The French Kitchen

By: Kristy Cambron

Dakota County Library paperback 362 pages plus author's note and acknowledgments

Published: 2025

Genre: Historical fiction, WWII

 

I won't be able to attend our book club discussion tonight (3.30.2026), but I'd probably be a bit of a wet blanket anyhow. I didn't enjoy reading this book. There were too many time jumps (both in year and in which month of the year) and those made it challenging to follow the story line. There were also too many double identities. I made a cheat sheet . . . and there may be spoilers in this entry. There were positive aspects to the story as well; I just didn't care for this book. 

 

The one theme I did appreciate is "don't look back" and the notion of moving forward into the future rather than living in the past.

 

I did, however, make lots of notes. Because of course I did.

 

Page 18: Decisions - their weight had the ability to sink or save the heart. Trouble was, you never knew which road you'd chosen at the beginning. 

 

Sometimes we weigh decisions carefully and other times we just choose. But each decision we make has impact and Gavin realizes this. 

 

Page 19: A lump formed in her throat and she fought against it, battling to do the thing she'd always been best at - pushing emotion out of the equation until all that was left was the comforting strength of resilience.  

 

This is definitely not me! Stuffing my emotions is not something I'd be accused of doing. Kat is such a strong woman and her strength comes partly from her own resilience. It kind of bothered me that Cambron didn't incorporate faithfulness into this book.

 

Page 58 - the December 1951 scene where Leo / Xandré is presented as Mimi's husband and Kat / Celeste is blown away. This was where my cheat sheet really helped me. It was a bit convoluted, but all my questions were answered by the end of the book. Sadly, it was a bit too late for me.

 

Page 71: She recognized it with every blitz bomb and bullet and beautiful soul they'd wiped from the earth, without justification or certainly without mercy. 

 

I loved Manon! Her heart for innocent people's suffering and her careful threading of resistance while cooking for the German officers was amazing.

 

Page  73: She was struck by what she hadn't felt for so long in their war-torn world, save for when working alongside Valens: unyielding kindness. 

 

Kindness is powerful! I loved that Manon fell in love with Dominique / Gavin. For some reason, I kept forgetting that Valens was her father-in-law and not just a nice old male co-worker. I loved that I recognized so many of the cooking terms from all the time I've spent watching The Great British Baking Show!

 

Page 112: Before he even realized what he'd just revealed, the spark hit touch paper, and Kat rose with a fierceness that cut him to the core. 

 

WHAT DOES THIS SAY? Read this sentence carefully. I did - about twelve times. Is "touch paper" a thing? Did the spark hit or touch the paper? I just did not understand this at all. 

 

Page 125 - August 1943 - Kat is taken for torture as a . . . test? Thrown in a trunk, water boarded, . . . Jeffrey / still in the US! This seemed very out of place, but the scene does show her incredible strength and ability to be an OSS agent.

 

Page 154 - We finally learn why Kat has the scar on her shoulder! She was pierced by a tree limb when she parachuted out of the plane hit before it got to their actual drop point . . . That had been bugging me. There were lots of references to it in the first 150 pages and I guessed it had happened during the war. I finally found out how she got the scar, but now I'm wondering why it was so significant.

 

Page 225 - Gavin. Is Dominique. He and Kat meet in the town near the chateau. Seriously? The biggest driver of the story is Kat wanting to find out what happened to her brother during the war and she just runs into him in town?

 

Page 278 - It was always the hint of something beautiful next to brokenness with him. 

 

There were a lot of places where beauty and brokenness co-existed. The fact that this was in reference to Gavin / Dom made me wish we had learned more of his story (as we learn of Kat's). 

 

Page 338-340 - Kat finding Gavin and Manon. WHY?! The author explains why they were in hiding, but don't tell me they couldn't have found a way to communicate they were alive to their family members within the seven years following the war. This just bothered me a lot.

 

The book just didn't resonate for me. But I liked the food parts! There were lots of codes, secret identities, etc. and I generally like mystery type stories.