French Kissing in New York Review

 

Another great book by Anne-Sophie Johanneau!

French Kissing in New York is a YA contemporary romance book about 18-year-old Margot who is a beginner chef and moves to New York City from a small village in France to fulfill her dream of working at the restaurant of a celebrity chef that her mother personally knew. She begins living in a tiny apartment with her father and his fiancé Miguel and her step-cousin Luz. Margot's father and stepfather are also planning to get married. 

Margot also moves to New York City for another reason: to find Zach, an American boy she met one summer day while taking a cooking course at Le Tablier, a famous cooking school in France. However, even though they planned a date and everything ahead of time, Margot does not find Zach at where and when they promised to meet, and while working at Nutrio (the restaurant owned by her celebrity chef family friend), she meets and becomes fast friends with another chef there named Ben, and realized over time she has feelings for him, too. 

So now Margot has to decide what kind of future she wants to become a pro chef, which boy she wants as her boyfriend, and new family dynamics. 

Like a lot of contemporaries, this was a very sweet and cute book! It did get pretty emotional at times, and I loved that. The author's descriptions of New York City and food were very vivid as well. I'd love to read more books about main characters who love cooking. 

I did give it 4.5 stars, but that was because I just found some details to be a little bit confusing in the story. One of them was about her father--when did he find out he was gay? Margot explains her mother is straight and her dad was gay and while they never became an official couple, they went on a couple of dates and then had Margot. It is never explained if he always knew he was gay or if he found out he was gay after he and Margot's mother broke up. Another thing was halfway through the story (don't worry, I won't reveal too much!), Ben mentions to Margot that he has already has a girlfriend named Olivia. Even though he and Margot hang out as friends, a lot of their hang outs felt very similar to dates. I wonder why neither of them at one point felt that what they were doing was cheating? Olivia is also never mentioned again. But maybe I'm just reading too far into things. 🤷

I liked this book, but I didn't love it as much as the author's first book, Kisses and Croissants which I read last year and LOVED (5 stars!). But this was still enjoyable. I will read anything Anne-Sophie Johanneau writes.