Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Goodreads summary:
Anna is 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. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?
My Review:
I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to read this book! I'd heard about it everywhere (Goodreads, Twitter, blogs), my friends had recommended it, and yet, it hadn't made it's way to my TBR pile. Until this past Monday. And had I not had to work this week, it would've been finished later that same night (and I think staying up to 2am the past 3 nights to read, probably took a toll on my abilities to function at work).
The story was well-written and every character had unique personalities (flaws and all), giving them each a reason to be there. And then there was the humor. I can't say enough, how much I love books with the same sense of humor I have myself. Some call it snarky sarcasm, but I actually don't care how you phrase it up, cause AATFK fit the bill PERFECTLY. And made me laugh. Out loud. Several times. With my husband asleep in the bed next to me. And I'm shaking the bed with silent laughter, clutching a pillow to my mouth, and he stirs and growls at me. And I simply don't care. Yeah. Those moments are the absolute best. And this book had several of them (First time Anna meets Etienne St. Claire and thinks: "French name, English accent, American school. Anna confused." Yeah, I'm still laughing at that, cause I thought the exact same thing!).
I enjoyed Ms. Perkins storytelling - great flow and I loved the scenery of France through Anna's eyes as a first time visitor (especially since I've never been myself!). I read comments from others that it took too long to get to the kiss, and then there wasn't enough of "them" afterwards - but I'd disagree. After all, that's the entire point, isn't it? St. Claire has a girlfriend and Anna doesn't know what she has, back home - which I think makes their friendship so wonderful. If they'd jumped into it all up front, then you would've missed the entire story.
Now I'm normally not a huge fan of Contemporary YA, probably because the female protags tend to be a bit too "damsel in distress" for me. But I think it's safe to say, that was so not the case with Anna. And I'm pretty sure this book may have just changed my mind on contemporary reads altogether; I just hope I can find other stories like this one.
And Stephanie, your question to your husband on if the boy is hot enough? Um, yeah. With a head of hair like that and an English accent to boot, that right there, should be answer enough. Yum.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Goodreads summary:
Anna is 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. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?
My Review:
I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to read this book! I'd heard about it everywhere (Goodreads, Twitter, blogs), my friends had recommended it, and yet, it hadn't made it's way to my TBR pile. Until this past Monday. And had I not had to work this week, it would've been finished later that same night (and I think staying up to 2am the past 3 nights to read, probably took a toll on my abilities to function at work).
The story was well-written and every character had unique personalities (flaws and all), giving them each a reason to be there. And then there was the humor. I can't say enough, how much I love books with the same sense of humor I have myself. Some call it snarky sarcasm, but I actually don't care how you phrase it up, cause AATFK fit the bill PERFECTLY. And made me laugh. Out loud. Several times. With my husband asleep in the bed next to me. And I'm shaking the bed with silent laughter, clutching a pillow to my mouth, and he stirs and growls at me. And I simply don't care. Yeah. Those moments are the absolute best. And this book had several of them (First time Anna meets Etienne St. Claire and thinks: "French name, English accent, American school. Anna confused." Yeah, I'm still laughing at that, cause I thought the exact same thing!).
I enjoyed Ms. Perkins storytelling - great flow and I loved the scenery of France through Anna's eyes as a first time visitor (especially since I've never been myself!). I read comments from others that it took too long to get to the kiss, and then there wasn't enough of "them" afterwards - but I'd disagree. After all, that's the entire point, isn't it? St. Claire has a girlfriend and Anna doesn't know what she has, back home - which I think makes their friendship so wonderful. If they'd jumped into it all up front, then you would've missed the entire story.
Now I'm normally not a huge fan of Contemporary YA, probably because the female protags tend to be a bit too "damsel in distress" for me. But I think it's safe to say, that was so not the case with Anna. And I'm pretty sure this book may have just changed my mind on contemporary reads altogether; I just hope I can find other stories like this one.
And Stephanie, your question to your husband on if the boy is hot enough? Um, yeah. With a head of hair like that and an English accent to boot, that right there, should be answer enough. Yum.