Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: December 2, 2010
Pages: 372
Buy It: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Borders

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? -- Goodreads

Anna’s parents force her to France (oh, no!) to go to a very nice school. She makes new friends who take her in, almost, immediately. A strong friendship begins to grow between St. Clair and Anna. Will it ever blossom into something more? One can only wish on Point Zéro to find out.

I am in love with this book. It has been two weeks since I have read this novel (yeah, I know I am behind in my review—sorry) and I am still thinking about it. It is one of those books that will stay with you no matter what. I’m thinking about scenes I liked, and I can’t help but bring St. Clair into random conversations. I have moved this novel on my bookshelf at least five times already, because, I’ve decided, Anna belongs on a shelf all by herself. It was so great; it should not be standing next to the just-mediocre novels or okay stories.

I love this book! (I could actually make a review of how much I love it, but I won’t torture you like that.) One thing that made this book shine was its plot. Yes, it’s contemporary YA romance. I usually don’t go for that kind of thing, but Stephanie Perkins made it work. The plot had this underlying theme of friendship that I haven’t seen in a while. A lot of romance these days consist of just that: romance. The characters in general romance usually just decide, “Hey, I think I love you.” “Really, me too.” There you go, they’ll probably kiss for the rest of the book, or some plot twist will prevent them from seeing each other. But usually that’s the basis of every romance story. I really liked that Perkins added friendship into the mix. There is always love in friendship, no matter if it’s not the steamy romance some people want to read about. The friendship between St. Clair and Anna was perfect and fragile and I loved every minute that they spent together. Sure, you could tell there was something more there. That’s what made me want to read this even more.

It was a gorgeous novel! The characters were absolutely stunning! St. Clair made me want to become British. (Please refine from rolling your eyes.) He was adorable, and certainly sounded it, in my head, when I was reading. I simply couldn’t understand why he didn’t have a St. Clair fan club (the club would probably specialize in stalking him) at his school, because all the girls must have been in love as much as I was. Anna was very down-to-Earth and a great main character. Anna would wait in the wings for a right chance to make her feelings known, and I loved that about her. Of course, her patience was waning a bit and she did have moments where she was in crazy-mode, but I loved it all!

And who doesn’t like France? Just like Revolution, I should just get on a plane right now and live in France for the rest of my days. Eat French food, get fat, and be happy! I want to meet a French boy; we could talk French all day… okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Anna was surprisingly humorous. There were jokes that had me laughing so hard, I couldn’t even read the pages my eyes were so wet.

In short, this is a book you need to read. I’m making Nora read it right now! It’s filled with humor, romance, and all things awesome! If you’ve read Anna, how did you like it? (As usual, comments are always welcome!) Salut!!

First Sentence:

"Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amélie and Moulin Rouge."

 Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, p. 3 

Rating:

Cover: 5
Characters: 5
Writing Style: 5
Plot: 5
Ending: 5
Overall: 5