Tout Sweet

Today’s book review is for a fabulous memoir that rang more than a little true for me personally.

Tout Sweet is the story of Karen Wheeler, a rather high-end fashion journalist in London, who decides to pack her entire life up and leave the city to move to a rural village in France and renovate an old farmhouse. The decision is sparked by two things – the devastating end of her latest relationship and an increasing sense of ennui and disillusionment with her fashion-girl life and its obsessive focus on accumulating things. As you would expect, the story runs the emotional gamut – it alternates between hysterical ex-patriot escapades and old house/contractor challenges, heartbreaking moments of loneliness, uplifting tidbits of self-realization and demonstrations of inner strength. It is, in short, a story of everyday life.

As Karen travels down her new, decidedly more casual and less Prada-full path, she comes to realize that wherever in the world you may go, you are still you there – which means you can’t run from your problems, dissatisfactions, or emotions, because they have a nasty tendency to follow you. As someone who has also walked away from city life and a fairly high-powered career and materialistic lifestyle, I cannot tell you how many times I found myself smiling or laughing as I realized how absolutely positively spot-on Wheeler’s words felt. She balances personal drama and emotions with descriptions, facts, and settings in a way that leaves you utterly involved in her life and yet still able to imagine your own self in her (oh-so-fabulous) shoes. And she does so in a way that keeps you as a reader engaged from start to finish.

It is easy to see how Wheeler achieved success in London and managed to maintain her career after her decision to walk away from the urban fashionista world and into the life of a country girl. Her writing is clear and concise yet descriptive, and crisp. The pacing is excellent – the story blends seamlessly from emotional highs to emotional lows (rather the way real life tends to) and Wheeler knows exactly when the reader needs a light-hearted moment or silly anecdote to keep the story from falling into self-pitying territory.

Rating: 5/5



Have you ever wondered what it would be like to pick up your life, pack everything away and move to a foreign country?. To start over building new friendships and relationships and immersing yourself in a new culture is something that most people have dreamed about at one time or another but don’t have the courage to see through.

There are amazing works such as Karen Wheeler’s Tout Sweet that brings the experience to life for us dreamers. There seems to be an amazing adventure in store for Karen the second that she decides to leave her life in London in search of something more fulfilling. This is more than just a true tale of girl falls in love with France, moves, finds romance and lives happily ever after. This is a glimpse into the life of a remarkable woman who stumbles into relationships with new friends and potential suitors and learns the true meaning to finding happiness. The journey for Karen is not always easy and she confronts the ghosts of her past and begins paving the way for new dreams.



Tout Sweet is a book that I couldn’t put down. From the moment I picked up the book, I became lost in this new world that Karen created for herself in France. I felt as though I walked alongside Wheeler as she explored her new run down house in the village or the countryside she so clearly describes throughout the book. Tout Sweet is a must read for anyone who has dreamed of living in France because Karen Wheeler shows that it is possible.

First thoughts after finishing: "Where can I sign up to do exactly what Karen did????"

This book had me at the summary alone. Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity for a fresh, new start in a romantic country? I loved Karen’s straightforward writing and her humor made me chuckle more than once. I think that renovating an old house in the countryside of France would be wonderful and probably exasperating experience, but I would certainly be game to do it. I’ve been reading her blog, Tout Sweet off and on since I finished the book and it really adds another dimension to her journey.

Recommend? Yes, I absolutely would. If you loved the book/movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" then you will certainly enjoy this one too. Different location, different life situations, but the same theme...being independent, starting over, and jumping headfirst into the unknown that is life!

Rating: 8/10


I love stories that take place in other countries. I especially love travel memoirs that take place in foreign countries. It’s probably because I would love to live abroad myself and experience the life that the author is living. I also think it’s great to get a different perspective from different authors as well as the different types of places that they go to with the adventures that they have.

Karen is a late 30-something Brit who goes to France to start a new life away from memories of her ex-boyfriend and other unhappy memories. Her journey begins with an email that was misdirected to her but soon finds out that the email saves her life. She meets up with old friends, new romances and a old house that she soon claims as her own. Throughout the book we see how Karen learns to move on from her old relationship and begin her life again.

While I enjoyed the book, it wasn’t what I was expected. I thought that this was going to be more of a travel memoir with Karen talking about her experiences with the French culture and lifestyle. There are sections where she does this and it’s very fun to live vicariously through her when she does. However, the rest of the book is more about the relationships in her life than it is about travel. This isn’t a problem but since I was expecting one thing and got another, it was quite a shock. Some of the men that Karen meets seemed to appear and disappear very fast. Then there are others that we don’t really get a final resolution on. One more note includes something that I normally don’t have a problem with memoirs. However since the author did put up a note in the preface stating that she’s changed names, places and some situations, it makes me wonder how much of her story is actually true. Conversations and aspects of the story seem very detailed so I just wondered how much is actually remembered and what was embellished.

Overall though this was an interesting read. While the travel part was lessened, reading about Karen’s love life was actually quite interesting. The drama involving her friends was captivating as well. If you are in the mood for a relationship memoir that takes place in a foreign country, this is the book for you.



I don’t often read memoirs, but when April from Sourcebooks contacted me about Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler, and I read “imagine if Bridget Jones were let loose in rural France with the style of Carrie Bradshaw”, I knew I just had to read it!

I have often wanted to leave it all behind (aside from hubby and the kids, of course) and move to France myself. With a broken heart, Brit Karen Wheeler moves on with her life and does just that. And while her new home leaves a lot to be desired, the warmth of her ‘unique’ neighbours help keep her mind off her problems.

Tout Sweet is an easy read that is hard to put down. I wanted to keep going into the night to find out what would happen next. It’s very descriptive and it wasn’t difficult to imagine myself there with Karen, having a glimpse into her life. But more importantly, I loved ‘watching’ her grow and move on and make her own dreams come true.

It’s a great summer read!



Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France, by Karen Wheeler, has a review deadline! You all know how bad teachers are with deadlines — or at least this one is — so I’m reviewing Tout Sweet in progress. I started it a few days ago, and while I’ve had limited time, I do find that when I sit down with this memoir, I indulge in big chunks of it. It shouldn’t be more than a day or so before I finish it completely, but I feel totally comfortable jumping in at this point to gush.

Karen Wheeler writes about her life as a fashion editor in London and her decision to chuck her comfy flat, reliable plumbing, and easily accessible supply of new shoes in favor of a fixer-upper home in a small French town.

It was inevitable that I thought about those other "drop your life and move somewhere exotic" books when I accepted this one for review. It may work in Wheeler’s favor here, but I have not read Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun or Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. I’ve seen the movies, but I have not experienced the intimacy of their writing. In the early pages I wasn’t so sure I’d like this book, but once I passed the first chapter or two and really got acquainted with Karen Wheeler, I like her a great deal, and her story makes me smile.

In the process of renovating her home enough to set up house in at least one room, she decides to camp out nearby in an actual campground but soon finds herself rained upon, uncomfortable, surrounded by throngs of loud, scantily clad triathletes, and served a dinner of cold vegetarian cuisine. While the tent is quite fashionable (sent from a PR person in her London fashion days), camping itself is not quite as fashionable as she’d imagined.

Her house is dirt cheap —and there’s a good reason owing to the fact that it’s missing a kitchen floor, needs an entirely new bathroom, painting, rewiring, and lots of tender loving care. In the process of overhauling her space, Wheeler makes a bevvy of new friends in her new hometown including a crunchy couple who run the Liberty Bookstore, a down-on-his-luck divorcee with a spending problem and a homicidal son, a clingy Frenchman intent on making Wheeler his next wife, some charming and quite normal, helpful French neighbors, and a host of nutty and eccentric expats.

I love this book so far! It’s a nice counterpoint to Tolstoy and the Purple Chair since that one was quite emotional, and this one is much more light-hearted and fun. Recommended? Absolutely! I’ll weigh in with my final thoughts early next week, but if it keeps up at this pace, it will definitely earn a rating of Snuggle.


Premise: Romantically disappointed journalist moves to rural France.

Cover: Title - Clever wordplay ("tout de suite" = French for "right away"), and the subtitle is a concise summary of content. Art - Very pretty, eyecatching, and reflective of author’s description of everyday life in the village. Altogether, well done.

What Works: The cover blurbs repeated the words "honest" and "charming"; Apprentice Writer is pleased to say that she found both to be accurate. The honesty comes in the lack of airbrushing. The author has the courage to include aspects that do not always show her in the most flattering light, which provides the armchair traveller with the opportunity to recall occasions when they might not have shown the best judgement themselves at the same time as they think "I wouldn’t have done that!". The charming comes from the manner in which the heroine prevails, the way she does her utmost to learn, and the way she provides the vicarious experience of sitting in a cobbled, whitewashed courtyard looking at potted flowers while enjoying breakfast baguette, and so on.

The writing has some ups and downs. AW has included it in the "What Works" rather than "What Doesn’t" section because even though there is a regrettable pattern of word echoes and repetition in some places, there is also just enough French for this high school level speaker to find it flavorful without becoming confusing (something which she has had more than one occasion to bemoan with other British writers and their casual inclusion of Latin all over the place). And as regular readers of this space know, AW is particularly fond of well-done metaphors and similes; in this case, she enjoyed the author’s fashion training being aptly applied to description.

It becomes clear to the reader early on that the idealized mental image the author has of Life in Rural France and reality may not match. It is to the author’s credit that by the end of the first year which forms the material for the book, her resourcefulness and adaptability have combined to create a lifestyle that she enjoys and plans to maintain - as opposed to the many expats who, for whatever reason, give up and go home. This reader loved it that she did not allow her single status, lack of contacts, and complete absence of handiwork skills to stand the way of her dream of owning and renovating a home in a foreign country. Bravo, Ms. Wheeler, for doing so and for making the reader want to book the next flight to France for the rewards of the countryside rather than the glitz of Paris.

What Doesn’t: For this reader’s taste, too much space was taken up with the minutiae of fellow ex-pats’ dysfunction, whether romantic or alcoholic. Yes, sometimes moving to a new place can exacerbate rather than heal marital friction, and yes, sometimes individuals used to a greater amount and variety of alternate entertainment may turn to booze as a way to fill the time when such entertainment is curtailed. But must we dwell on it? AW thinks not.

Overall: A feel-good story that proves there is (satisfying) life after love, that sometimes running away to reinvent oneself can actually work, and that homeownership is not just for the handy and mechanically-inclined.


Have you ever dreamed of just picking up one day and escaping? A long holiday or even possibly relocating to somewhere you’ve always dreamed of? Perhaps for you the stress of day-to-day life is just too much all of the sudden and you feel the need to get away or maybe an event in your life is just too much to handle and you need a drastic change…for good. Some girls may depend on retail therapy on those days…they may go buy a new dress or that perfect pair of oh so expensive red bottomed shoes. That unexpected break-up may even send them off to the hairdresser to chop their hair into that liberating bob or daring pixie cut but not Karen Wheeler. Karen moved to France. Lucky for us she chronicles her adventures in the new book Tout Sweet.

After her break-up with the man she considered to be “the one”, Karen found nothing in her life truly made her happy. She had the job dreams are made of in fashion, a closet full of only the best name brands and a cushy London flat and yet she still felt…nothing. What could be missing? While on holiday with friends in a small village in France, she found what she thought she might be looking for in a crumbling house that just happened to be for sale. She bought it then and there. Tout Sweet is her story of settling in, settling down and finding just what life is made of outside the hustle and bustle she once lived.

Funny, fashionable and honest Wheeler will keep you reading page by page as she relates her relocating experiences including the renovation of her home, making new (if somewhat older) friends and the never-ending search for Mr. Right. It’s the perfect book to escape into even if you can’t pick up and move to France. And best of all…Wheeler never forgets to tell us what fabulous ensemble she is wearing. Don’t worry she packed plenty of stilettos! So grab a glass of wine and head to France on a whim with Karen in Tout Sweet.



Today’s review is for the rare memoir that I say "yes" to, and I did because I’m a closet Francophile... ;)


Title: Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France
Author: Karen Wheeler
ISBN-13: 9781402261183
ARC: 311 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2011
Purchase at IndieBound, Amazon, The Book Depository
Source: Sourcebooks

drey’s thoughts:
Tout Sweet appealed to me because Karen did something I’ve always dreamed about—picking up and moving to France. Or Italy—I’d move to Italy, too. I can’t imagine buying a house on a whim, or having no kitchen floor, but love the idea of everything within walking distance, friends across the way, and learning French. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that in real life! *grin*

The people Karen meets are a hoot to read about, but I don’t know that I’d have had the patience for the drama. What I liked most about Tout Sweet was the day-to-day stuff—chatting with the neighbors, having everybody wonder who the guy she’s having dinner with is, taking a walk...

Tout Sweet is c’est si bon! Add it to your summer reading if you like memoirs with a touch of foreign soil and a dash of self-discovery.

drey’s rating: Pick it up!



I recently went on vacation out to the East Coast of Canada. I fell in love with the relaxed pace, the people and the scenery. I found myself looking around and thinking..." Hmm I could buy a little house and retire out here." Well Karen Wheeler took it a step farther. She bought a run down house in France on a whim and said good bye to England.

Tout Sweet is the story of her journey to change and simplify her life.

"To be honest, my life in London had started to seem very empty. I had wardrobes crammed with " It" bags and "must-have" shoes, most of them gifts from designers to thank me for articles I’d written, and I had cupboards full of free beauty products. I had spent most of my life so far focused on work and chasing material possessions. Now I had them in abundance and yet, at thirty-five, I was unhappy. There had to be more to life, I’d decided, than a stockpile of sought-after accessories."

Tout Sweet follows the progress of the house renovation, life in a small village and details the people she meets. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the house renovations and the village itself.

Unfortunately a lot of the book reads more like a social diary and the prose themselves are somewhat stilted. Some of the ’natives’ are wonderful, some are a bit odd, but I think I found the ex-pats the most worrisome. Karen’s friend Dave and his son sounded downright dangerous to me. Dave’s son leaves an ax on Karen’s pillow - something she finds odd but fluffs off. They later have a falling out but she regrets not having Dave’s friendship later on. Count yourself lucky I say.

Karen’s flight to France was also prompted by a broken heart. Of course I understand the desire to find a partner, but at times Wheeler’s search smacks of desperation. She seems to have a knack for picking the wrong bloke.

"He has a girlfriend but he wants to be friends with me. And I can’t help thinking that my life is going to be so much better with him in it."

Although at the end of the year, Karen is happy with herself and her choices.

"And as I have rebuilt the house, I have also rebuilt my life. I have learned that I can move to a place where I know no one and create a new life for myself. It is very empowering to know that."

I applaud Karen for chasing her dream. It does take a lot of gumption to pick up stakes and start over. You can find Karen on her blog and on Twitter.


Karen is at the point in her life when she needs a change. A change from the hustle and bustle of work, her social circle and the memories of the boyfriend who left her. She is ready for a different outlook on life.

Deciding that leaving London is the best and quickest way to make that change, Karen packs up and heads to France.

What follows is the unexpected finding of ‘the house’ and the long and expensive renovations of said house.

During the months of renovations, Karen meets several quirky neighbors and friends who teach her what it means to live, laugh and love in rural France.

Tout Sweet is the first book I have read by Karen Wheeler and it was an okay read. I think of Tout Sweet as being Chick-Lit, and that is not my genre at all - we all know I prefer that touch of paranormal in my reads.

But I thought I would branch out a little and give it a try. If Chick-Lit is your thing, you’re going to enjoy Tout Sweet.

I give Tout Sweet 3 out of 5 stars.



Karen Wheeler has a glamorus life in London. She has a great job, a wonderful boyfriend, a gorgeous home, and a fabulous assortment of shoes and handbags. Life is not always as it appears on the surface. On an impulse, Karen decides to chuck her city life and purchases a run down house in rural France.
She jumps whole heartedly into her new lifestyle in rural France renovating her new home in the country. She makes new friendships, new loves, and finds out how different life can be with a much simper lifestyle. Even with her simpler life, don’t handbags and shoes still have a place?
This is the tale of how Karen Wheeler left her glamorus city life and moved to rural France. She tells the tale of how she purchased a run down house with no thought and then the months of hard work to make the house livable. I am sure there were times when she had second thoughts about what she did, especially when she had to live in one room for a year while other areas of the house were renovated. She humorously tells of her struggle to let go of the past while holding on to her future. She meets some rather unusual new friends along the way and surprises you with the mixed up mess their lives are in. I bet sometimes Karen felt like she had a normal life compared to those around her. I can’t say more or it would spoil the story. Check out Karen’s book and see how she transforms her life from the mad, everyday rush, to find satisfaction in some of life’s simpler pleasures.
I wish to thank Sourcebooks for providing me with a copy to read and review. I was not required to write a positive review. I was not compensated in anyway except for the privilege of reading the book.


Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France by Karen Wheeler is a memoir of a woman who gives up a pretty cushy life in London as a fashion editor to move to rural France on her own and renovate a house. Doesn’t everyone dream of doing this? I know I do and every time I read a memoir like this where a single woman moves to France or Italy and renovates a house, it just brings that dream alive again.

Thirty-something Karen is single after a bad breakup with her boyfriend. The breakup really took it’s toll on her as she had been pretty much planning on marrying this guy and having babies. As a fashion editor she has everything most of us only dream about - great clothes, shoes, and lots of parties but after her breakup she feels more and more like she’s had enough. So what does she do, well she leaves it all behind of course, and buys a run down house in Poitou-Charentes, France. She names it Maison Coquelicot - or ’house of the wild poppy’.

The house is a mess when she arrives but she has a vision and she sets about seeing it come alive. I enjoyed reading about her renovating adventures especially in the beginning when she couldn’t stay at the house yet and ended up in a tent instead. It was great hearing about it all come together though, like the first night she got to spend in her own bed in her house or getting the garden fixed up and being able to sit out there and see all the beauty before her.

She met a lot of people too and made some good friends although some of these friendships didn’t come without a few surprises too. The one thing Karen struggled with was letting go of her ex-boyfriend in order to be able to move on herself. It doesn’t help of course that she seemed to have the worst of luck in the area of being able to even find herself a man. First she moved to an area that seems to be inhabited with mostly people over sixty and that certainly doesn’t help when you may be in the market for a man. That aside though she does meet a few eligible (or so she thought) men in France but each time these tentative relationships fell apart. I admired the way she picked up and moved on though and hopefully at some point love manages to find her again.

I really enjoyed Karen’s story and truthfully I found this book read more like fiction than a memoir which made it even more enjoyable for me. I found myself completely drawn into the little world Karen has carved out for herself in France. She writes in an easy, flowing way that I found pleasant to read and once I got started reading I found I really didn’t want to put the book down until I finished it. Getting to the end was kind of sad because I still want to know if she finds love or gets a dog. To that end I was happy to see that there is a sequel to Tout Sweet and I plan on reading it next.

What I liked most about Karen’s writing was she made me feel as though I was right there with her in France. I could see the scenery as she described it and taste the yummy delicacies she got from the bakery or the wine she shared with friends. Mostly I like how she had the nerve to just give up her life in London and move to France and renovate a house. Even more important as she renovates this house and meets all these new friends who become important to her, she manages to find herself as well. She learns that life isn’t all about the newest fashions or going on your next shopping spree - it’s actually about the small things like getting something accomplished in the house or enjoying a walk in the countryside. A simple life can hold many pleasures.

I really enjoyed Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler. I think it stems from me wishing I could do this very same thing some day. I always enjoy reading about someone moving to some far away place but France and Italy really intrigue me. I can’t wait for more adventures from Karen! You can visit Karen’s blog and follow her on Twitter as well. You can pick up your own copy of Tout Sweet here in the US and here in Canada.


I picked this book up last week, and once I had, found that I didn’t want to put it down. It made my long commutes fly by, and was a lovely way to escape the extreme summer heat. For a little while at least.

Karen, broken-hearted in London, stumbled upon an opportunity to buy an old house in rural France and this memoir describes her adventures trying to fix up the house, and adjust to her new life. It seems a little weird to say this in a review of a memoir, since although she is a character in the story, she is a real person, but Karen was entirely likeable. I really enjoyed her warm, honest voice sharing the ups and downs of finding herself knee-deep in home-repairs, and coping with doing it all on her own. Balanced nicely with, often humorous, tales of the people she meets in the village, some of them certainly more eccentric than others.

I spent a few months in rural France myself on a student exchange in high school many many years ago, and reading Tout Sweet brought back some nice memories of that time. The downside though is that I’m now seriously longing for the French countryside. I don’t think buying a house there, however run-down, is in my future, but oh how I wish it were. Tokyo was exciting when I first arrived, but as I’m getting older (ahem) I find myself preferring quiet and nature to the neon hustle of this crowded metropolis. The slower pace of life she describes, as well as the beautiful surroundings, all sound positively idyllic.

Rounding the chateau, I turn into a narrow country lane and keep walking. I have no idea where I am going but it doesn’t matter. Within minutes, I am in beautiful, open countryside, surrounded by lush green and golden fields as far as the eye can see. I pass the occasional field of sheep but there is absolutely no one else around but me. I walk and walk, enjoying the lemony-pale spring sunshine and grass verges dotted with poppies and bluebells. The longer I walk, the happier I feel. How could I not know that such beauty lay on my doorstep? (p. 189)
Doesn’t that sound wonderful? And even if we can’t all pick up and move to France, her story is inspiring. In addition to being a fun, entertaining read, it’s also a nice reminder that even when life doesn’t go as expected, something good is around the corner. We just have to have the courage to do something different. I’m very glad to find out that she’s already written a sequel, Toute Allure: Falling in Love in Rural France, and is working on a third book. I’m very much looking forward to more amusing, candid stories from Karen Wheeler.

Karen also blogs about her life in France at Tout Sweet: My Life in a Rural French Village. And can be found on Twitter.



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.

Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France is Karen Wheeler’s memoir about giving up city life in London for the French countryside. For many years, Karen had a successful career as a fashion editor. At 35, she had a glamorous life and the perfect man - Eric. But, when talk between them turned to marriage, Eric bolted.

So, a heartbroken Karen decides to give up it all up and move to a small village in France. She buys a house in serious need of renovations. (No indoor bathroom! No kitchen floor!) Along with the house comes an assortment of very colorful neighbors to keep her busy.

Memoirs are not my usual genre of choice, but what drew me to this book was the fantasy of moving someplace new and starting over, and this lucky woman was able to do it. For most people (like me), it’s only a dream, so it was fun to live vicariously through Karen. I enjoyed the rich descriptions of the life in her village and its quirky inhabitants.

As much as I liked the subject, I had a difficult time getting into the story. It didn’t grab my attention and pick up the pace until half way through. There were some references to British places that were lost on me (Marks & Spencer? I had to google it!) and plenty of French words and phrases, but that didn’t bother me too much.

Karen’s move to France wasn’t just about a change of scenery. It was also about letting go of Eric and moving on from the heartache. It took her a long time to deal with her emotional baggage. One quote from the book that stuck with me was by her friend Dave:

But you have to remember...that you can’t run from unhappiness. You just take it with you.

I would recommend this book to fans of chick lit and fans of all things French. I give Tout Sweet 3 out of 5 stars.

Karen Wheeler’s memoir Tout Sweet has a unique tone to it that will have readers enjoying this read as much as any fiction novel they might pick up. In the vein of memoirs like, Eat Pray Love, Tout Sweet is about a fashion editor with a fast paced London life that decides to completely turn her world upside down by moving to a dilapidated fixer-upper in rural France. Wheeler’s experiences are both poignant and funny as she recounts her time in France, in a witty chick-lit style that is all her own.

at 34 Karen Wheeler thought she was on top of the world. With a handsome boyfriend, a classy upscale job and more accessories in her closet than most people have in a lifetime. But one year later, everything has changed. When her boyfriend abruptly steps out of the picture, Karen makes a life-changing decision to leave her old life as a fashion editor behind. She needed a change of pace and a short holiday just wasn’t going to cut it. She buys a old house in a rural French village that has more issues than she can handle and finds herself in for an adventure of a life time. She goes from a chic elegant lifestyle to the simple pleasures of the country and finds happiness in the most unlikely of places.

Tout Sweet is written in such a fresh and engaging style. Karen Wheeler writes her memoir just like she was talking to a friend. Readers will love the way Karen is able to convey her emotions and draw them into the story of what was going on in her life. Her misadventures with the houseItalic she buys in France are nothing short of hilarious. She isn’t near a good restaurant or a good market and spends her first year in France subsisting on bread and cheese. But all the while she seems content and more at ease with her country life than she ever did in her big city life. I thought she did an amazing job of making her memoir read more like a novel than non-fiction usually does. I found it very enjoyable and I believe the reader will also.

Having read, Eat, Pray, Love I think I was expecting Tout Sweet to be similar. But I noticed the differences right from the beginning. Karen Wheeler’s story is more organic, it has a more realistic feel to it. It is interesting to me that a person could just pick up and leave their old life behind. It’s certainly not something I would be able to do and I found her situation unique, but very entertaining. I really enjoyed learning about her neighbors in France and the people she met along the way. Most of her would-be suitors were a hoot. I liked the way she was able to make the reader feel like they were right there with her when she whopped the guy in the hotel with her designer bag, too funny!

One of my favorite parts of the book were Karen Wheeler’s descriptions of the French countryside and the little village she found herself in. I liked how she talked about the renovations to the house she had bought and her interactions with the people around her. She made me as a reader feel like I was a part of the fun, and along for the ride.

Though the book started out a little slow it picked up speed when Karen actually moved to France and at that point I couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the overall feel of the book and I recommend it to any readers who are interested in rural France or interested in leaving behind their old life in the city for something simpler and slower. i love it!

Tout Sweet is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I’m giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

Karen Wheeler had it all. She was a fashion writer and spent her days at glamorous design parties, the top restaurants and in association with the top names in fashion. She had more handbags and shoes than most small villages could muster with all the households combined. She spent her days in a whirl of shopping, parties, and the best that the fashion world could offer.

But something was missing. She was tiring of the hustle and bustle and the emptiness of a life without someone to share it with. The man of her dreams had abruptly left, and she couldn’t seem to move on. Karen started to take classes to fill her weekends and at one, met a man who was creating a French bed and breakfast place. He invited her to France to see what he was doing, and she accepted. While there, in idle conversation, the fact that a house in the village was available came up and before she knew it, she had viewed it and bought it in one day!

Tout Sweet is the story of the first year of Karen’s life in her new surroundings, and the change from a luxury flat in London to a house in rural France that had been neglected. When she moved in, there was no running water, no modern bathroom, no kitchen facilities or even a kitchen floor! The reader goes through the renovation with Karen, lovingly creating a house that was warm and inviting.

It is also the story of how she learned to slow her life and love it in the present instead of always waiting for the future. Most of the village inhabitants were older, retirees from England along with the native French. Karen made good friends here, friends that she had time to involve in her life. She learned to enjoy the simple pleasures of long country walks, fresh baked croissants in the morning, and sitting in her courtyard at the end of a long day enjoying a glass of wine. Along the way, there were several men who were interested in her and the reader gets the story of how each of these relationships progressed.

This book is recommended for those who enjoy travel writing and those who enjoy reading about how it is possible to change one’s life. Wheeler’s writing style is light and breezy and the reader closes the last page sure that their life would be enriched if they could count her among their friends. An enjoyable read, Tout Sweet is a life lesson on how to transform a life that doesn’t satisfy into one that makes each day a new adventure.


I have never really been much of one to snap up biographies but when I got the email about this one.....well, something about it just appealed to me :)

Nothing about this book was what I expected. It was way better. I had tugs, flutters and laughts that were so intense I thought I would wet myself :) My hats off to Ms Wheeler for sharing this tale with us. The ups and the downs. The ins and the outs. I loved every freaking one of them. Now.....when can I go to France? :)

Format: Paperback

Dimensions
Length: 8 in
Width: 5.25 in
Weight: 11.60 oz
Page Count: 320 pages