A cute, quick story about two teen chefs who meet and fall in love during a semester at a culinary school in Paris. There's not much to this book, but if you are looking for a nice, fluffy read this would be perfect. Good for fans of Great British Bake-Off and Anna and the French Kiss. Nice Parisian setting, mouth-watering food descriptions, and fun characters made it an entertaining read.

This is a delightful read that is perfect for middle school and up. I appreciate that the romance was kept G rated because the focus is on relationships – friends and family. It is about overcoming self-doubt, being the best you can be, perseverance and also about FOOD! Anyone who watches cooking competitions or enjoys eating should like this fun diversion. There is nothing earth shattering or life altering in this book, it’s simply a feel-good read filled with characters who read like friends. The story ends after the first semester in Paris but hints at more to come. I hope so.

Ms. Strohm has done it again. Her fluffy romances always grab at heartstrings, with an underlying layer of the power of friendship.

This is the story of Rosie. Shy Rosie is the middle child (and only girl!) in her loud, rambunctious family. She takes great pride in her baking, and it is where she finds her strength and confidence. Rosie is going to Paris to study cooking--though she is a baker through and through--and learn more about herself and what she can do. She struggles, learns, grows, and struggles some more, leading her to doubt herself and question her place at the Ecole. Will she survive the semester--and be back in Paris after Christmas? Or will she be chopped from the program? At least, along the way, she starts to fall in love with that cute boy across the aisle from her plane seat...

That boy is Henry. Raised in his father's restaurant, Henry has been cooking his entire life. It is what he is good at, and what he knows he succeeds at. His father loves and encourages him, but as for his mom... well, she wishes his grades were a bit higher. Henry is going to Paris to study cooking and is fully ready to throw his heart and soul into cooking for the rest of his life. But, with pressure coming from his mom academically and internal pressure about impressing his dad, Henry's life quickly comes to a full, rolling boil. And, if he's not careful, he's going to lose his steam. It doesn't help that Rosie, the cute girl he bonded with on the plane ride over to France, has been spending a lot of time with the cooking world's bad boy, Bodie Tal.

This book is, again, fluffy but it also stresses the importance of talking things through with friends and loved ones, as well as knowing when to ask for help. As much as I love Rosie and Henry, I greatly enjoyed their friends Yumi, Priya, Hampus, and Marquis. Their interactions were great, and these are some of the best friends anyone could ever have. Rosie and Henry lucked out in both the romance and friendship department.

Also, sorry, you will never be able to look at potatoes the same way again. (They're highly romantic, you know?)

As a fan of any book with cooking, boarding schools, and Paris, Love à la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm seemed like the perfect book for me. The story is about a French cooking school and contains characters from all over the world. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of food. Fans of books like Anna and the French Kiss and Taste Test will love this one.

This book tells the story of two teens who attend a prestigious cooking school in Paris. Rosie is determined to prove herself as one of the only bakers there, and at the same time finds herself falling for another chef. I loved the friendship dynamics and the fluffy moments scattered throughout the book. The story is also about so much more than academics, which I appreciated. Delving into the characters’ personal lives and not just focusing on them trying to prove themselves makes for a more engaging story. If you are looking for a feel-good novel, I would definitely recommend this one.

There are some great characters developed in Love à la Mode. Rosie is a baker who is so realistic with her feelings of homesickness. I enjoyed how she is so determined to try and improve her skills and impress the professional chefs. Henry is also enjoyable, and he is one of the most talented chefs in the program. I really felt for him as his mother insists on assigning him so much extra work. However, the supporting characters were actually my favourite. The students at the school come from a variety of backgrounds, and I loved the humour they bring to the book.

One of my favourite aspects of the book was the descriptions of food and culture. As the book is set in Paris, it sets the scene for romance. Reading about Rosie and Henry’s first time in the city is so heartwarming. There are also such vivid descriptions of food that made my mouth water. Just reading the book made me wish the culinary creations could come to life.

Love à la Mode is a story about a cooking school that contains a diverse cast of characters. I loved the setting and the tasty descriptions of food. I wish there was more to the story so I could see what new challenges arise in their second semester!

A sweet culinary romance, Love a la Mode follows two American teens on their way to a year studying at an elite culinary school in Paris. There is a meet cute on a plane, miscommunication, a hint of a love triangle, and lots of delicious sounding food! Rosie wants to be a pastry chef and can wax eloquent on the layers of a croissant. Henry is a Korean-American from Chicago who dreams of being a chef like his dad. (And I love that we get an Asian love interest here!) They join a diverse group of students at a rigorous school in Paris where they face challenges: academic, relational, and culinary.

In general this was a cute story, but I did find it annoying that the main conflict was lack of communication. An honest conversation could have easily fixed everything but instead, Henry spends a lot of time whining, sulking, and being in his head unnecessarily. I don't prefer non-communication at a conflict trope in a love story and found myself rolling my eyes at some bits. However, I liked the culinary setting and thought the story wrapped up very sweetly. I received a review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

3.5, rounded up to 4 stars, because Strohm's style is always worth it.

Rosie and Henry share a passion for cooking, although the two come from very different backgrounds. Together with kids from all over the world, they have enrolled into a famous cooking school in Paris for a whole year.

This is a little bit Anna and the French Kiss, but the romance isn't as involving. As I mentioned, it's the author's style that makes it all worth it. While the romance was basically needless drama when it was obvious they liked each other, all the rest made me fall in love.

First, all the cooking. I don't cook but the necessary to survive, and I'm not into cooking shows. Still, the descriptions made me even consider cooking can be something else. I remember there was one sitting I closed the book (well, put my kindle on standby) and went to the kitchen to make me something. So this part was definitely fun.

But if you haven't read anything by Strohm, you should know the way she narrates is always interesting. She knows to make great characters and jokes. This book was no exception, even if not her strongest.

The romance was nice, the two had chemistry and the love triangle wasn't that bad, just the conflicts that made the story drag a little. Which is strange, because they didn't seem forced, I could see where they came from. But they ended up in arguments I've seen too much of already and made me roll my eyes more than a couple of times.

You'll have lots of fun as long as your only thing is romance—then I'll have to say this book will feel underwhelming.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Henry and Rosie have both been selected to attend Chef Denis Laurent's elite cooking school for Teens in Paris. But, of course, a new city, a new school, and new friends all bring their own set of challenges. Henry and Rosie will have to work hard to navigate their new life, and maybe things will work out for them to be together too.

This sweet story was a fun, quick read. I enjoyed reading about Henry and Rosie and found them cute protagonists. I'd recommend this to any cooking enthusiasts or foodies who like to read light romance. Reader Beware: This book will make you hungry!

I’ve had ALL of the books by this author on my TBR foreeeever now and am excited that I finally read one! Her books all sound like adorable, fluffy contemporary romances with often unique premises. My Netgalley request for this one was approved so I finally had no excuse to keep putting her words off!

I loved Henry from the first chapter. He was instantly so adorable and goofy as he struggled to talk with Rosie for the first time. I was impressed from the beginning that Strohm was able to provide so much context into his family life and background within the first few pages of the book, without feeling like an unnatural info-dump. We learn right away that his dad is a chef with his own restaurant and his mom isn’t the biggest fan of him continuing down that path. The second chapter is from Rosie’s point of view, where we learned about her four brothers and love of baking. The two of them were awkward around each other (not in an unreasonable or annoying way, IMO), which added to their charm.

The school itself was amazing and the setting was incredibly vivid! I felt like I was in a French boarding school, just like with Anna and the French Kiss (but these two books are quite different otherwise). Obviously this school was even more intriguing because the kids were all aspiring chefs and OH MAN AM I HUNGRY AFTER THIS BOOK! Be prepared for that, folks. I loved that the school was international too, so there were teens from alllll backgrounds and parts of the world. The friend group was awesome.

Henry’s mom annoyed me VERY much because she was forcing things onto him that didn’t relate to his interests or personality; she was forcing him to be something different than who she was. I can see her wanting him to be solid academically but she didn’t seem to believe in his love of cooking? She experienced firsthand what it’s like to run a restaurant and simply didn’t want the same thing for her son, but it was frustrating to read. She only added more pressure on him, which won’t help him get better at anything. Obviously his frustration with her bled into other parts of his life, including alienating Rosie. Unfortunately THIS, mixed with Rosie’s homesickness, drove a lot of the miscommunication and drama within the story. (That and the whole Bodie Tal celebrity “crush” thing.) It’s odd because the romance was kind of slow burn but also not at all at the same time? It was a really interesting storyline.

Overall, this was such a sweet story, with a cute romance, adorable main characters, delicious food, and a fun French culinary boarding school setting. I loved the friend group that developed; they all felt real. The final 10% or so of the book REALLY caught me by surprise. I was enjoying it quite a bit but it wasn’t until then that the feels caught right up to me and I knew this was a favorite. Highly, highly recommended – if you thought the summary sounded cute, I can’t imagine you being disappointed.

High school students from all over the world want to be accepted for a year in Paris studying with a famous chef. And so it begins - we meet our two stars, (Henry and Rosie), on the flight heading over from Chicago. When we arrive the others appear creating a magically diverse group of teens destined to share the adventure. We have students representing many different countries, cultures and ideas. One is revealed to be gay and joyously everyone accepts each other - with only one surprising exception. The "cool" kid has his "i'm just like you" moment when he explains he wasn't being elitist sitting apart - he himself felt left out. And although this blows our lovely Rosie away, she accepts his friendship, (although not his heart - she's all about Henry!), unless I missed something - they never pull him into their circle of friends. He stays with the other "cool" kids but that truly was the only flaw for me. It is a delightful story with so much great food and characters you want to see come back for another year together. Really do hope the author plans a sequel.

Love à la Mode is a book for those who want a book with high stakes cooking, romantic drama, and two cute protagonists who are struggling with their own recipes. It's hard to write a review for a book like this where I just feel like my heart is one mush of happy emotions afterwards. There are real stakes and plenty of tension - in the flame and on the streets - but our two MCs bonding over a cooking magazine meet cute? Melt my cold heart.

I loved reading about baking obsessed Rosie who meets our Korean American love interest, Henry. Talk about some good looking characters who can cook up a mean three course menu. I need recipes with this book because my heart goes from swooning, to a knife edge of tension, all the way to mouth watering.

This book is literally the cutest. Literally the cutest. Sometimes you’re just in the mood for an adorable little lovey-dovey story and this totally delivered. There’s not a whole lot of drama, but when there is it’s not like, petty drama which was nice. Sure, the characters make some dumb teenager mistakes, but it’s to be expected. Overall, I think their willingness to communicate, forgive and forget was pretty mature. Really just a nice, clean story of two kids falling in love in Paris. Loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for the eARC.

*** 3.5-4 Stars***

This book is the cuteeesssttttt. How could you not love a story that is set in Paris and involves a love story and food!? Rose and Henry meet on a plane and instantly have a weird, young adult awkward crush/connection. Turns out they both were accepted to Ecole, a prestigious culinary school in Paris to learn from a famous chef. It was a fast, easy read that kept me interested and I found myself smiling a lot during this. Being from Ohio with many references to Rosie's home town in Ohio and one of her brother's attending the college I graduated from, I felt I could relate to Rosie. Also having just visited Paris, I loved the vivid descriptions of Rosie and Henry experiencing Paris for the first time and I felt like I was back there with them reliving my experience. Loved the writing style of alternating between Henry and Rosie's point of view as well. This felt like a very young adult read to me but I really enjoyed it; was a good change of pace for me and just an all around feel good story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for allowing me an advanced read copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love á la Mode was a super cute and young YA book. This little story follows the perspectives of Henry and Rosie, two teens chosen to attend an exclusive cooking school in Paris for a year. They have their little meet-cute on the airplane, and things start rolling from there. The school is not exactly what they imagined, and they are both dealing with things from home. A few disasters try to keep them away from each other and their dreams of cooking excellence, but I’m sure you can guess how this one ends.
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I really enjoyed the ‘boarding school’ aspect of this book and a lot of the focus on cooking. It was easy to read, and I was rooting for the MCs the whole time. However, the food show talk was a little too in depth, which didn’t need to be quite so heavy to show the characters love for cooking/baking. The relationship was a little insta-love for me, but it was on par with many YA contemporaries. Overall, i didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as others by this author, but it was still a great back to school read.
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3.5 ⭐️

I've read other books by Stephanie Kate Strohm, and I was excited for this book as well. I mean, they’re attending culinary school in PARIS–this book checks off so many boxes for me, and fortunately it delivers.

Rosie and Henry’s meeting on the plane to Paris is just so adorable. I enjoy the sparks-flying, rub-each-other-the-wrong-way kind of setup as much as the next reader, but it’s refreshing to read about two characters who immediately connect because they have something in common and genuinely like each other.

I have to admit I got frustrated sometimes with the two protagonists as the story proceeded because they wouldn’t just TALK TO EACH OTHER about what was going on. However, I also felt it was completely believable, and so even thought it was frustrating, this falls into the category of something I love about the story. It felt real to me that these two characters were struggling through life and didn’t quite know how to share it.

I’m not an adventurous eater myself, but I love reading books about cooking. It’s my way of branching out into more interesting foods, and this book definitely delivers on that front. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the pastries, and I just want to fly to Paris right now and visit Chef Petit’s boulangerie …

The friendships both Rosie and Henry developed were an integral part of the book, and I loved how well-developed the characters were.

Both Rosie and Henry had complex family situations that led to them studying at the École. In Henry’s case, his relationship with his mom and what she expected of him exhausted him mentally and physically. I really appreciated the unexpected depth this added to the story.

Overall, I thought it was a fantastic read, and I highly recommend it.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

As always, Strohm provided me with an adorable story. The banter was on point, and I laughed quite often, but this was also a little different from her previous three books. Those leaned heavily on the comedy part of rom-com, and this book, while quite funny, featured more tender and heartfelt moments.

Many of those moments starred Rosie. She really tugged at my heartstrings. Her backstory and the interactions with her family were all quite touching. The texts from her brothers always made me laugh, and her mother's endless support and love never failed to deliver some feels.

This book incorporated many elements I love, and together resulted in a great reading experience.

• The setting - I love Paris, and Strohm did a great job taking us into the city. Not only did she bring us to some popular places, but she gave us a pretty immersive eating experience too.

• Boarding school - I have an affinity for stories set in boarding schools, and we get that dynamic combined with the fervor of a reality cooking show and high school antics.

• The food! - This was a culinary school, and there was a LOT of cooking, baking, and eating going on. Strohm must be a foodie, because the descriptions were quite vivid and mouth-watering.

• The characters - What a fun group of characters! Each one had their own little quirk, and combined to form one fantastic friend group.

• The friendships were strong in this one. They may have been competing against one another, but they were still always there to lend a hand or a shoulder to cry on. They supported and encouraged each other, and there were a lot of awww-worthy moments shared.

• The romance was adorable. Yes, there was some miscommunication, or rather, a lack thereof, and also some misinterpreted signals, but there were also a bunch of tender and sweet moments, and I thought Henry and Rosie were precious together.

Overall: This book was a tasty treat stuffed with an adorable romance, fantastic friendships, lots of heartwarming moments, and tons of food!

Now, I remember first hearing about this book and being really excited. Not only was it about a boarding school set in France, this boarding school is actually a prestigious cooking school as well! I was definitely getting Anna and the French Kiss vibes with some competitive drama to boot! And while it was an okay read, I wouldn't rank it with my favourite contemporary novels.

Firstly, my main concern was with the main characters. Rosie and Henry were pretty nice together, but alone, they're kind of boring. While I loved those cute moments between Rosie and Henry, I prefer characters that I could root for based on their personality or empathy for them. Don't get me wrong: in the beginning, I did like both characters. However, that changes when Rosie becomes a bit bland for me (I think she would have been perfectly fine in the early 2010s, though) and Henry begins to take out his frustrations on Rosie.

I did like the school, though, as well as the experience studying in France. I've been a big fan of reading boarding schools since forever, and thought that this book had a fun take on boarding school life. Also, the story really goes into detail about backstory of the school as well as characters within the novel, which I really appreciated. It made things easier to imagine and gave more depth to the story.

Overall, while I didn't get into Love à la Mode as much as I wanted to, I wouldn't discourage readers from checking it out if they like cooking or baking.

In this novel for young adults, high school juniors Rosie Radeke from East Liberty, Ohio, and Henry Yi of Chicago are both enrolled in an elite cooking program in Paris with other sixteen-year olds. They are chefs-in-training at the École Denis Laurent, "the most prestigious cooking program for high school students on the planet." Rosie and Henry meet on the plane on the way to Paris and feel an instant attraction.

All of the students, who are from all over the world, live and study at a large, glamorous townhouse with a huge kitchen, and a staff to teach them led by Chef Martinet. ("Martinet" turns out to be a not-very-original epithet for the cold, strict disciplinarian.)

What happens to them unfolds in alternate chapters narrated by Rosie and Henry. Each of them makes fast friends with most of the other students, including the charming Yumi from Tokyo, Hampus from Sweden, Priya, who is Rosie’s roommate, and a surprise student - the great-looking and famous (to foodies) Bodie Tal, who stars in a baking show with his superstar pastry chef dad.

As the students struggle to attain cooking perfection, some of them battle personal issues as well. In Henry’s case, his mom pressures the school to give Henry more work so he can get into college. Henry doesn’t want to go to college; he wants to go to culinary school. This makes him tired and moody, but he won’t communicate about it with Rosie, so she thinks he doesn’t like her. Nevertheless, he is crazily jealous over Bodie, who obviously likes Rosie also. (It was beyond me why Rosie didn’t prefer Bodie anyway, who seems way more capable and mature than the volatile, juvenile Henry.)

Tensions come to a head not only between the triangle of Rosie, Henry, and Bodie. Towards the end of the semester the students have to make the best meals of their lives to convince both Chef Martinet and Chef Laurent that they should be allowed to return for another term after the Christmas holidays.

Discussion: The author quite cleverly has in essence used the main theme of Hemingway’s "Movable Feast" to develop a plot for young adults involving Paris, food, and romance - a great combination! (In his memoir, which is also one of my favorite books, Hemingway notably said, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast.”)

Rosie interprets the idea of a movable feast broadly after Henry shared that quote with her:

“Rosie loved that idea, of a moveable feast. Of something you could enjoy whenever you wanted, something that went with you no matter where you happened to go. Like home. Home was a place you carried in your heart. [And] . . . food was never just food. . . . Food was the people you cooked with, the people you cooked for, the people you ate with, and the people you thought of as you ate. The people who made the meal what it was.”

She concludes:

“In a few days, she’d go home to Ohio for Christmas. . . . But she would never leave Paris. Not really. Because she knew that it would stay with her. Wherever she went. For the rest of her life.”

Evaluation: This frothy confection celebrating food and family is fine for tweens as well as teens. However, you may want to have a supply of chocolate croissants and gougeres nearby, just for starters. I have never been so craving of French pastries as I have while reading this book!

As always, Stephanie has made another super cute teen love story. Perfect fluff piece set in Paris with all the yummy food on the side. Teens looking for a quick romance will gobble this one right up!

This book was the ultimate book to me. This included my two favorite things, teenage love stories and cooking. The relationship between Henry and Rosie was very mind pulling similar to the reaction of Edward and Bella from Twilight. Incorporating chef terminology and correlating it along with the love story was brilliant work. Everyone will be invested in the story and wanting to find out if Henry and Rosie will end up being together. All around this was a very entertaining and fun book to read.

Thank you Netgalley and Disney Book Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. We will definitely consider this book for our young adult collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars!

Fluffy, light YA romances have been a kind of guilty pleasure for me for quite a while. They tend to be safer and slightly more fun. "Love a la Mode" did not disappoint in this regard either.

Rosie and Henry were sweet characters and their differing passions for food (one for cooking, one for baking and both for eating) was the real draw for me. A sweet, teen romance based in an prestigious French cooking school? Well, I want to read it.

I appreciated the development of the characters and the depth of their backgrounds--I could, regardless of the fluffly storyline, care about them and the work they were going through. I struggled with the pettiness of the breakdown of their relationship (well, the breakdown of the beginning of their relationship). Communication, even one yelled out in frustration would have felt better for me (as the reader) than for the silent shuffling away with the, "s/he must not really like me" thoughts that followed.

I know that with this portion of the YA world you shouldn't nail too many corners against the wall, but I still felt let down somehow with this title. I did enjoy it---just not as much as I did some of Strohm's other light titles.

I received a complementary copy of this title in exchange for my unbiased review.