1943. In 1943, there are two women showing us what it was like to be working with the Resistance in northern, coastal France. Both the French chef, Manon, and Kat, the American sous chef, are working in a chateau kitchen and serving the enemy.

To work with the Resistance was to be in constant doubt of others. You cannot rely on words or actions of those around you. Some may pledge allegiance to your cause and turn you into the French or German authorities. Others may seem to be helping while secretly contributing to the enemy.

As the book moves our vision clears and we can see what was really happening in 1943. Is it too late for Kat to find her missing brother Gavin? Will her new husband in 1952 be a key to closure and future happiness for Kat?

With a name like 'The French Kitchen,' you will expect some good cooking. There is plenty of that with Julia Child in the 1952 timeline, teaching cooking classes in Paris. Having her in the mix was a delight.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be available on August 5, 2025.

I was really hoping by the title of this book that there would be a lot of food/cooking. Part of the story happened in a kitchen and a cooking class, but there wasn't a lot of making or describing food as I had expected.
I also spent most of the book confused as to what was going on. There were several people that the book followed, it jumped around a timeline spanning 10 years, and several of the people were spies and therefore had code names to keep straight as well.
I wanted to enjoy this book because of the topic, but it didn't hold my interest because I struggled to follow the story line.

The French Kitchen was a detailed historical novel set during WWII France, Post-Paris, and was inspired by the legendary Julia Child, the famed chef who also worked as a spy during the war. The story features two narratives, both of which have two timelines--during the war and post war--so it was interesting to go back in time to see the characters' lives during the war & how things progressed for them after the war & how both plot threads tied together in the end.

While The Paris Dressmaker will always be my favorite novel of Cambron's, this one was quite enjoyable--a clean read with powerful themes and heartwarming romance. If you love wartime novels, pick this one up!

This book is SO complicated- note taking is a must. A physical book would be helpful for note taking & flipping around to help keep track of whoxs who. There are aliases for aliases and the same character may have 3 or 4 names in the various timelines. There's are two Celenes (both are aliases)- the original Celene who disappeared and her replacement. Overall it's a good book but best to be aware that it's one you need to work at. Thank you to Netgalley, Thomas Nelson, and Zondervan Fiction Audio for providing an e-arc and an audio arc in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron showcases the author's talent in writing masterful stories. I was completely invested from page one and could NOT put this down.

This dual timeline story really begins in spring of 1943 in Boston, with siblings Kat and Gavin Harris, and then goes back and forth from the war in France in 1943, where resistance to the war brings daily threats of death, to 1951 and 1952 post war in Paris. "In occupied France you lived by your wits or died the moment you abandoned them." "The next sound Kat heard was death-the click of a Luger trigger aimed at the back of her head."

I absolutely loved reading the back and forth to eventually get the whole astonishing story. I was simply glued to the pages. Kristy Cambron has penned another winner!

From Kat Harris being recruited to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA) for "Spy work" which she accepts (to search for her missing brother), to interrogations, code names, spies, double agents, to meeting Julia Child after the war, to a marriage of convenience, I was simply captivated by this story!

Kat is dropped from a plane behind enemy lines and becomes a field operative who ended up in Baie de Somme before the Normandy invasion.

Quotes from the story:
"Courage was not for the faint of heart, but reserved for those who would willingly risk no less than everything they held dear."
"He watches her-keenly. When he thinks no one else is looking."
"Kat appeared in control of her emotions regardless of the state of affairs she found herself in. The woman before him now owned that characteristic steel resolve yet was much changed at the same time."
'It had become the contradiction Kat couldn't untangle between the memory of the captain and the singular man who now sat next to her."
"...the truth that the first thing he'd done as her husband was break their vow...and lead her into a trap."
"I suppose I'm still mucking through the mire of yesterday-not allowing myself to really look back at all that's happened, but also not moving forward."
"Don't look back." "He is willing to give up everything, except her."

"Well, all I know is this-nothing you ever learn is really wasted, and will sometime be used. -Julia Child."

I loved the characters and was invested in finding out if they made it through the war, Kat Harris, Gavin Harris, Celene, Dominique, Magellan, Captain Gerard Fontaine, Chef Manon Altier, and Valens. I loved this story and was even shocked by a few twists and turns at the end!

If you love spy stories, WWII, and excellent historical fiction, you don't want to miss this one!

Thank you to Thomas Nelson and Net Galley for allowing me to read an early copy. I can't wait for my preordered copy for my keeper shelf to arrive.

This novel took off with a bang from the get go with the war, espionage, Maquis, Vichy Police, OSS agents, chefs at a chateau all mixed up with a strange proposal of marriage, Julia Child, and haute Parisienne society in the 1950s.

This dual timeline book had me rather confused but very intrigued to unravel the tangled balls that Cambron sent rolling down at regular intervals. Just as soon as you think you're going to follow one mystery, she tosses in another twist in the tale. But a little ways in, things start to get clearer.

Kat Harris is an OSS operative who joined to find her brother, Gavin who goes missing after secretly joining up and landing somewhere in France. Her socialite mother and her super wealthy, influential, powerful, well connected military colonel second husband, Lou had tried their hardest to keep him from joining up.

Kat's plane takes a direct hit and she parachutes a long way from her original drop zone. Seriously injured, she's taken to the house of the local Vichy police captain to recuperate.

At the local Reich headquarters in the local chateau, it's business as usual in the kitchen under Chef Manon. Manon and her patissier, Valens are involved with the Resistance, and her staff are filled with Germans, French sympathizers etc. So, they have to move very carefully as they plan their next moves with the local Resistance passing messages to and fro. Making the game even more fraught with danger is the Vichy police captain - Gerard Fontaine, a stickler for procedure. Pitchforked into this cauldron of espionage, stealth, cat and mouse games, danger and cooking, as an underchef (who doesn't know how to cook), Kat has to learn cooking, fast and in secret from Chef Manon.

With the dual timeline in post war Paris in 1952, Kat has to find out who sent her the telegram indicating that Gavin was alive when he was declared missing in action and dead in 1947. He had been given an empty casket burial by his grief stricken mother, stepfather and sister.

Is he alive, if so where, who sent this telegram and to what purpose? What elaborate cat and mouse game is on now and what are the stakes this time? What does her new husband know about Gavin's being alive that he hasn't disclosed to her? Why is he keeping it a secret? How much should she trust him? Can she trust again after all her wartime experiences? In the midst of all this, Kat and her friend Mimi enroll for cooking classes with Julia Child and her two collaborators, Simka and Louisette Bertholle at L'École des Trois Gourmandes.

Julia soon winkles out Kat's secret and they bond over their mutual OSS pasts and love for French cooking. Indeed, the Childs' help Kat and her husband run her brother to earth, and you realise the tiny but key role Julia unwittingly played while an OSS operative, that had huge repercussions in 1952.

I loved the book, Cambron kept me to the edge of my seat, wanting to know what was next, however, shifting chapters between different timelines and different POVs, was rather choppy. The characters are well drawn and evolve as the story progresses along both timelines: Kat and Manon to maturity, full revelation and understanding and Gerard and Gavin to full disclosure and development. The love stories entwined organically within the novel are tender, poignant and thoroughly enjoyable. The danger of betrayal, unmasking, arrest or worse is very real and evident through out the novel, portrayed by a deft, sure hand.

My only grouse is that while it's touted as a Christian novel, there's little to no mention of how their faith helped the characters through very trying times as field operatives in a deadly war that continued long after it was over.

Buy the book and enjoy the cooking: both the meals and the story as it moves along.

I was given an eARC thanks to @ThomasNelsonFiction via @NetGalley, but the opinions expressed here are my own.

Please note: Thank you to Thomas Nelson for providing this advanced copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 stars)

I was a little hesitant going into this book after reading The Italian Ballerina, because that one was a little too dark for my taste (and sad). However, reading this one, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this one was much more my cup of tea. I was intrigued by this absolutely gorgeous cover, and pretty much instantly became interested with the different timelines and various characters.

I will say that the different POVs and timelines were a little much for my brain to wrap itself around. However, I did figure things out as I went along, but it definitely required a lot more concentration than I was expecting. I did enjoy a lot of the characters– especially the side ones.

My favorite of the timelines was the 50s one (no surprise if you know me and my love for all things from that time period), and I really liked the romance and relationships we were focused on there. Those characters were very complex, but I enjoyed their dynamic and how we saw things unfold there.

There was a heaviness to this story that is inherent in pretty much all WW2 books. The injustice and cruelty depicted is absolutely heartbreaking, but I do feel that the author handled it pretty well. Definitely some trigger warnings, but, overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the message of hope in this story, and how things came together at the end. I really hope the author continues to write more books like this, because I really enjoyed that element.

I would definitely recommend anyone who finds torture and execution scenes in books to be triggering look into this book further before reading, because that was a very present element in parts. I personally skimmed small sections because it was just very sad. I would say that it was pretty clean in other content– there is a married couple who is implied to have a “wedding night”, but nothing open-door or even fade-to-black in my opinion.

If you’re a reader of many WW2 fiction books, I would think you would be comfortable with this one, and I would definitely recommend it, because I really enjoyed the twists and turns, and the Julia Child elements. I was very happy with how things turned out overall, and I am excited to read more books by this author in the future!

EMOJI REVIEW!
🕰 historical ww2 setting/early 1950s setting
😠 distrustful enemies-to-more marriage of convenience
🔎 lots of secrets and mysteries we’re trying to uncover
🕵 spies, espionage, and resistance work
🧑‍🍳 julia child as a supporting character!
🧁 lots of cooking scenes and interesting tidbits!

Every time I get to experience a Kristy Cambron book, I am impressed by her astute attention to detail and the beautiful ways she tells unique stories. I have read many WWII novels but this offers a new layer to the complexities of war in 1940s Paris and in the years after the war. As always, I admired Kristy's beautiful writing, stunning characterization, and poignant storytelling.

I am continually drawn to Kristy's novels because of her beautiful writing. I love the way she crafts her novels including this one. The details are plentiful and create a beautiful backdrop for her story. I always feel transported into Kristy's stories and experience these time periods in new ways.

The dual timelines of this novel are engaging and intricate. I was intrigued by how Kat gets from her experiences in the war to her complicated marriage in the 1950s. And I wondered along with her what happened to her brother. There are a lot of moving pieces in this story which can be somewhat difficult to keep track of. But the journey of discovery, betrayal, and healing was beautiful.

My favorite character is easily Kat and I was fascinated by her journey through this novel. Her experiences in the war were both stark and intense. And the difficulty of not knowing what happened to her brother was a heavy emotional burden. Adding Julia Child into this story was a treat! I love the movie Julie and Julia so seeing Julia's experiences before she became a cooking icon was so fun. She felt real and human in this story.

Another engaging novel from Kristy Cambron! There were definitely elements of historical thriller in this story especially with the reveal of what really happened in the mission that went wrong. But the beauty and power of Kristy's story shines through as it always does.

Thank you for the chance to read and review!

“What would a French glamour girl wear to stash weapons in the dead of winter besides a haute couture gown? Kat Harris wished she knew.”

With that, Kristy Cambron (The Paris Dressmaker) launches the reader out of the plane into Nazi-occupied France in 1943. The rest of the dual-timeline story recounts Kat’s wartime experiences leading to that pivotal night and haute couture gown and her later attempt, in 1952 Paris, to reckon with that night and find some degree of resolution—with a little help from Julia Child—regarding what came afterward. Kat has spent most of her life stuck in the heartaches of past loss; the reader journeys with her in discovering whether she can learn to move forward with hands outstretched into a hopeful future that is shaped but no longer shackled by the past. This novel of Allied espionage behind enemy lines serves up a rich treat as layered, coiled, and delectable as a croissant, with l’amour as the molten chocolate heart at the center of it all.

In Kathryn “Kat” Harris, Cambron has created a compelling, complex strong female lead. Daughter of an auto mechanic and a French-born Boston socialite, Kat studied languages at Wellesley but is as at home bent over a car engine with a wrench or running through the parks of Boston as she is reading French poetry and dancing in a couture gown. She also has a physical disability which proves both liability and superpower.

Her wartime experiences made me curious about the American spies of the mid-twentieth century. I had never before tried seriously to imagine what it would be like to be recruited to spy for the US in the days before the CIA, when secret intelligence agencies were just that: secret. Kat didn’t really know she was being recruited or for what. She has to draw on her intelligence, resourcefulness, and innate distrust from the moment she meets the man we might call her handler.

“It is not a question of what is easy but what is right.”

After rejection by the armed forces, Julia Child herself served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in real life and in the book. She reported directly to the director, “Wild Bill” Donovan and served in Ceylon, where she met her future husband, who was also an OSS officer. After the Allied victory, Paul Child worked for the State Department, which brought them to Paris and introduced Julia to French cuisine. So enamored was she with these new flavors and textures that she trained at the Cordon Bleu. By the time Kat meets her, Julia and two fellow graduates of the Cordon Bleu are teaching French cooking to housewives. Kat and a friend join the classes of L’Ecole des Trois Gourmandes (The school of the three hearty eaters) in the kitchen of the Childs’ flat at 81 Rue de l’Universite, affectionately known as “Rue de Loo.”

“That is the best thing about French cuisine. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be exquisite.”

The classic spy tropes come into play as one would expect. We have at least one mole, compartmentalization of information on a need-to-know basis, hidden weapons, secret messages, code names and aliases, midnight interrogation, and the paradox of one’s life depending on knowing whom to trust while not really knowing whom to trust.

One person Kat does quickly learn to trust is Manon Altier, a Resistance operative seeking to wrest meaning from profound loss. Manon has a softer kind of strength, but she displays her own kind of courage as the French head chef of the kitchen at Chateau du Broutel, which had been claimed by the Nazis as their regional base in the Baie de Somme coastal area of northern France.

Both Manon and Kat have experienced the heartbreak of love and bereavement in the past, and in different ways they both have put up their guard against letting people into the secret place of their affections again. They have learned the truth of the words of C. S. Lewis in The Four Loves: “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.” Their wartime experiences invite them to choose between that vulnerability and the risk of further heartbreak and Lewis’s alternative: “Lock it [your heart] up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

When I noted earlier that l’amour, love, resides at the heart of this story, I don’t mean only romantic love. All kinds of love texture this novel: romantic love, to be sure, but also the platonic love between female friends, the love of a canine companion, the love between siblings, the love of a daughter for her father and a son for his mother, the love of making something wonderful with excellence, and the sacrificial love that would lay down its life for the beloved. The depth and breadth of love flavoring this tale kept me engaged and cheering for the characters to find their happily ever afters.

Cambron has done her homework and paints a vivid picture of France during occupation and in the post-war recovery attempts. Details of mouthwatering food, mid-century fashion, place, historical figures, and the various official and secret groups operating in wartime France add depth. Fans of classic Hollywood movies will enjoy the descriptions of Dior and Givenchy styles of post-war Paris and the more utilitarian “Kitty Foyle frock” and dungarees of Kat’s pre-war preference. The detail struck me as cinematic, with serious potential for adaption as a movie or limited series.

This is a fast-paced read. Because of the dual timelines and numerous code names, aliases, and groups, I recommend immersive reading such as on holiday or during a rainy long weekend. This isn’t the best book to read two pages at a time in the school pickup line or falling asleep at night; it is easier to keep track of the characters when reading in bigger chunks.

Alternately or additionally, you may enjoy the audiobook version, read by top-flight narrator Saskia Maarleveld. I enjoyed her performance and found her French and German accents convincing on the whole. One name tended to receive an American rather than French pronunciation, but that will likely pass unnoticed for most listeners.

The religious/faith references are few and not at the heart of this story. One character refers repeatedly to “Providence,” and indeed the interweaving of lives and plot seems to display the hand of God working behind the scenes, as it were, not unlike the book of Esther. Another character, at a life-or-death moment, recites Psalm 23 to himself. Wartime violence and close combat are depicted when essential to the story. Over all, I would class this as clean inspirational historical fiction more than explicitly Christian historical fiction.

The French Kitchen serves up a feast of delights for fans of World War II history and clean historical fiction. Fans of Julia Child may glimpse a side of her previously unknown. Readers who enjoyed Cambron’s previous war books like The Paris Dressmaker, Kristen Harmel’s Book of Lost Names, Kristen Hannah’s The Nightingale, Ariel Lawhon’s Code Name Helene, and Diana R. Chambers’s The Secret War of Julia Child are likely to enjoy this book as well. Cambron provides a discussion guide at the end for use in book groups, and she includes a bibliography of her own to delve deeper.

For more about Julia Child and her efforts to introduce American housewives to French cooking, I suggest Child’s own My Life in France and the comprehensive cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. For more about women in Allied espionage, in addition to the fictional realizations already mentioned, I recommend A Woman of No Importance, Sonia Purnell’s biography of a highly decorated American spy with a physical disability, Code Name Lise by Larry Loftis, and Sarah Rose’s D-Day Girls, a captivating account of women spying for British intelligence.

As one character says:
“…the most important thing I was once told about French cooking is that a chef ought to choose a meal where she must be required to add copious amounts of butter. And no matter what you’d set out to make in the beginning, in the end it will turn out all right.”

Kristy Cambron’s latest does include copious amounts of butter, and for this reader it turned out very well indeed. My thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson fiction for access to an ARC of this book and early access to the audiobook for review purposes.

Bon appetit!

In the beginning, I wasn't sure that I would like the back and forth in time format of chapters, but once I was familiar with the characters, it wasn't as hard for me to keep track. I loved the peak into the OSS / Julia Child and the peek into a German occupied French kitchen. The story definitely drew me in and hooked me. I was able to guess some of the twists and turns, although, the ending didn't make complete sense to me, seemed a bit out of the blue. 🤔

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

4.5/5⭐️

This is my second Cambron book (my first being The British Booksellers), and I can now say I’m a full-fledged, card-carrying fan.

This is mostly told from two perspectives. Manon is a French chef who serves German officials at the famous Chateau du Broutel, and Kat is an American OSS who worked under Manon and aided the Resistance while searching for her brother. The story, told 10 years apart (WW2 Rue 1943 and Post-War Paris 1952), follows the lives and dangers of spies during the occupation of France and the efforts of Kat to determine the life or death of her brother ten years later.

I really loved this book. There was a lot going on…history, romance, mystery all wrapped up in a beautifully written, character-driven story. There are twists, turns and surprises as the reader sees just how impossible it was to trust anyone during war while also how utterly ridiculous yet miraculous it was to fall in love during such a vicious upheaval in our world’s history. While the action and suspense were a definite draw, it was the love stories that really brought out the poignancy and fragility of life during uncertain times. The strength, resilience and simple humanity of both the men and women characters in this story was inspiring and admirable.

And by the way, Julia Child is also thrown into the mix. As I said, lots of goings-on in this one.

Again, well done and I eagerly anticipate Cambron’s next outing.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction / Thomas Nelson for providing the free early arc of The French Kitchen for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

I just finished The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron—and wow, what a ride. From the very first pages, I was hooked. The story shifts between war‑torn France in 1943 and Paris in the early 1950s, weaving together the lives of courageous women in a way that’s both suspenseful and emotionally rich.

I especially loved how Cambron uses vivid culinary descriptions to bring the world to life. Whether she’s describing a château kitchen or a market in Paris, the sensory detail makes it impossible not to taste and smell the food alongside the characters.

The dual timelines take a little getting used to, I really had to stick with it at first to begin to understand the back and forth. But, once the pieces fall into place, it becomes beautifully compelling, and the final reveal is unexpectedly satisfying.

In short: The French Kitchen is a richly woven story of espionage, loss, resilience, and redemption; with romance and real‑life figures like Julia Child thrown in for extra flavor. If you love historical fiction that offers depth, mystery, and emotional stakes, this one’s worth every page.

The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron
3.5/5 rounded up to 4 Stars

Read if you love:
- Historical Fiction
- Undercover Operations
- Julia Child
- Hidden Identities
- Dual Timeline
- WWII Fiction
- Paris/France Settings
- French Language
- Kitchens and Cooking in Books

Kristy Cambron really has the attention to detail in her books and this one was really interesting! We follow Kat, who is recruited by the OSS as an agent in 1943. She is hoping to find her missing brother and agrees to go to France as a spy. Years later in 1952, she is still searching for her brother and becomes acquainted with others she knew during the war time. We see different timelines here for the same characters, with multiple identities and plans.

I really liked Kat's character, she is very sharp and in her undercover operations she is working in a kitchen that caters to the Nazi elite. She is tied in with the resistance and there is a lot of suspicion.

In 1952, we see her marriage to Gerard, a man she married for several reasons...but not love. Kat does not truly trust him and their marriage is very unique in tension, small bits of affection but not a huge romantic one.

As others have mentioned, this book takes a lot of brain power to keep up. We have many timelines, different POVs and code names that took me out of the story at times. I loved the writing style, the characters and food/kitchen bits, but I did struggle to keep up with what was going on. If I am honest, I believe I missed several pieces and this book deserves more of a deep dive, re-read from me one day.

The ending was great to see so much resolved and the bit of romance development that occurred.

Regardless of those things, this is a very immersive story that you should take time to sit with and anyone who enjoys a good WWII fiction story will like it. I think the added layer of Julia Child was also nice because so many know of her from her cooking/kitchen days.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson, NetGalley and Kristy Cambron for a complimentary copy of the audiobook and ebook to read and review. I have this one pre-ordered as well and look forward to meeting her at our local bookstore on her book tour! All thoughts are my own.

Historical fiction readers may enjoy this dual time story. I did find it long at times and the time lines confusing. Not my favorite of this author. Where was the Christian fiction aspect?

Kristy Cambron has become one of my favorite authors. You know when you open up one of her books and begin to go on a journey through the pages that you will be challenged emotionally. I love reading historical fiction books and particularly those that take place during WWII. There are a lot of characters featured throughout the pages, but the story will pull you in and you will not want to stop flipping through the pages. The characters are richly developed and you will even be treated to a delightful appearance by Julia Child. There are a lot of aspects dealt with throughout the book ... espionage, betrayal, love, loss, intrigue, dedication, courage, and secrets. While a lot happens as you devour the words Kristy has created, you will be left with a sense of satisfaction as you absorb the last word and close the book with a sign.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

Christian
Christian Fiction
Fiction
France
Historical
Historical Fiction
Romance
Suspense
WWII

Thank you @tnzfiction for my early reading and listening copy of @kristycambron ‘s upcoming new release, THE FRENCH KITCHEN, out Aug 5, 2025.

I loved the connection with Julia Child, and I look forward to anything historical fiction and written by Cambron- she’s one of my favorite HF authors!

THE FRENCH KITCHEN combines Julia Child and a secret, underground network of spies all under the noses of the highest of Hitler’s men who dine in the nicest of restaurants- of course they don’t know the chef is part of the resistance!

Of course I love stories that highlight the brave women who were overlooked in the midst of the war, but yet offered and fought for so much.

If you enjoy WWII historical fiction, you will enjoy this one!

When I got approved to review this book, I got really excited. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction and this book was the first in quite a while. I hoped I would really like it but sadly this book wasn’t for me.

I read this book and listened to this book at the same time. It was really hard for me to keep up with the story. All the different time and story lines made it even more difficult. I tried my best to keep up and figure out what was happening, but I couldn’t figure it out so I couldn’t get the whole story. That’s why my rating is low. It was a good book but sadly not for me.
The production of the audiobook was really good. The narrator was really good and I liked her French phrases and accent.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for the ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

⭐️: 2,4
🌶: no spice

✨ “In a world of spies and saboteurs, you never knew whose actions you could trust . . . unless it was a man who was falling in love with a woman when he thought no one else was looking.” ✨

This book had me somewhere between breathless and furiously turning pages.

If you’re a fan of WWII fiction with all the good stuff (espionage, hidden identities, aching romance, and the kind of twists that make you gasp) then this story has you covered. Dual timelines, a search for truth, and two love stories unfolding in the shadows of history? I was in.

Let’s talk characters.
Kat is the kind of heroine I love: smart, stubborn, and loyal to the bone. Whether she’s navigating Boston high society or training as an OSS agent in occupied France, she never loses sight of herself—or her mission to find her missing brother. Her dynamic with Gerard had me feeling things. The tension, the suspicion, the slow trust... and then the moment when he says her hope is enough for both of them? Swoon.

Gerard is mysterious, intense, and quietly wrecked by the war. Watching his mask slowly slip as he falls for Kat—without meaning to, without even wanting to—was pure magic. Their story in the 1950s, digging through secrets and second chances, gave me all the angsty, slow-burn payoff I crave.

And then there’s Manon—a gentle force of courage, running a Resistance network from a French chateau kitchen. Her love story with “Dominique” is soft and sweet, like a quiet melody behind the louder plotlines. And yes, I adored every mention of French food and was delighted by Julia Child’s cameo. (Yes, that Julia.)

But... it’s not all perfect.

The timeline jumps were often jarring, and the pacing dragged more than once. Some moments sparkled—others stalled. And while the final plot twist could have been incredible, it didn’t quite land. It felt rushed, underbaked, and honestly? A bit out of left field.

On top of that, while this is technically marketed as Christian fiction, the faith elements were so subtle they almost vanished. With characters facing war, loss, and moral gray zones, I expected more spiritual reflection—or something to anchor their struggles. It felt like a missed emotional opportunity.

Final Thoughts:

This book gave me spies, saboteurs, secret missions, and stolen glances. The romance was slow-burn gold, the setting was lush, and the emotional stakes were real. But uneven pacing and a few structural hiccups kept it from fully soaring.

Still, if you love historical fiction with layered characters, tangled loyalties, and that delicious will-they-won’t-they tension—this one just might be your next obsession.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️/ 5