ARC REVIEW: The Art Of French Kissing – by Brianna R. Shrum @skyhorsepub

Title: The Art Of French Kissing
Author: Brianna R. Shrum
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
First published: June 5th 2018
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Finished reading: February 14th 2018
Pages: 247

“Talking about our favorite foods feels like something way more intimate than it should. It’s the thing each of us is more passionate about. It’s like asking a reader their favorite book. Asking a fighter their favorite move. It’s a soul-level question.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Sky Pony Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

Some of you might seem surprised to see this title appear on It’s All About Books, because I normally tend to stay far away from the contemporary romance genre. But even though it’s not really my genre, it’s a fact I can really enjoy them if they are done right or if I’m in the right mood. After an particularly emotionally exhausting read, I desperately needed something light and fluffy to get over the book hangover. As soon as I saw this title, I was sold. YA contemporary AND a cooking theme? Yes please! The Art Of French Kissing was definitely a perfect match for that particular moment. Sure, it’s a bit cheesy and there are quite a few cliches involved. Sure, there is a lot of romance involved that you can see coming from a mile away. BUT. Somehow, I didn’t care about that at all. The Art Of French Kissing is easy to read, cute and there is a LOT of food talk involved, Basically, this book makes me crave all kinds of delicious food! Including those fabulous macarons on the cover… The writing is very engaging and sets the right atmosphere for this cooking competition. The plot is simple, but very effective and fans of cooking shows or food in general will be in for a treat. As for the characters… The whole hate/revenge theme is actually quite entertaining and it was interesting to see the characters evolve over time. The ending was a bit too neat for me, but then again I also admit it does fit the story. YA contemporary romance fans will love this one!

Carter has wanted to be a chef since she was a little kid, and now she has the chance to achieve her goal. This summer, she is invited to participate it a prestigious scholarschip in Savannah along with nineteen other teenagers. They will compete all summer in a series of cooking challenges, where the weakest links will be eliminated until the last one standing will win a full-ride to one of the best culinary schools in the country. Carter was pretty confident, up until she and one of her rivals Reid get off on the wrong foot. Soon they are involved in a full-fledged culinary war, trying to screw each othe over looking for revenge. What will happen to the two and will this affect their place in the competition?

If you like fun, light, cute, slightly cheesy and entertaining YA contemporaries with a healthy dose of romance, you will be in for a treat with this one. The Art Of French Kissing incorporates the whole cooking competition theme very well and all that food talk is probably one of the reasons I loved this book the way I did. The bantering and revenge element between the main characters worked better for me than I thought it would, and definitely added it’s own spice to the plot. The Art Of French Kissing doesn’t lack sugar either, as it has a healthy dose of (cheesy) romance especially in the second part. But at that point I was having so much fun following the competition, that the story was mostly forgiven for it. All in all this story was just what I was looking for!