Name: The Second-Worst Restaurant in France
ISBN: 9781524748296

Alexander McCall Smith

"Renowned Scottish cookbook writer Paul Stuart is hard at work on his new book, The Philosophy of Food, but complicated domestic circumstances, and two clingy cats, are making that difficult."--

A Paul Stuart Novel (2)

The Second-Worst Restaurant in France

Paul Stewart has returned to Scotland to continue his successful career. His agent and girlfriend, Gloria, has arranged for him to write The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters, a project he relishes but that will have to be delivered in six months. It is not going well, as Paul finds his domestic circumstances unsuited to concentrated hard work: Gloria has now moved in with him (not specifically invited) and has brought with her two extremely vocal and demanding Siamese cats. The cats give Paul no peace. Beginning to worry that The Philosophy of Food will never be written Paul calls on the aid of his cousin, Chloe, who suggests a radical course of action. She has taken a six-month lease on a house in a French village not far from Poitiers and invites him to join her there and get the book finished in peace. He needs no second bidding and it is not long before he escapes to France. Once there, however, Paul finds his fortunes tangled up with the fate of one eating establishment in the village: the infamous Second Worst Restaurant in France ...

The Second Worst Restaurant in France

Janna Niemi

General info

Paul is a successful food writer who struggles with a little bit of a writer’s blog. Then cousin Chloe comes into the picture and offers him a chance to spend some time in the French countryside to try and get past the writer’s blog. This is the start of an interesting, a little bit funny and a very heartfelt story. 

Things I liked

It was an interesting story as a whole but there are certain aspects that are especially to my liking. I especially like the people living in the village. I also really like Chloe’s character. She is a very interesting woman and she makes the story more interesting really.

Things I did not like 

The beginning in my opinion is a bit slow and I was a bit doubtful if I would actually enjoy the book. It turns out it gets a lot better as the story goes on. Another part was the ending. To me it felt like it ended a little bit too soon but maybe there’s going to be another book soon that continues this book. 

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this book. It is interesting an interesting story and it lifted my spirits whenever I was reading it. It has a happy ending and all in all it’s a very heartfelt story. 

* ARC received from the publisher through First to Read

The Second-Worst Restaurant in France A Paul Stuart Novel (2)

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