Love Requires Chocolate (Love in Translation #1)

In a devourable debut, Stringfield cooks up a decadent romance between an ambitious Black American drama student and the pragmatic son of a Parisian chocolatier. Whitney Curry arrives in Paris for her semester at an international arts high school with a plan: complete her one-woman musical about legendary vaudeville performer and activist Josephine Baker and check off every item on her “Epic Parisian Bucket List.” Unfortunately, Whitney’s French tutor, “grouchy smart-ass” Thierry Magnon, proves distracting. Thierry reluctantly agrees to help her navigate the city, but his perspective of Paris challenges both Whitney’s list of essential experiences and her idealized version of the place that offered Baker and other Black American artists refuge. As she warms to Thierry, Whitney must decide whether to cling to her plans or embrace the real Paris—and the complicated boy introducing her to it. Conversational first-person narration and sometimes reckless yet entertaining antics from Whitney form the bedrock of this rom-com, which incorporates expected genre tropes without relying on them for sustained interest. Though romance drives the plot, Stringfield enriches the novel via Whitney’s broadening experience of global Black culture. Ages 12–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (Aug.)