#BookReview - A Lady in France by Jennie Goutet @ALadyinFrance #Memoir #ReviewShare

A Lady in France by Jennie Goutet
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Lady in France is one of the most thoughtful and sensitive memoirs I have read in some time. The author chronicles her past journeys with such grace that it is able to captivate the reader immediately. The parts about Asia especially reached out to me because we have just moved here in January and it has been a whirlwind of adventure and new experiences.

As a woman, Jennie Goutet gives us a fantastic account of thoughts, emotions and perspective. I particularly like memoirs because good ones offer readers a slice of someone else's life and lessons we can take away for ourselves and our own relationships. Jennie Goutet did this.

Her life story is unique, her writing is straightforward and realistic. This is definitely one of those books you will think about long after you have finished.

Would I recommend this read? Absolutely. I loved every page of it and as I say to other memoir writers I like, thank you Jennie Goutet for sharing your story.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4.5/5
Editing: 4.5/5
Formatting: 4.5/5
Pacing: 4.5/5

Offensive content?: Based on language and settings, I would recommend this book for readers aged 13 and above.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.

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7 Questions with #Author Jennie Goutet @aladyinfrance #Memoir #Women

 1. Tell us a bit about your family. 

My father was a symphony musician, and my mother was a classical musician who stopped pursuing a musical career to raise children. She later went back and got her degree in landscape architecture. I had one biological brother and two adopted siblings - a brother was adopted at age four, and a sister who was brought over from Korea as a baby. There were a lot of chores to do at our house.

2. How do you work through self-doubts and fear?

I work through fear by doing the thing I’m afraid of. I’m the first one to volunteer. I work through self-doubts by praying. I’ve finally (mostly) stopped the whispers in my head that tell me I’m not worth anything.

3. What scares you the most?

Oh, it’s most certainly to lose my husband or one of my three children. There is nothing that comes even close to that fear. However, I have a funny phobia - well, now it’s funny - that I will need to use the bathroom in a place where there is none available.

4. What makes you happiest?

Since I’m so busy a lot of the time, I’m happiest when I’m on vacation with my family. I know that the children are having a great time and we’re building memories together. I feel in those moments like I’m doing something right.

5. What’s your greatest character strength?

I think it’s honesty. I wanted to say that it’s to love, but I realized there is a limit to my love depending on my energy level. However, there is no limit to my honesty.

6. What’s your weakest character trait?

I am undisciplined. I’m sloppy, rash; I spend too much, eat too much, am slow to exercise and fold socks, but can waste hours online. I think it all falls under the umbrella of undisciplined.

7. Why do you write?

Because then people have to hear me out - no one can cut me off. They have to listen to the entirety of what I want to say. I didn’t know that it was important until I started writing.

At seventeen, Jennie Goutet has a dream that she will one day marry a French man and sets off to Avignon in search of him. Though her dream eludes her, she lives boldly—teaching in Asia, studying in Paris, working and traveling for an advertising firm in New York.

When God calls her, she answers reluctantly, and must first come to grips with depression, crippling loss, and addiction before being restored. Serendipity takes her by the hand as she marries her French husband, works with him in a humanitarian effort in East Africa, before settling down in France and building a family.

Told with honesty and strength, A Lady in France is a brave, heart- stopping story of love, grief, faith, depression, sunshine piercing the gray clouds—and hope that stays in your heart long after it’s finished.

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Genre – Memoir

Rating – PG-13

More details about the author

Connect with Jennie Goutet on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://aladyinfrance.com