This book is a mystery/YA novel, marketed towards teenage girls. It follows the story of one Betsy Butters, a recent orphan who gets sent off to boarding school in Switzerland. There she winds up tracking a stolen painting, among other adventures.

There were several things I liked about this book. It is very refreshing to see a young adult book that isn't either about mean girls or a boy-crazy love story about some kind of fantasy creature. I tend to enjoy books about art heists and forgeries, so I liked that strand of the plot.

There were other things that were difficult to fathom. The sex trade plot and its quick resolution was completely ridiculous. So too was Betsy's quick recovery from the sudden death of her parents. She grieves for a few days, and then seems to not really care. She also seems to have little culture shock at moving to a completely new country.

To enjoy this book I think it's necessary to suspend disbelief. I have to do a similar thing when reading Nancy Drew books. There's no chance that Nancy could possibly know and do all of the things she does at eighteen. The same is true of Betsy Butters. ( )

I appreciate receiving this ebook from the author, Jenifer Rubloff, through the Member Giveaway program. It is the first of the Betsy Butters series, of which I understand there is now a second installment.

After about the first 20% or so, I wanted to put this in my very small pile of "unfinished books". The story got more interesting (at least the subplot about the lost Van Gogh), but then tore off into a totally unnecessary sex slave subplot.

This is targeted toward teen or preteen age girls and perhaps those readers would not care about the factual and logical inconsistencies throughout (or they might very well notice even more than I did), but it is the author's writing style that I found most distracting. She uses very choppy sentences, weird idiomatic expressions and strained dialogue. However, she also provides detailed, sometime mouthwatering descriptions of food.

I sincerely commend anyone who completes a book. This author has completed two. This is an accomplishment. Perhaps as her writing continues to progress her writing style will smooth out and her story progression tighten up. ( )

I won this book from library member giveaways in return for an honest review.

The School with Chocolate air is about a girl named Betsy Butters, who suffers a tragedy at the beginning of the book, which leads to her being shipped off to a boarding school in Switzerland. This school is ruled by a terrifying Madame and Betsy is only allowed to speak French. She meets a host of interesting girls who come from different backgrounds and unveils some secrets that until now have remained hidden.

I'll admit I was not enchanted by this book initially. The prose and dialogue in places is clumsy and choppy. Some of this may have been deliberate, as some of what Betsy is saying has to be simple and clumsy as it is the English version of very rudimentary French. However, it makes the text harder to read. The beginning half of the book is rather slow. The plot drags when Betsy goes about her daily life at school. The parts that held my interest were the amazing descriptions of food. I drooled when Betsy would eat buttery croissants and delicious desserts. Around the 70% mark, I was up to three stars. I always give a book a chance to go up in my rating if the ending is great. And I believe the ending made up for a lot of fumblings earlier. Some surprises are revealed that I was not expecting. I applaud Rubloff for pulling everything together in the end.

Overall, while slow initially with some clumsy prose, the end made this book worth reading. I may stick around and see what Betsy is up to in the next book. ( )

The School with Chocolate Air
by: Jenifer Rubloff

I won this book from a Library Thing giveaway

This is a YA adventure book. Betsy is 14 years old American that gets sent to a boarding school in Switzerland where she is only allowed to speak French. She has typical 14 year old fears...will she fit in?...will she make friends?....can she speak only French?.... but then she finds herself in a heep of trouble when she gets caught up in mystery with a Van Gogh painting.

This is a great book if you like reading about foriegn places. There's a lot of humor woven into this book and I really enjoyed reading it. I can't wait to read more from the author Jenifer Rubloff. ( )

I received this book in the Member Giveaway and started reading it today. I couldn't make it past the first six pages as it was absolutely bad. Sorry Jenifer but this book needs some work. The story is poorly written from the start and you need to win your reader over from the first word. I expected a book written in the vein of Matilda or Madeline where a poor orphan girl goes to a girls' boarding school and wins the hearts of everyone (I don't know if that is what this book is about because I didn't get very far). I expected a whimsical yet poignant coming of age tale, etc judging by the title (we do still judge books by their covers). Whether it is that I now will never know. Sorry Jenifer, better luck next time. ( )