Review: From Paris, with Butter

Title: From Paris, With Butter
Author: Christine DeSalvo
Release Date: October 15, 2025
About this Book: Here
Source: HiddenGems ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Would I buy it? Yes, it’s feel good, cozy and delicious.

My Thoughts:

This book, if nothing else, is, at the beginning, a reminder that people should treat their servers better.

Margot is the sunshine in this dynamic, and I can empathize so much with her because the sun is masking genuine grief and anxiety over both loss and her own perceived failures. She is easy to get along with right from the beginning because she, above all else (including herself) loves love and seeing joy in other people. She is a romantic at heart, but not a hopeless one.

Laurent initially is one whole heaping platter of grumpy when we meet him. In the beginning (which I won’t spoil), I actually loathed him. But perhaps every grump, or at least this one, might be hiding a killer ability to cook (but not bake) and some sun behind those gloomy clouds.

This plot was both soft and delicious, much like the meals described in this book. It happens slowly at first, then speeds up without running away with itself. There are conflicts and enough emotion to invest in without creating an overwrought, stretched-out, or boring feeling. I was invested in these two and their lives from the beginning.

Part of that comes from how Margot, Laurent, Yasmine and other characters are written (I’m looking at you, La Croix), and part of it comes from the setting.

I’ve been lucky enough to go to Paris and other parts of France, but this book is a love letter to the city and had me wanting to go back in a way that nothing ever has. My trip there, in all honesty, was a whirlwind (and not a pleasant one), but this book brought to mind the best parts of Paris —its history, its food, its people, and, yes, its romance. You will finish this book wishing you could go, and if only we could all have our very own Margot to guide us.