Review: Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate) by Amy Thomas

Title: Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)
Author: Amy Thomas
Publisher: Sourcebooks (February 2012)

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley

Summary from Goodreads:
Part love letter to New York, part love letter to Paris, and total devotion to all things sweet. Paris, My Sweet is a personal and moveable feast that’s a treasure map for anyone who loves fresh cupcakes and fine chocolate, New York and Paris, and life in general. It’s about how the search for happiness can be as fleeting as a sliver of cheesecake and about how the life you’re meant to live doesn’t always taste like the one you envisioned. Organized into a baker’s dozen of delicacies (and the adventures they inspired) that will tempt readers’ appetites, Paris, My Sweet is something to savor.

Review:
WARNING! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE HUNGRY! Or even remotely craving any kind of sweet... because you will be hungry, so hungry that you will contemplate, "Just how expensive can it be to travel to Paris just to eat?" (The answer to that is: WAY OUT OF MY BUDGET!) Oh, and you probably don't want to read it right before bed either, because you will inevitably crawl out of bed to go digging through your pantry for something sweet and it will (also inevitably) not be satisfying enough because alas, you do not have have delicious little French delicacies waiting for you in your pantry. I'm sorry Oreos, you just don't hold a candle to macaroons. And if you are a pregnant woman (like I was a couple years ago) and OBSESSED with pastries, you might as well stop reading this review right now. Seriously.

I really enjoyed this book. What's not to love about Paris? Or at least the idea of Paris? This book is everything I hoped Julie & Julia would be (but wasn't) and more. I loved all the descriptions of the wonderful sweets and it definitely created a lot of cravings in my life during the month or so I read this book. Not good for my waistline. The great thing about this book is that it is so much more than just about the food. You care about Thomas during her two years in a new country and at a new job. It is a light, sometimes airy, but overall sweet story.

You can read Thomas' blogs here:

• Sweet Freak
• God, I Love Paris

*Another warning: if you were having cravings from just the words, you might have a whole new level of cravings once you see the pictures!*

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars