Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau was a sweet young adult book featuring friendship, ballet, growth, and a touch of romance.

Mia attends a ballet program in Paris alongside her rival, Audrey. When Mia gets to France, she meets a boy and tries to balance the allure of a summer fling with her intense passion for ballet.

I loved Mia’s character development throughout the story and her dedication to her passion. The romantic aspect of the story was sweet, and I found myself rooting for the characters throughout the book. I especially enjoyed reading about the friendships that developed and the French setting. I would have liked to see more character development for the character of Louis. I would definitely recommend this sweet story!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I always have a hard time reading realistic fiction novels. They are normally nothing like my high school experiences and seem so far from what I experienced in high school that I have a hard time relating to them. I could really relate to Mia in this book. Mia is passionate about ballet, it is all she thinks, dreams, and does. She goes to a ballet school in Paris for the summer and she starts to realize that she can have a life outside of ballet. She discovers herself along the way. She also develops great friendships and a family mystery. This is a realistic fiction book that I could relate to and would have wanted to read in high school. I became very attached to Mia's story and really want her to achieve her goals while having fun!

Kisses and Croissants was so sweet and cute!

This story follows Mia, a teenage ballet dancer, who goes to Paris to attend a summer ballet program in hopes of getting to audition for ABT. Throughout the summer, Mia teams up with Louis, a cute boy she meets, to prove an old family story.

I loved the aspects of ballet in this book. I also dance ballet myself and I love seeing ballet dancers in YA novels. You could feel Mia's passion for dance and her dedication and drive was evident.

I also really enjoyed the Paris setting! This book was very transportive and I felt as though I was exploring the city myself. It felt so magical and charming!
Besides the adorable romance, I liked the friendships Mia made. Audrey went from being her biggest rival to being her friend who helps her become a better version of herself. Oftentimes, ballet is portrayed to be extremely competitive so I really appreciated how these characters can also lift each other up and support one another.

I smiled the whole way through this book. It was fluffy and light hearted and everything I could possibly want from a summery romance novel. I really enjoyed reading this and I hope you do too!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ARC! All opinions are my own.

Ah, Paris, the city of my dreams and the heart of KISSES AND CROISSANTS, a charming story of dance and romance.

Mia, 16, comes to the City of Light from NYC to study ballet in an elite summer program. She’s hoping to join the renown American Ballet Theatre afterward. But soon she meets a young Frenchman who introduces her to the gorgeous city AND l’amour délicieux. Will she keep dancing? Will their love last? An enchanting YA read!

5 of 5 Stars

Pub Date 06 Apr 2021

Thanks to the author, Random House Children’s Books, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#KissesandCroissants #NetGalley

This is a very sweet YA love story. The journey of a young girl finding her passion in life is heart warming. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.

OMG! Quel merveilleux voyage! C’est si romantique, charmant, reconfortant!
What a marvelous journey! This so romantic, sweet, heartwarming!

Can you imagine a book takes place at the most inspiring city make you feel everything at the same time: tastes of delicious, mouth watering pastries, deserts that make you believe you see real heaven on earth! And you just smell the varied flowers filled the glamorous botanic gardens. The museums are full of art exhibitions that bring out complex emotions: admiration, passion, desire.

The streets have its own characteristics with its decades of historical stories, special architecture that take your breath away! Welcome to the city of arts, love,delight! This is Paris!

The book’s main character is Paris which always knows how to charm people and how to drag you out of your comfort zone and intrigued you to take a remarkable journey!

And let’s take a closer look to its plot line:

Mia recently comes to Paris for attending an elite summer ballet program which will lasts for six weeks. She doesn’t plan to search for the history of her own ancestors by meeting one of her oldest relatives who resides in a small town located close to Paris and she never plans to fall for a very cute, mysterious, adventurous boy called Louis who is unfortunately son of her demanding, strict ballet teacher.

But when she makes plans, God laughs so she finds herself into a journey of self discovery, passion, romance, beauty of art.

This book is extremely heart melting, making you smile ears to ears and realistically making you feel the exact essence and soul of marvelous Parisienne streets.

It’s about finding your passion, seeing your choices, learning for own mistakes and chasing your dreams.

Overall: I had so many awwww moments and I adored both of Mia and Louis! I’m giving my up-lift, feeling extremely good, magical, sweetest, Parisienne four stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s/ Delacorte Press for sharing this marvelous ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions.

I adored this book! Paris is my favorite city in the world and kisses and croissants made me miss it all over again. I loved Mia so much and her tenacity to go for her dreams. I’m really happy I finally found a book that highlights how hard working ballerinas are despite it being fiction.

I will be doing a more in depth review when it gets closer to the release date. But thank you so much to Net Galley and Random House for sending me a early copy of Kisses and Croissants

Review posted on GoodReads (August 20, 2020)
Review Linked.

5/5 stars!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for sending me an E-ARC for an honest review.

To say I was excited about this book would be an understatement! I always love picking up contemporary romances that are set in Paris; 1) because I can then take pictures of them around the city, and 2) I love reading travel romances that take me to new and romantic places all around the world.

I ended up ABSOLUTELY LOVING this book! This book was so cute, so fun, so romantic, so funny, and honest. I ended up really loving Mia's character. I loved seeing her passion and drive for dance and ballet. I also really adored Louis and the romance! Louis was such a great love interest and I really loved seeing his character develop, alongside Mia, throughout the story. Both characters grew so much during this story, and I loved how they grew into themselves together.

For me, this is a great romance that is centered in Paris. The book explores so much of the city and the culture of Paris, and I really connected with all of the small moments that Mia had as an American in Paris for the first time. It was really relatable when she got anxiety about her French or made a stupid "American" mistake around the city. I laughed so much while reading this book, and I had a smile on my face the entire time while reading it.

This is a great new romance for fans of ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS and for anyone who loves reading about love in the City of Lights. I really recommend picking up this book when it comes out in April of 2021!

Thanks for reading!
Caden

Thank you Random House / Delacorte Press for allowing me the opportunity to read an e-ARC of Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau.

This was an incredibly cute YA contemporary romance.

Mia, a sixteen-year-old ballerina from New York makes it into an elite summer ballet program in Paris. She plans to spend the whole summer training with the best teachers and dancers - all leading up to a final audition in front of some of the worlds most prestigious dance companies. Her summer is not without it's challenges though, she first finds out she will be rooming with her nemesis and flawless dancer Audrey, but maybe this summer will give them a chance at a friendship. Then one day leaving class, she meets cute French boy, Louis and while she knows she should focus on training, she just can't seem to stay away.

I really enjoyed Kisses and Croissants, it was an incredibly light hearted Hallmark esc love story between two teenagers.

Jouhanneau is a talented writer and the details regarding the ballet performances, as well as exploring Paris were so well done, you felt as though you were there. Throughout the book, there are several story lines based around Mia, the first being her enemies turned friends arc with Audrey, which I actually found more enjoyable at times than her love story with Louis. At times Louis' character seemed flat and seemed to lack true development until the last few chapters. I would have liked to see Louis open up much earlier in the story.

While this book was not a standout romance novel, it was an enjoyable read and sure to put a smile on your face.

This book will be available April 6th, 2021!

Kisses and Croissants is a sweet, fun summer romance between two teenagers in Paris.

Mia's passion is ballet. When she is accepted to an elite summer ballet program in Paris, she knows this is her chance to achieve her dream: an audition for the American Ballet Theater in New York. Then she meets Louis (pronounced in the French way, of course), but she cannot let him distract her from her goal. Ballet requires total and complete focus.

I loved Mia's passion, but also her willingness to let go and live. This book definitely reminded me of Love and Gelato, as well as Love a la Mode. I also loved how her relationship with Audrey, initially her "nemesis" developed. Louis was a bit bland, however, and I would have liked to see a bit more complexity from him, so I didn't mind him too much.

This is the first work I've read from Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau, but I'm looking forwards to reading more from her.

3.75 stars

Any book that reminds me of Dance Academy and Find Me In Paris is an automatic A+. At first I wasn’t 100% sold and some of the plot was a little confusing but it was cute and I had a wonderful time reading it.

This is perfect for anyone who was a fan of the movie, Ballet Shoes. Except there's romance in this one and it's a cute, fluffy YA contemporary.

This was such a sweet romance! And the perfect book to read right now with travel being impossible. I enjoyed living vicariously in France through these characters.

I devoured Kisses and Croissants. Everything about it was perfection. I especially loved the descriptions of Paris, my favorite city! It was as if I was actually sitting at Cafe De Flore sipping a latte. Everything was so detailed and authentic; you can feel the author’s love and deep familiarity with the city. It’s no surprise that I read this in one sitting. 7 hours to be exact. What I wasn’t expecting was the ballet storyline. I was sold on the cover and title, of course. But everything about the ballet world was exquisite and well crafted. You don’t have to be a dancer to appreciate Jouhanneau’s sweet storyline.

Mia was an exceptional protagonist and easy to adore. You feel her passions but she’s not just a 17 year old exploring Paris. She’s layered and complex. I even thought the plot line dealing with her “nemesis“ was one of my favorite parts. All in all, the story was adorable and light hearted. I really fell in love with Paris all over again! I highly recommend Kissed and Croissants. It was one of my favorite reads this year :)

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

This book is so sugary sweet I swear I could get a cavity from reading it, the enemies to friends relationship between thr main character and Audrey was so relistic and dont even get me started on the location... PARIS its so magical and fulfilling (this coming from someone in CA). Liuis is also very very charming I love their relationship and when he gave her flowers at the airport when she came back made my heart melt 🥺

3.5/5 stars, rounded up because I think people who really love this genre will enjoy this more than I did.

Mia is a teenage American ballerina attending a summer ballet program in Paris, where the best dancers will be noticed by some of the top ballet companies in the world. She's driven, talented, and determined. On her first day, she meets a cute boy, and even though she knows she can't get distracted, she can't stop seeing him.

I really liked Mia, and my favorite story line was her growing friendship with her rival Audrey. I think this relationship was a lot more interesting that the romance plot, which was the main focus of the book. The book was well written and a quick, enjoyable read. My main problem with it was that I just didn't like Louis very much. He was... kind of boring. I didn't quite believe in the relationship or how strongly Mia felt about him. I can describe a lot about who Mia and Audrey are, but not very much about Louis.

I do think the author took some risks with certain parts of the book, and while a scene near the end made me angry at first for feeling unearned, after thinking about it for a bit I do think Jouhanneau built up to it. There are a lot of messages here about work/life balance (which is necessary, but also Mia isn't wrong that she needed to fully commit to dance, and I thought she got away with a lot by somehow magically being able to survive on little sleep after dancing to the point of exhaustion every day), about the importance of pursuing your dreams (and not the dreams of your parents), and in recognizing that the dreams you thought you had may not be what you actually need or want. I think some of these were done better than others, but overall a cute read that I think people who love France and romance will enjoy.