Review of The Art of French Kissing

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

Let me start by saying that I was super excited for this book when I first heard about it. As you probably know already, I’m a sucker for cute fluffy romances, and this seemed to be a book I’d be sure to enjoy. It promised a cooking competition, a hate-to-love romance, and the cover promised macarons, which only helped to increase my excitement.

And while the synopsis was entirely accurate, there were 2 factors that completely destroyed my enjoyment of this book. The first was the lesser of the two evils. The writing in this book was very simplistic, and very conversational. When I blog, many times I use a conversational tone, but I am aware that there are times where my writing needs to be a bit more professional. The writing in this book didn’t feel polished to me. There were many sentences that would…. well, that would look something like…. like this, actually. Lots of ellipses, lots of repetition, and not much complexity to the writing. There also were way too many mentions of raised or arched eyebrows for such a short (256 page) book. Of course, I read an ARC, so it’s possible there were some changes before the book was published, but the copy I read had writing that frustrated me at times.

The second factor that ruined the book for me was the main character. I didn’t like her, and I certainly didn’t root for her. In fact, I had to put this book down for 2 months when I first started reading this book because of how STUPID she was. She initiates and perpetuates a rivalry into eternity, and never once takes responsibility for her actions or admits she was to blame. Instead she plays the victim card over and over again, when in reality she caused 99% of her problems.

Because the main character was so unlikable, I had a very hard time enjoying the romance aspect, which was very sparse indeed. The main character refuses to admit that she likes him for most of the book, and continues to fight with him and make both their lives miserable even after they get together. She’s selfish and makes a terrible romantic interest. I honestly don’t know what Reid, the love interest, saw in her to love.

With that being said, these are issues that are subjective. If you’re ever in the mood of a book that features cooking and sabotage all day long, you need to look no further. But if you’re looking for a cute culinary romance, I’d suggest you look elsewhere.

Have you read this book? Do you have suggestions for books with a similar premise that I might enjoy?