{Review} Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
11:37 AM Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Publication date: December 2, 2010
How I got the copy: Bought
If I could I would give it ten stars
If I could I would give it ten stars
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 Etienne St. Clair: 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 anythings 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?
- The second you finish it you'll want to reread it!
- All the main characters grow and change
- St. Claire is freakin hot! You'll fall in love.
I want to start off by thanking my twitter friend Tabitha (@tabbs55) for recommending I read this book next. It had been on my shelf forever collecting dust which is really a shame since it is probably my favorite contemp ever now.
I'll start with the characters. Anna is a pretty strong character, but she has a vulnerable side that makes her a typical teenage girl. She isn't afraid to be herself wearing batman pj's, loving old films, and bleaching a stripe of her hair. She also has a gap in her two front teeth which that and the bleached hair is not on the girl in the front cover. I wonder why they didn't do that.
Etienne St. Claire is probably the first boy in a YA book that has ever made me wish I was back in high school. Well, lets not get carried away, but I just mean it made me miss falling in love for the first time and the innocence of love at that age. You're not worrying about bills, or work, or could you see yourself marrying him soon, like most of my friends and I are thinking when we like someone. It's pure attraction and chemistry and nothing else matters in high school. St. Claire is just adorable. He's smart, funny, charming, and vulnerable because his dad is emotionally abusive. He's also not flawless which was nice to see in a book because I feel like YA kind of glorifies guys and they're not even close to perfect, especially at 18. St. Claire feels like he can't dump his current girlfriend for the longest time because he's scared of the unknown and it's comfortable to stay with Ellie. It made him feel more real. The other main characters Mer, Rashmi, Josh, Dave, and Amanda all change throughout the year too which was great to see. Sometimes only the main characters change and that's just not realistic.
I really want to go to Paris now, which is something I've never had an interest in doing before. There's so many places described in the book that sound wonderful. For example, Anna climbs all the way to the top of Notre Dame. The way she described it reminded me of when I climbed all the stairs at St. Paul's in England. I was just like Entienne St. Claire, I was shaking the whole way up, I was so scared. The stairs spiraled straight up with hardly any protection from falling and I think there were about 500 stairs to get to the top. It was terrifying, but the best experience ever and I'd love to see Paris from that high up too. I def related to St. Claire when he was freaking out on the climb up. Here's a pic of the view. I love sharing pictures from Europe because it's the only fun thing I've done in the past five years haha.
I just wish there was sequel or something so I could read more. I hear Lola and the Boy Next Door is a companion novel. What does that mean though? It's not the same characters?
“I don’t care what he thinks. Only what you think.” He holds me tighter. “Like if you think I need to stop biting my nails.”
“You’ve worn your pinkies to nubs,” I say cheerfully.
“Or if I need to start ironing my bed spread.”
“I DO NOT IRON MY BED SPREAD.”
“You do. And I love it.”
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
“Oh, it's okay," I say quickly, letting go of the figurine. "You can touch anything of mine you want."
He freezes. A funny look runs across his face before I realize what I've said, I didn't mean it like that.
Not that that would be so bad.”
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
“He snuffles.
Oh, no.
He's not going to cry, is he? Because even though it's sweet when guys cry, I am so not prepared for this.
Girl scouts didn't teach me what to do with emotionally unstable drunk boys.”
― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
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