Dacres, Sutanya. Dinner for One: How Cooking in Paris Saved Me. Park Row, 2022. ISBN 978-0778333036 $27.99.

**

It felt like a dream come true to marry a Parisian and move to France, but the fairy tale turned into a nightmare for Sutanya Dacres. Moving in together, no matter how in love you are, is stressful, because it’s a change to negotiate. After a three year LDR, Sutanya moves continents and gets married. Adding a language barrier to different cultural backgrounds and immaturity proves to be too much and they divorce. Still, the goal of becoming a blogging ex-pat is a romantic ideal to pursue, and Sutanya learns to take care of herself, after a flirtation with alcoholism and one-night stands to mask her pain.

Most of this book is focused on the relationship and what went wrong without the juicy details (though, her brief recounting of their fights is cringe-inducing). There’s a little about the food, and finally some recipes at the end, but very little context as the recipes relate to the narrative. The title promises a story about cooking, and there is very little actual cooking in the narrative. Integrating the story with the food would have made for more flow and interest, I think this great premise suffered from oblivious–or no–editing.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #DinnerforOneHowCookingInParisSavedMe from #NetGalley.