Fans of Love and Gelato, you will love this one! This is a beautiful YA Romance set in Paris and it is so good! I loved the relationship between Mia and Louis. They are two young kids in Paris and its so cute. I also loved watching Mia prove herself within ballet. She is a very skilled dancer and is given the chance to prove herself. This story is very cute and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of ya romances and books set in France!

The summer before her senior year of high school, Mia Jenrow is headed to Paris to participate in the Institut de l'Opéra de Paris's summer program. Sure, she didn't get into her top choice in New York. and she has to share a room with her biggest rival, Audrey, but that's not really important. She's only here to dance, put in hard work, and prove her mother wrong about a future in ballet. After all, the legend in her family is that her ancestor, Elise Mercier, was a ballerina who was painted by Edgar Degas.
And her hard work pays off. She is moved up from level four to level five not long after she arrives, despite her new coach's harsh criticisms. While on her way to buy the proper leotard, she runs into the coach's son, Louis Dabrowski. Soon, they're exploring the city together, and Louis is willing to help Mia prove the family legend by searching for the painting. They get in touch with Mia's great-aunt, Vivienne, and her daughter, Madeline, to learn more about her history, but there's only so much you can learn from an individual.
Soon, Mia lands the role of the Black Swan in the program's final production of Swan Lake, but is finding herself often distracted by her feelings for Louis. She's always put ballet before any sort of love life, but is there a way to make room for both?
You won't be able to stop reading once you start this book. I needed to find out not only the truth behind the family legend, but also what would happen to Mia and Louis when the summer ended, I won't spoil anything.
But I found that in the last few chapters, it tried to repeat the stages of the plot again, and this final part really didn't seem necessary to me, especially since in the epilogue, nothing had really been changed by it.
My favorite part was how Mia and Audrey went from bitter enemies to actual friends! The only reason they had to compete against each other was their dancing ability, and Audrey wasn't a bully nor did she fit into the "perfect popular girl" stereotype I see in a lot of YA adversaries, and I found her portrayal way more realistic than most other books show rivals. She even had her own development, with how she learned to express her emotions.

Kisses and Croissants is sweet, fun, and a beautiful look at pursuing passion-- and love-- as a teenager.
Mia's dream is to be a professional ballerina. And when she starts a prestigious summer program in Paris, that's all she can think about-- until she meets Louis, a gorgeous, fun, charming French boy. She's torn between a laser focus on her future and finding out if Paris really is the city of love.
One of my favorite things about this book is that Mia really reads as a teenager. The voice itself is great, and the particular way she struggles between everything she's ever wanted and the new things she's starting to want now-- and the choices she makes along the way-- read authentically teenager in a way that suggests this book was truly written for teens, by someone who understands them well.
I immediately started raving about this book when I finished, and can't wait for it to hit shelves so everyone can pick up a copy. I know I'll be rereading it when it comes out.

Paris? Ballet? Romance? Bread? Kisses and Croissants has it all and then some. I love a good fish out of water story, and Mia is totally in her element trying to become a prima ballerina but her summer program is hard and Paris is more than she expected. Louis, a charming parisian boy, wants to be her tour guide--and the pair discover the city both the expected and unexpected.

This is the perfect romance read for anytime of year. The characters are spending a romantic summer in Paris, but its a perfect feel good anytime.

Loved this Parisian escape especially during this time! A very cute read sure to hit with fans of To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I appreciated that Mia's journey was about self-discovery as well as romance.

TW: Car Crash, Use of alcohol, divorce (mentioned)
Rep: Biracial Side character (Moroccan, White)

This book was cute all of the way. I also appreciate that this book was easy to read and such a quick read for me. I think the one thing that stood out to me was that Mia is a dancer who was chosen in the prestigious Ballet school in Paris, and that she wanted to become a dancer.

I loved how this book explored the hardships of being a dancer especially one is ballet. How it's tiring on the body constantly and sometimes it is worth it, to be a professional dancer. Mia explored this in becoming Odile (The Black Swan), how much she was struggling. Even though by the end, the dance wasn't perfect-but near of it, but Mia was grateful for it.

This book really reminded me of Anna and the French Kiss almost, Love a la Mode and Loveboat, Taipei . I wasn't a huge fan of those minus Loveboat. But this book kinda was a little similar with Loveboat mostly, different in some ways-but it kinda remained the exact.

The one thing that I didn't think was believable was Mia trying to find her roots. Granted, it's plausible-but in my experience, more often times than not, it's impossible. I don't know anything. It's all very confusing and don't get me started on my father's side-it's a blank slate. Trust me, I wish I knew where I came from, where I could trace where my family members be at or were from.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kisses and Croissants was filled with so many cute things. In it, you will meet Mia and she is completely and utterly passionate about one thing: Ballet. Which kind of sucks because her mom isn't too happy with her for going to Paris for ballet. Once there, she runs into Audrey who she is pretty familiar with since they both do ballet. Of course there's some tension but along the way they manage to break down each other's walls and eventually form a pretty fun friendship.

There's also romance within this book because how could you not while in Paris? It's pure science. Mia and Louis were pretty cute but I did find some scenes that were a bit weird. It also kind of annoyed me how Mia thought nothing would go wrong while she's a in a city she knows pretty much nothing about. I mean... I went to Paris years ago and I fell in love with the city and food. Yet, I knew that I didn't know anything about the city.. nor did I speak French.

Other than all of that, it was still a fun and cute read. Definitely glad I dove into it and ugh, that cover is just so cute. Man I miss Paris.. and croissants.

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It had me smiling like a loon and wondering how I can find more books like it.

The main character's dedication to her dreams and struggles to feel like a normal 17 year old girl were inspiring.

Dashed in with some love in Paris and some family history sleuthing and I was hooked. I couldn't put this book down. But what really got me was how her relationship with her roommate and supposed to be rival developed and how they made each other better.

I'll admit, I may have cried a little in the last quarter of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This was a very cute book. Contemporary romance is usually not my go to, but I’m glad I was able to have the opportunity to read it. Can’t wait until it’s released so I can get a physical copy.

This book was cute. It started out a bit slow but picked up and drew me in a bit more in the middle.

I appreciated as a ya it was clean and that as a ballerina she enjoyed food.

I needed this cute, fun book in my life! It's a sweet story, with adorable characters and it's set in Paris in summer, what more do you need?

Mia has a passion for ballet and is so excited to be in Paris for an exclusive ballet school. I loved the way she described her feelings while dancing, it really helped us see into her head. She's also friendly and gets along with others and her friendship with Audrey was great. The romance was so well written, it had a lot of flirting and Louis is pretty perfect. He cares about Mia's interests and tries to be there for her as much as he can.

The story flowed well and was quickly paced. There was a crazy twist near the end, but everything ended up just how I wanted. I am so excited for this to be released and look forward to more from the author!

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

J’aime Kisses and Croissants! It’s the perfect YA romcom pastry! It combines sweet and bitter, perfection and error, expectations and delicious surprises.

Set in Paris, 16yo Mia is attending a summer ballet program. She’s determined to become a professional ballerina, despite her mom’s lack of enthusiasm back in the USA. She didn’t plan on meeting a handsome young Frenchman named Louis. He helps her connect with her distant French relatives and try to solve the mystery of the ballerina Degas painted. But when she has to pick between her life passion and her new love, which will she choose?

Mia’s happiness and determination, make her a proactive character that you can’t help but cheer for. The other ballerinas, including her nemesis, are well-rounded and developed characters (and dancers). The romance is full of sweet kisses and difficult decisions. It’s a delicious read they will have you coming back for seconds and thirds.

KISSES AND CROISSANTS by ANNE-SOPHIE JOUHANNEAU will be released April 6, 2021! Preorder your copy today!

SYNOPSIS

Mia is a 16-year-old with big dreams — she wants to be a professional ballet dancer. Though rejected from ABT, Mia is given the opportunity of a lifetime to dance in a summer program in Paris, and vows to make the most of the opportunity to impress the ballet companies coming to watch the students dance. However, Paris is more complicated than Mia imagined when she finds out Audrey, her ballet rival, is also in the program. There’s also handsome, French, and romantic Louis, who wants to show her all the wonders of Paris. Will Mia accomplish her goals in Paris or will distractions thwart her plans? Will her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina come true?

••••••••

I really, really enjoyed reading Kisses and Croissants! I danced ballet for five years, and loved reading Mia’s experiences. As someone who pursued a creative career from a very young age, I very much related to Mia’s conflicting emotions and doubts when it came to her career choice and skill set. It’s also very common for young artists to throw caution to the wind and devote their entire lives to seeing their dreams come true, and Jouhanneau portrays this very well — it’s very realistic and very grounded.

I also really enjoyed reading about the growing relationship Mia has with Louis! Written in a manner appropriate for the young adult audience, Jouhanneau writes their growing attraction and conflicts with such realism and sophistication that more mature readers will definitely also enjoy reading this book.

Overall, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5!!

Many thanks to @asjouhanneau @randomhousechildrens and @netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this fantastic novel!

1.5 stars

Kisses and Croissants is about Mia, a 17 year old ballet dancer who enrolls in a 6 week long dance program in France. She comes from a long line of dancers in her family, and ballet is her biggest passion in life. Mia quickly meets a boy named Louis, and they experience a whirlwind romance as she tries to find out more about her family's past.

I expected to like this, however I feel like it was just targeted at too young of an audience for me. I'm sure other people will enjoy it a lot more than I did, however I just had too many problems with it.

My main problem was that the narration seemed impersonal. Especially for the first half, we just don't see any of Mia's motivations or any of her interests outside of ballet, which makes it hard to connect to her character or root for her at all. The book starts out with Mia running through the airport in Paris, so we don't get any of her backstory ahead of the novel starting. We're thrown into the deep end, but everything is moving too fast for us to develop an attachment to our narrator. While this can easily work in novels that are heavily plot driven, the plot to Kisses and Croissants wasn't deep or intricate enough for this story to be engaging.

I felt like the romance was too rushed, even though it's a book taking place over the course of 6 weeks it just felt too dramatic and pointless. I didn't like the love interest, either. He didn't have any personality or substance that would make him endearing, he just was a plot device to help drive the story along.

The most interesting aspect of this book to me was the relationship between Mia and Audrey. They started out as acquaintances, or even rivals, but as the story continues they grow closer and become friends as they help each other rehearse and grow as ballerinas. This wasn't a unique storyline, even, but Audrey felt like the most fleshed out character in the story, with the most character development in the end.

Another problem I had with this novel was the obsession with Edgar Degas. Degas is an artist who, at the end of his life, became incredibly anti-Semitic. As someone who is unable to separate art from the artist, I felt repulsed every time the artist was mentioned and fawned over. Mia's need to find validation through the possible connection between Degas and her family felt like a weak plot point manifested to give her more depth, but since it related again, to her only life mission being ballet, I found myself rolling my eyes every time she put her self worth in the hands of a man who has been dead for over 100 years.

I was going to give this 2 stars, until we got to the last few chapters. Something happens that wasn't written well enough to seem meaningful, and it just took away from anything enjoyable that had happened in the last 200 pages. I don't want to say any more about what it was, but any attachment you could have formed to Mia, our protagonist, is quickly severed. It also allowed us to have yet another conflict between our main couple, roughly the third in a book that was less than 250 pages.

Between this last ditch plot twist, the complete obsession with Degas, the lack of character development, and the juvenile writing, this just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing me with an advance readers copy for review!

Just saying the title Kisses and Croissants you know you are in Paris. I thought maybe its about food and young love. Well yes it is about young love. Its the story of a young ballerina named Mia and how she will be spending six weeks of hard core dancing in Paris. The author describes Paris as you would think. All the food, color and of course the wonderful sights and sounds of Paris. Feels like you are there dancing along with Mia and her friends. Of course there is a rival of Mia's Audrey who pushes Mia to do her best. Then there is Mia who pushes Audrey to not only be the best dancer which we all knew she was, but to make Audrey more human and learn that there is more to life then dancing. Even though all Mia every wanted to be was a dancer. There is also a little mystery to solve. Did Degas really paint a painting of Mia's great great great grandmother. The love story takes Mia and Louis her dance directors son on some wonderful adventures leading up to the truth behind the painting, and the twists and turns of events that leads Mia and Louis to a crossroads in their relationship. Was this a predictable story sure it was. I love this kinds of stories that you read and get lost in it. Thinking you are in Paris going to cafes enjoying the Paris culture through the eyes of of seventeen year old girl who dreams are coming true until she gets derailed.
Totally enjoyed this read. Would recommend it to anyone who enjoys these books. I look forward to another one by this author.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

*thank you to @netgalley for a free digital arc in exchange for an honest review*

“Kisses and Croissants” follows the story of Mia, a young ballet dancer whose only dream is to be a member of the prestigious ABT, but when ABT turns her down, she gets a second chance with a Parisian ballet company, one of the most prestigious in the world. Her only goal this summer is to perform ballet and get the role of Odette in Swan Lake, but things start to run astray when her American rival shows up at the same ballet company. Not to mention Mia’s on a city-wide search for a painting of her ancestor along with a cute French boy.

This book was utterly binge-worthy and I highly recommend to fans of “Loveboat, Taipei” and “The Fault in our Stars”. It combines travel, drama, romance, and dance, which is all you really need in a book.

I initially thought this book would be a 5 star read, but I ended up giving it 4 stars for a few minor complaints. I had an unedited arc, but there were a couple of blaring typos that were hard to ignore. Additionally, I found the story incredibly predictable, however this didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. Finally, I definitely thought the ending could be seen coming from a mile away.

Be on the lookout for this book in my October Wrap Up video on my channel!

3.5 stars
This was such a fun rom-com! Mia is a ballerina taking classes in Paris for the summer when she meets a boy who flips everything upside down. I would consider this a crossover between *Loveboat, Taipei* and *Anna and the French Kiss*. Though I didn’t enjoy this *as* much as those, it has the same vibe and is very light-hearted and fun. I loved how Mia’s ballet was such a priority for her throughout the story and that we got so much detail about her dance classes because usually when dancing is involved in YA the specifics are skipped over. I also really enjoyed the Paris setting—it felt so realistic and was so much fun. I also really appreciated the friendship element throughout the book; even though it wasn’t the priority, I felt that it did make our main character more relatable. I also liked Louis but I didn’t *love* the romance. I just didn’t buy into it like I really wanted to, which was a little disappointing.

Really cute, quick read! The author painted a beautiful picture of a summer in Paris and I loved the little mystery of the Degas painting. The ending was a little abrupt, as fleshed out as the rest of the story was, but still a good read!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!

I loved this sweet little romance! All about ballet and Paris and love, these 3 big pieces are all in balance to make a good story: not so much ballet as to be alienating, not so much Paris tourism as to be irritating, and just enough romance without overpowering the friendships and personal growth. I'll certainly be purchasing this book for my school library because my Kasie West/Stephanie Perkins/Jenny Han fans will want to read this one.

Kisses and Croissant's has a concept that I think a lot of people will find intriguing, and many will love. It follows our 17 year old ballerina, Mia Jenrow, as she goes to Paris for the summer to attend an exclusive ballet school with the hope she'll catch the eye of potential dance companies. Of course, she also meets a cute French boy and from there, she is navigating the thin line between enjoying a romantic Paris summer and dedicating herself wholly to her passion and craft.

There was definitely aspects of this I really enjoyed. It was whimsical and fun and a breezy read (for the most part). It is not bogged down by a heavy writing style; it's very concise and straight forward, which I think would make it perfectly perhaps for a younger crowd; 14-15 y/o young adult, rather than 17-18 y/o young adult age range. It was also wonderful to be able to read about Paris and the ballet lifestyle. Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau peppered in a perfect amount of French without making it seem cliche or cheesy. She also didn't shy away from the harsh realities of being a ballerina. Mia is constantly lamenting her sore muscles and remarks on the toll a ballet lifestyle takes on your feet. I loved the setting and the descriptions of where the characters were.

Unfortunately, there was also so much about this book that was a miss for me.

To start, I didn't feel connected to Mia as a character at all. She didn't seem fleshed out enough for me. I understand that she's passionate and dedicated and that her entire life has been ballet, but she also just didn't have many other attributes or characteristics about her that made me feel anything for her. I didn't dislike Mia at all, but I also didn't feel like I knew her that well, or that she was someone I could invest in. Her relationship with Louis had no chemistry at all, and felt incredibly rushed. I couldn't find it believable.

The plot also completely lost me toward the end. Right at the very end, a twist happens that completely took me by surprise (in a bad way) and I was totally lost on how I should feel reading the entire ten percent of it. There was almost a stark and sudden genre change at the very end of a chapter.

Overall, I do think some people will enjoy this and get a good read out of it. It could be a great fun, summer contemporary romance for some. But it hit the mark for me.