Ooh La La!

French Women's Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day

By: Jamie Cat Callan

Narrated by: Laura Darrell

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

French women seem to have a special knack for life's most important things - food, love, raising children. And in matters of beauty and style, they appear to be at an unfair advantage. But the good news is that everything French women know can be learned...

French women are not born more attractive than anyone else. They simply learn at a very young age how to feel beautiful, confident, and sexy, inside and out. It's an allure that outlasts youth - in fact, some of France's most celebrated women are femmes d'un certain âge. Experience only makes them more irresistible. Growing up, Jamie Cat Callan had a French grand-mere to instruct her on style, grooming, and genuinely liking her reflection in the mirror. Now she shares that wisdom along with advice from other French women on fragrance, image consulting, makeup, and more, and shows you how to:

• Discover the power of perfume
• Find mentors who will help hone your personal style
• Begin at the ends--hands, feet, and hair
• Choose lingerie that makes you feel magnifique
• Get an internal makeover and nourish your soul
• Embrace your age gracefully and gorgeously

Bid au revoir to Botox, fad diets, and agonizing over every imperfection, and say hello to the truly timeless beauty that comes with making the most of your own unique je-ne-sais-quoi.

©2013 Jamie Cat Callan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

can hardly stand listening to the narrator...

Would you try another book from Jamie Cat Callan and/or Laura Darrell?

Not by this narrator. Perhaps by Jamie Cat Callan. The narration was so uber-enunciated it was incredibly distracting. Her tone was off-putting to me. Some of the opinions in the book were so prim and proper I distanced myself. I'm a huge Francophile so parts were also fun.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Perhaps including more French women's opinions, conversation... without all the very American New England judgments.

Would you be willing to try another one of Laura Darrell’s performances?

No.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No.

LOVE

such a great book full of beautiful narratives and interviews and dreams! will reread for sure 💕💕

Shallow reflections from a poor writer

Would you try another book from Jamie Cat Callan and/or Laura Darrell?

Good God no. I tried to make it through to the very end, but was losing brain cells too rapidly.

What was most disappointing about Jamie Cat Callan’s story?

Trying to draw "lessons" out of weak observations, then dressing up her writing with saccharine and overly dramatic conclusions to each chapter.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Laura Darrell?

I'm not well-versed on book narrators and who should be reading what, but I was unhappy with the narration in the book. It could be, however, that Darrell did such a stellar job channeling the author's adolescent-like flare for the dramatic that I has to stop listening. The voice and intonations were too grating.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ooh La La!?

I'll give Callan this- there are about 20 cumulative minutes of interesting material in this 8 hour book, but the majority of the writing is the author's reflections on any and everything, making this book reading more like an overly loquacious diary with little substance. It's clear that there was little copy editing done on the writing, to the point where multiple times throughout this book, I wondered if it was self-published.

Any additional comments?

I understand that a book with "Ooh la la" in the title is not likely to be overly enlightening, and I bought this for a "fluff" read, since I enjoyed Lessons from Madame Chic. This book was just too poorly constructed to keep my attention.

Please save your time and credits.

This audio book is truly terrible. I struggled to even make it as far as I did. The author makes superficial observations and pontificates endlessly about herself. Her self-importance and obliviousness highlights how much of a tourist she is in the areas of sophistication, elegance and "je ne sais quoi". I love the Madame Chic books and would recommend them a hundred times over this. I never write reviews but I had to write something because of just how awful this book is.

Its a book about how she is writing a book

Its not so much a book, its a book about how she is writing a book and how she travels to meet with different people here and there, and the small details of her day writing the book (but not in an enjoyable way) and she makes a lot of references that her husband is not with her as he is working. Its terrible.

Could not stay interested

The narrator did not take me into the story. This one is being returned. Do not my type at all.