This low rating is not because I don’t like fashion. This low rating is not because I don’t like YA. THis low rating is not because I don’t like multicultural stories.

No, this low rating is for reasons that have nothing to do with any of the above.

First of all, Clementine, the BonJour Girl, grew up in Paris, France, with her French mother, and Chinese father. I presume she is trilingual, French, English and Chinese, but I find it off-putting when she uses expressions that are very American. I would have thought she would have though in her native tongue, but throughout, in reading this, I felt as though this was not a French girl, dropping little bon mots, but an American girl that throws out little bits of French every so often. Other than referring to her great grandmother, who was a famous French model, there is nothing uniquely French about her.

One of the reasons I picked up the book was because it claimed to be multicultural. There was nothing multicultural about it.

Second, the insta-romance. Clementine meets a man the first week that she is in New York and he is perfect, and all is happy and good. There is a little jealously, along the way, but he is still perfect.

And of course, the gay friend, or the flamboyant friend, I’m not quite sure which, but talk about cliche there.

And where would we be without the mean girl. She mostly stays in the background and send tweets out that hurt Clementine’s feelings. They aren’t anything stunning, but still Clem worries about them, through the novel.

Oh, and then there is the fashion. Every time we meet someone, even people we have met before, we get to hear what they are wearing. For those that love fashion, this is probably great, but not for me. I just wanted to get the story moving.

But, this is the most popular novel being requested from Netgalley for Durham, so there are people who love this, and it is supposed to be the first in a series, so what do I know? Perhaps this is the perfect brain candy sort of story for the YA audience it is trying to go for.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Having written the J’Adore series, Bonjour Girl is author Isabelle Lafleche’s first foray into Young Adult writing. It’s the start of a series revolving around Clementine Liu, who travels to New York City to study at the Parsons School of Design and start her path as a fashion journalist/blogger. Always a fan of moving to New York stories, I was excited to get my hands on a copy. I have been provided an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Bonjour Girl hits the ground running and wonderfully captures that devastated melodramatic feeling anyone goes through when it feels like the world is falling apart:

The nasty tweet hits me like a wall of vintage boots, handbags, and boho dresses. Or like a hurricane that goes on a rampage in my soul and leaves a gaping wound in my heart. I fight back tears while absentmindedly chewing on my nails. I cringe, knowing how many Twitter followers she has. Her malicious post has lots of retweets, too. Like, far too many. Somebody please shoot me now. This is dredging up old, unwanted emotions, all the pain and worry that nearly destroyed me last year. That’s why I came here, why I escaped to New York.

This is a first-person perspective book, which is always a trickier approach. The “I”s and “me”s certainly can over focus an otherwise endearing approachable character in the case of Clementine Liu at first it gives the feeling that she’s more naive than a second year college student usually would be. She feels very Jane By Design, but with an international flair.

There’s no real separation between the present moment and exposition, of which there is a lot. However, for those who love stream of consciousness writing, it’s well fitted to the style.

Once it jumps into dialogue and interacting with other characters, it picks up steam quickly, bringing in our soon to be entourage with flair and attitude. One of the things I love, right away, is the diversity of characters. We aren’t being presented with an army of slim, modelesque characters, but instead being a little more real to the actual class make-up that you would find at Parsons in reality.

Overall, Bonjour Girl is a coming of age in New York story that intertwines the character’s experiences with the city itself. Name dropping, fashions, celebrities and places, abounds à la any Candace Bushnell novel. Why, yes, Lipstick Jungle, I’m looking at you. Recognizable NY landmarks playing their roles, which is highly appreciated by an NYC resident. I ❤ when authors stay true to a place, rather than bending it to their will. Lafleche clearly knows New York and spent time considering how best to blend it into the story.

Chapters are short and concise, generally only a scene or two at a time. The style of the book makes it a quick read, devouring a few chapters at a time is more than easy (and well appreciated when reading is getting sectioned out by train distances for this commute reader).

The plot leans into political and social commentary – focusing on bullying, diversity in fashion, and body image, without fully drowning in those topics, managing to stay light and relaxed. You root for Clementine, but certainly have a few horror movie "oh no, don't go that way" moments, as you see her miss the clear signs of duplicity that she's describing as the narrator.

Clementine is not a perfect character. She’s marked with insecurity and ignores her own instincts, but in having these flaws feels more real than a lot of characters that pop up in NA/YA material. The side characters, however, are a bit flat, which is very easy to fall into with a first-person perspective. Would really love to see more depth to the ensemble characters.

I am looking forward to seeing Lafleche’s style evolve in the next book to trust the reader a bit more than she does and to build stronger characters now that her world building is complete. New Adult and Young Adult means that the readers are generally ok with learning by seeing rather than full on exposition. That said, she’s created a sweet character, who I’m looking forward to seeing grow in future books.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a digital arc in exchange for an honest Review!  

This story revolves around bullying which Clementine who is Chinese/French and her friends faced. This book is loaded with fashion and celebrities references and I didn't get most of them. The topic of the book was inspirational as well as Clementine's aim.

I didn't get why every relationship in this book was too quick, what was the hurry? Love, Friendship or Hate everything was too quick. That is one of the reasons I didn't relate to characters it just felt too fake.

Starting was promising but it just lost somewhere even before the half of the book, All the blog diversity theme became minor and catfight, bullying, cafes, drama, dates became the highlight.

I didn't get Jake and Clementine so-called friendship, the way Jake throw a Tantrum in start it was unacceptable, and why scholarship was so important to cover? so they can go for lunch, dinner, brunch in fancy restaurants?

Same goes with Jonathon and Clementine, just met and become "A COUPLE"? , on the first date who shares school problems with a stranger...Well...Clementine

The ending was so fake and ideal.

I enjoy some parts of it but not the whole book.

This book was very well done. I like that it did a good job of spotlighting on bullying. You get to see the main character go through it and see her grow into herself to stand up for what is right, even in the face of adversity. The writing in this book was flawless and I found myself really loving the main character. The plot and the world that the author built up made this book a one click read.

This book was cute and intense with bullying. It was very well written and I loved seeing each character emerge and stand up for what is right not what is easy. Bullying has taken an intense turn from picking on people to ruining their lives and this is an important read for anyone dealing with cyber bullying.

Clementine is French/Chinese and comes from a very successful line of women in the entertainment industry. She grows up believing a girl can do anything and she wants to be a fashion designer. She gets accepted to an elite fashion school in New York City and moves in with her cousin Maddie. She immediately makes friends and her cousin introduces her to Jonathan, a cute photographer, for help with her designs of course.

Clem shares her blog, Bonjour Girl, with her friends and they love it and convince her to make it public. Only once she does the cyber bullying begins. The fashion world is very cutthroat and her fellow students do not want to see her succeed. As the bullying ramps up her designs start going missing. Luckily Jonathan gets involved and helps her get in touch with his lawyer.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I lost interest in this book after starting it which is why the rating is so low. I really hope other people will enjoy it more than me.

I have read Isabelle's adult novels, but wanted to read her YA.

This book has a story that is charming but at the same time pertinent to today's issues that many of our YA face.

Clementine is somewhat innocent and simply wants to share her love of all things fashion. Things start off well for her, until her blog turns into a convenient target for hate and bullying.

Isabelle completely nailed the character of Clementine. She is idealistic, young and wants to change the world, until the world starts pushing back. Yet, Clementine does prevail and I love the message in this book. Life is messy, but if you believe in yourself, you can make it in a messy world.

The writing is down to earth (which is a feature in all of Isabelle's books). You won't find ridiculous prose or a mountain of irrelevant details. There is nothing worse than having to read 3 pages of boring descriptive.

Her characters are well developed and I find myself curious about Clementine and where she will go in life.

I like that the author chose to tackle a difficult subject and yet did it with sensitivity, while keeping it realistic.

I loved this book.

The main character did not seem very relatable or sympathetic, and I wanted more growth from her. I felt like Clementine was portrayed as 'not like other girls' in a way that was condescending, and she seemed a lot younger than a college sophomore.

I did like that online bullying was addressed, as it is so prevalent today. Perhaps by reading this, people might reconsider their online behavior if they realize how it feels to be publicly abused.

Clementine comes to New York from Paris after problems with her family to study in Parsons. So I thought that the book would be very interesting because I am interested in fashion myself. I loved that the book talks about fair trade and social consciousness in fashion, these are topics that I personally find to be very important. Also the topic of bullying is very important, and sometimes Clementine's approach was a good one. And it was a very likeable and short read.
But I didn't feel any chemistry between Clementine and Jonathan, sometimes the characters felt too childish and overdramatic, so I really liked the concept, but the execution kinda fell flat for me. I enjoyed it while reading, but I definitely won't re-read it. And it won't be one of my favourites.

#NetGalley #BonjourGirl
Thank you so much to Dundurn Publishing and NetGalley for the E-ARC copy of Bonjour Girl!
What a refreshing book! Bonjour Girl wasn't anything like I expected. It is well written and touches on many current issues for teens and young adults. The topic of cyber bullying is so prominent right now. I love how the author uses the subject in the plot while giving Clementine ways to empower herself to deal with it. Not only does she learn how to navigate it, but learning about distrustful people and how not to let others destroy yourself esteem. I think that every teen should feel empowered the way the character does by the end of the book. Clementine follows her passion and learns not to let others steal that away.

Clementine has moved from France to an American Fashion school (it sounds a little backwards) in New York having fallen out with her mother - some serious angst here.
This not-so-little issue has knocked her confidence and trust and for the fist half of the book we see how this affects her relationships. She desperately wants ot make friends but is extremely wary and cannot trust her own judgement.
She does, however, make a great friend, Jake, and I adore how she heart-wrenchingly honest about being jealous (platonically) over his muse, and gets all worked up over revealing/not-revealing private information and working out the right way to do things.
There is online bullying (tackled very maturely despite the peer pressure to do otherwise), intellectual property theft, copyright infringement and several instances of wrong-footedness that works itself out.

There is a lot of detail on the fashion front (not being very fashion conscious it went over my head) and it is refreshing to see the main character blogging about something other than books or movies.

I have to admit I rushed through it, especially the fashion descriptions, but I can see them appealing to a younger audience. I wasn't overly taken with the twisted trope portraying other fashion students wearing dowdy 'black/grey' while our protaganist and her BFF had great fashion sense, also the chemistry between Clementine and Jonathan was seriously lacking. I didn't feel it at all and couldn't see the point to the 'romantic' interludes - the only role Jonathan seemed to play was in helping her overcome the trauma she'd been through involving her mother.

I received an ARC for an honest review.

This is about Clementine Liu who moves to New York City to study Design, where she meets Jake and Jonathan,
and romance and drama ensues. Overall I didn't really enjoy this book, I even felt myself skimming some of it, I don't know if it was the characters but for me it kinda fell flat.

Clementine, half French and half Chinese, now runs a blog all about fashion and attends New York's Parsons school of design staying with her cousin Maddie. At Parsons, she meets Stella a fellow fan of colour clothing unlike most Parsons students, Jake, a fellow fashionista who stands up for her when someone acts meanly towards her and Jonathan a cute photographer whom her cousin introduces her to.



With her scholarship she affords to start her blog but it soon sours from a dream as she starts receiving a lot of hate comments online from people finding out that she had scholarship funding, famous relatives and her unique diverse ideas the hate evolves as Stella and other student, Ellie keep up the cyberbullying until Jonathan gets Clem to use his lawyer friend to take action after learning what Stella gets up to at the college...



As ideas get stolen and clothes go missing, cattiness between students amps up Clem realises show cut throat New York really is.



She comes from a family of high flying ladies, a model, an opera singer, TV personality etc and we see how women are made to be the powerful ones in this book. I loved the collision between fiction and real life as real bloggers and style blogs were mentioned throughout as Clems inspirations. She also stayed strong through it all and then when her Mum shows up after her betrayal proved how much she has grown as a person acting more like a responsible adult than her role models. The story was sweet with a sting from all the girl drama and it worked super well, Jonathan was a dream boyfriend while Jake was a fun influence for Clem. A strong read all about the fashion world!



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

2.5 stars

I was immediately attracted to the cover of this book and the description sounded awesome. Unfortunately the story and characters fell flat for me. I'm not sure if it was an error in the copy I received (it was a digital ARC) but the tweet that starts the "online abuse" didn't make any sense.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy.