SUMMARY:
Seventeen-year-old Mia has wanted to be a ballerina ever since she could remember. Ballet is in her genes — or so her relatives say. It is rumored that her great-great-grandmother was painted by the famous Edgar Degas when she was a talented ballerina.
When Mia is admitted to an elite summer ballet program in Paris, she is elated, not only because of her chance to dance but also because of the chance to find the long-lost Degas painting of her ancestor. With the help of Louis, a charming French boy, Mia may find something more than a painting — she might find love.
REVIEW:
When I started “Kisses and Croissants,” I was afraid it was going to follow the typical “girl gives up her passions for a guy” trope, which I hate (Rachel from “Friends”? Joey from “Dawson’s Creek” in Season 1? Too many others to count?). Luckily, that was not what happened at all. Instead of deciding that she has to give up her passions for a guy, Mia learns how to balance ballet and her love life.
Mia was a great main character — passionate, relatable, and fun — and Louis was a great match for her. He challenged her but knew when to stop and listen. Louis always respected Mia’s boundaries, something that is unusual (but very welcome!) for a romance novel. Too often, writers think “pushing boundaries” is a romantic behavior: following her when she says to stop, asking her out repeatedly even after she says “no,” you get the idea. Louis was extremely respectful and didn’t push Mia, which I loved. He also never made Mia choose between him and ballet. Instead, he encouraged her in and helped her with her passions, even when he had nothing to gain from it.
While searching for the long-lost portrait of Mia’s ancestor, readers get to see so many spots in Paris. This underlying adventure was so fun, and it left me feeling like I had been on vacation! The ratio of travel to romance to ballet was perfect. Seriously. All of the other travel romances I have read have left me feeling unbalanced — there was too much romance and not enough travel or vice/versa. But not this one. I knew the characters well, I knew the scenery well, and I could feel the romantic connection. The one thing I wished for was to see a few more moments with Mia’s new friends, Anouk and the girl from Manchester (I can’t believe I forgot her name! I guess that goes to show that she was not mentioned often enough). It was said that they became good friends, but readers wouldn’t have known that otherwise because it seemed like Mia was always practicing ballet with Audrey, her frenemy, instead of hanging out with them.
Because of the perfect romance-to-travel ratio and great characters, I was going to give this book 4.5 stars. Then, the plot twist came in.
The plot twist felt, in a word, unnecessary. Sure, otherwise the ending would have been predictable. But it’s a romance novel! Readers want the ending to be predictable. I loved that this book had been mainly positive, and I hated this plot twist so much that if I read the book again I would skip the last few chapters and head straight to the epilogue. I would tape the pages together, I’m not even kidding. I do feel like the epilogue offered some redemption to the book, but that plot twist really left a bad taste in my mouth, leading to my spoiler-filled GoodReads review that I wrote in the heat of the moment after finishing the book:
**Skip past the italics if you don’t want spoilers**
WHY WOULD YOU HAVE THEM GET HIT BY A CAR????? EVERYTHING WAS SO PERFECT. I DIDN’T NEED A TWIST. I JUST WANTED THEM TO BE HAPPY. I have a lot of emotions right now.
**Spoilers end here**
While the plot twist did cause me to knock half of a star off of my rating, I still loved this book. It was such a fun, cute, and quick read that is perfect for summer. I will 100% be looking out for any future books written in English by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau, and until then, I will probably read this one again.
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