title: Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France
author: Karen Wheeler
genre: memoir
published: August 2011
pages: 311
source: ARC from Sourcebooks
first line: Oh Dear God, what have I done?
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
In her mid-thirties, fashion editor Karen has it all: a handsome boyfriend, a fab flat in west London, and an array of gorgeous shoes. But when her boyfriend, Eric, leaves she makes an unexpected decision: to hang up her Manolos and wave good-bye to her glamorous city lifestyle to go it alone in a run-down house in rural Poitou-Charentes, central western France.
Tout Sweet is the perfect read for anyone who dreams of chucking away their BlackBerry in favor of real blackberrying and downshifting to a romantic, alluring locale where new friendships–and new loves–are just some of the treasures to be found amongst life's simple pleasures.
About the book:
Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France is a fun, light, and interesting memoir where Karen Wheeler shares her experiences after she leaves her hectic London life behind and moves to rural France.
After a bad breakup, the thirty five year old successful fashion editor decides she needs to leave it all behind her. Karen lived a glamorous lifestyle, complete with her nice London flat, invites to fancy cocktail parties, jet setting off to fashion shoots and a closet full of designer handbags and shoes.
When Karen takes time out to open her eyes and look around, she doesn't like what she sees.
She packs up and moves to France to start a new life for herself.
My thoughts:
This memoir reads smoothly, it's the type of book you don't want to put down. It's also one of those memoirs that reads almost like fiction, this one could be chick-lit if it wasn't a true story.
I enjoyed the descriptions of France and felt like I was there as she described the sights and sounds.
I looked out of the open window at a vivid yellow and blue landscape, at the fields bursting with sunflowers and blond haystacks against the vibrant turquoise evening sky. As I felt the warm evening breeze on my arm, resting on an open window, and watched the long-armed irrigators send arcs of water soaring over the fields, I felt a surge of excitement for the first time in ages.
p.21 Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France
Karen takes us through her moving and renovating her new French home which she names 'Maison Coquelicot', which means 'house of the wild poppy'. She also describes her breakup with her boyfriend Eric, whom she thought was 'the one'. Even though she moves to France to start anew, Karen finds herself missing him often.
Her close friends and neighbors are also mentioned throughout and I found their antics entertaining. Karen had me laughing at times and cheering for her as I read. One scene in particular as Karen is giving a certain someone a ride home, and he professes his undying love to her, while at the same time offering her an 'open relationship', had me in stitches.
I liked Karen's voice and the way she told her story openly and honestly. I was hoping she would find her Mr. Right. What she does find in France is happiness and contentment.
I think it takes incredible bravery to pack up and start a new life in a foreign country no less. Go Karen!
I enjoy reading memoirs that aren't depressing and found Tout Sweet to be a fun summer read.
About the author:
Karen Wheeler is a former fashion editor for the Mail on Sunday and currently writes for the Financial Times How to Spend It magazine and London’s Daily Mail. Her work has appeared in the Evening Standard and You magazines, Sunday Times Style, and numerous international publications. A three-time winner of the prestigious Jasmine Literary Award for writing about perfume, she specializes in fashion, beauty and luxury goods trends. Karen also has a great blog at www.toutsweet.net and Twitters @mimipompom1.
