A solid 3.5 star book, despite a joyful ending, for some repetition and pulled punches. But this is what a character-driven, cozy mystery should be! The characters were engaging and cute and well-rounded. Our heroine was plucky, with human level powers of perception- a necessary endearment because the author leaned heavily on the "she's not like other girls" trope.

But the real reason to read this is, well, our source of the silly title. The characterization of Julia Child was spot on! I say this as an acolyte who owns every one of her cookbooks, read every book about her I could get my hands on, watched every episode of "The French Chef", you get the picture... She wasn't in the story too much, just enough to give it proper framing and support, and allowing her to be our audience surrogate was truly a stroke of genius. Between her and Tabitha's grandpere and Oncle Rafe, the world felt real. I'm looking forward to the next book!