The blurb suggests the book will describe the amusing tale of the renovation of a French chateau. I am clearly in the minority here but I did not find this book either interesting or amusing. The author & his wife are either startlingly naive or just plain stupid. They buy a large, run-down chateau and seem surprised that it costs so much to own, renovate, decorate & run the property. It isn't even clear to me why they chose France - there seems to be little understanding of French life & culture. This is admirably demonstrated by the episode of the hunting for wild boar. His vegetarian/formerly vegan wife objects to this longstanding element of French rural life. I am a vegetarian myself - and whilst I find hunting unpalatable there is simply no point in getting angry about it in rural France. Admittedly the author himself has some insight into the absurdity of their position: he writes "What right did I have to come to the French countryside and tell these farmers what to do?......This (i.e the hunting) was a profound issue and I could feel and understand their anger. Here we were, 'rich' Americans buying up their patrimony and then demanding they obey our rules." Quite!
It is even less obvious why the author thought he would be suited to the hospitality industry - he clearly views paying hotel guests, wedding parties, etc as a tremendous inconvenience, to be treated with disdain and/or disrespect. He even rents out part of the property before he has even seen it and of course it isn't ready for the guests.
I had hoped this would be a relaxing, entertaining holiday read - in fact I spent most of the time trying to fight down growing irritation, that became fury and finally an overwhelming urge to thump the author. Some relaxation!