Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss #1)
By Stephanie Perkins
Genre: YA Contemporary
Recommended For: Ages 15+ and lovers of a cute love story set in culturally rich locations
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. 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?
The Gist:
Anna and the French Kiss is the adorable teenage rom-com I was hoping it would be. Full of quirky characters, the token hot British guy and possibly the most romantic city in the world. What’s not to like? I do not mind one bit when my rom-com is predictable or full of common tropes. As long as it’s not littered with cheesy cliches I’m a happy camper because I’m a sucker for a happy ending. This is a cute story with characters whose personalities shine through and the read gets a true feel for the inner turmoil and frustrations the main character faces. And with Paris as a setting, how can you go wrong! You won’t get any thrilling twists or turns in this book, but if you’re okay with that I really think you’ll love it.
This book is an excellent mixture of hilarious dialogue, exploring emotions, and will-they-won’t-they near misses. If you guys need a quick read that leaves you feel light-hearted and happy, I highly recommend this book.
What I Liked:
I thought Anna was superb. I loved her so much. She totally sounded like a teenager, which is actually something I want in YA contemporary. I find it so unbelievable when YA protagonists sound more mature than me! (Although I’m not that mature myself…) But Anna definitely was a teenager, though not an annoying one that constantly whined about things like her looks (THANK GOODNESS!). And her character arc was well drawn and well paced. I was very impressed reading the slow transitions Anna went through in the story.
I liked how you could tell that everything that happened-every adventure with St Clair and Anna, every piece of dialogue between characters, had a purpose in the overall story. It revealed something deeper about a character, pulled characters apart, or brought them closer together. In stand alone novels, it can be hard to achieve the level of completeness Perkins has reached, but she did well.
I loved (and appreciated) that Anna and St Clair talked about such a wide variety of things. It showed that they valued each other for more than looks-for intelligence, kindness, and what they each were passionate about. So often teen novels can get stuck in only talking about surface-teenage things, like appearances and how hard it is to be unpopular.
Being set in Paris was magical. I’ve never been to Paris myself but this book made me want to go even more. Seeing the city of lights for the first time through Anna’s eyes was incredible.
I thought the pacing was excellent. Right from the start we get an immediate romantic tension between Anna and St. Clair, the kind that makes you stay up late so you can read more until you get to the next scene with the tension. And somehow Perkins was able to keep that tension pulled taunt throughout the entire book.
There are some pretty emotional scenes and moments where we learn about the main characters families. Families are tough. They are wonderful sometimes and rotten other times. I thought Perkins did a great job showing both sides with Anna’s family, but I also appreciated that by the end I didn’t really hate her family. I just understood that Anna’s wasn’t perfect, just like mine isn’t perfect.
What I Didn’t Like:
Sometimes in the beginning I thought the inner dialogue got a little cheesy and immature for a senior in high school. But by the second half of the book I noticed that went away.
And I wished we could have gotten to know Mer a little bit more.
Actually, I think that was it. I really enjoyed the book.
LunasLuckyRating: 4.5/5 Lunas
