Review: “Anna and the French Kiss” by Stephanie Perkins
Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult / Romance
Release Date: December 2nd, 2010
Published by: Dutton / Speak
Format: Paperback
Format: Paperback
I purchased this myself and I’m in no
way bias from one book to the next.
These opinions are totally my own.
Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she’s less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all . . . including a serious girlfriend.
But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss? Stephanie Perkins keeps the romantic tension crackling and the attraction high in a debut guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt.
Anna and the French Kiss was one of those books that I had heard so many great things about, that I had bought, then thought…what if all this hype about it totally makes it lose that mystery factor, or knowing that everyone likes it and maybe I won’t.
Well, I had the flu *and still have it, uhhh* for about a week….read this…and fell head over heels.
This is going to sound completely crazy and book-obsessive of me, but, I totally love this book more than I should. I think everyone who’s read AATFK can agree with me 100% on that. There is so many magical things about Paris. Like, for example…the Eiffel Tower; it’s glamorous and sparkling presence just lights up the sky. Or, maybe The Arc De Triomphe, one of the most iconic monuments in Paris?
Anywhere you go in Paris, to get the full experience, take THIS book with you.
Anna Oliphant was the kind of protagonist I loved reading about; impulsive, though laid back and very real. She was just like a normal teenager, the way Stephanie wrote her about her made it all seem so realistic. Some characters in other novels I’ve read seem to be forcibly dramatic and over the top, or too adult like to even seem possible that they were still basically not. So that was the best starter in AATFK, to know that Anna herself was likeable.
She loved her life in Atlanta, (and I would too, because I totally want to go there), but ends up being sent to Paris in the American boarding school there.
Okay, this boarding school…sounded pretty awesome. Except for a lot of drinking from some of the students there, which teens are allowed to do over there, it seemed a pretty nice place. Meredith! She was Anna’s first friend and she was literally SO nice. Like how a best friend should be. There’s also Rashmi, who at the start didn’t quite see eye to eye with Anna, though they weren’t enemies or anything. But after they hung out a little, they became good friends. Rashmi was dating Josh, Anna’s other friend in the group, (who a little birdy told me would be in the third instalment in the series, Isla’s story–and Isla actually debuted in Anna’s story, too!).
Actually, all of the people Anna was friends with seemed to be so real and down-to-earth that it made them all the more lifelike to me, like I could imagine them all existing outside of the pages.
Then there’s Étienne St Clair, who Anna seemed to straight away get on with like a house on fire. He was sweet, hilarious and dashingly handsome. For the most part, they hung out almost every day after he coaxed her out of her room where she had been spending all her time, pining for her old life back. But when she finally opened up and took in the sights of the city, Paris had won Anna’s heart…for now. And maybe St Clair had too.
“Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?”
I got to probably the almost middle of the book when I realised that Anna was in love. Well, in love and torn at the same time. See, there’s this other guy too; Toph, who by the end of the book I actually hated so badly…and he seemed like a nice guy until the showdown when Anna went home for Winter break. Uh, I just felt so bad for her. Obviously, it’s a secret between me and the book…but if you want to know what happened…YOU have to read this!
But, the strange thing is…I didn’t know whether Anna was going to get her happily ever after. She was in love with someone who was in love with someone else. And she kind of had that twice, with the Toph situation. Don’t get me wrong, St Clair’s stunningly Parisian girlfriend, Ellie, was really nice. But even she had her reservations about how close her boyfriend and Anna were. Not to mention Meredith, who had welcomed Anna with open arms, also had a massive crush on St. Clair.
But, even before you know the outcome of Anna and the French Kiss, you know that St. Clair and Anna are soulmates. And their story wasn’t perfect, but it was worth it in the end to find something worth having; love. And I loved every moment of their journey to find what they were looking for.
THANK YOU to Stephanie Perkins, for writing such an incredible, romantic and candy-sweet novel. I fell in love with it over and over.
If I didn’t have a stack of TBR books on my shelf, I would re-read this until my heart’s content. But, I can’t *pining for Paris…*. Though, I’m dying to read Lola’s story; Lola and the Boy Next Door which I have an e-Book of, though I want to get the Paperback copy soon, because you all know I’m a Paperback Girl.
So, overall, Anna’s story is worthy of your full attention. Yes, it lives up to the massive hype behind the series and is undeniably one of the best books I’ve ever read, not just this year, but of all time. That’s so huge, because I only put my absolute favourite books in that category, and I’m 100% positive I’ll love this book forever. Amen.
Have you read ‘Anna and the French Kiss’ and loved it like I did?
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Happy reading!
