Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: December 2, 2010
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: Gift
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? 
This book was so. freaking. cute.  It's one of the best contemporary romance books I've read.   I really enjoyed the fact that the relationships in Anna and the French Kiss are complicated and realistic - the characters suffer ambivalence, uncertainty and confusion, and that made reading it delightfully fun.

Anna is such a great character!  Her voice and her thought processes and little peeves made her an instant favorite of mine.  If she were real, I think she'd have been my friend.  She's even got a review blog - for film rather than books, but still!  The secondary characters are realistic and well done.  I loved most of them, and loved hating some of them as well.  I adored Anna's whole group of friends that she makes in Paris.  But one thing that amazed me is that there is a very minor character that only appears in the book twice, and for but a second each time, and I fell in love with that character, too!  So yeah, I loved the characterization in this one.

One of my favorite things about this book, though, is how realistically the relationships in it progress.  There is so much instantaneous drawing together of teens in books these days, and I think that one of the best parts about real teenage relationships is the roundabout ways that they end up happening, and all of the awkward adorableness that takes place between a crush and a relationship.  This book tackles all of that delicious awkwardness and complication, and I found that to be incredibly rewarding.  The characters and relationships in this story actually evolve and devolve, and it's REAL and perfect and amazingly fun to read.

6 comments:

  1. I've heard such great things about this book but haven't got the chance of getting one. I should buy a copy soon. Glad that you enjoyed the book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I totally agree with everything you wrote... this book is just SO good!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aww, I love the fact that this book has a lot of great characterization! I prefer the whole awkwardness when first coming together, as well - it's WAY more realistic than how teenagers are just drawn together in other genre's. I really, really want to read this book. :) Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I started this book yesterday morning and was finished with by dinner time. I. Freaking. Loved. It. It was TOTALLY adorable! And you're right; the characterization was great all around. Anna was such a likable girl. The three of us would have to hang out if she actually existed. (Hillary can come too, of course!) We could talk about blog stuffs! (Even if she prefers movies over books. ;D)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fantastic review! I agree with everything you said in it, especially the part about the romantic relationship developing in a realistic way. Anna and the French Kiss is one of my favorites. I can't wait for Stephanie Perkins's next book to come out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I loved this book. If you like travel and you like reading coming of age type stories give it a read. In fact I think everyone should give it a read. Sure most of it is from Anna's perspective, but it wasn't too girly or too full of teenage angst, and it definitely wasn't shallow. It covered a lot of serious issues and was entertaining, funny, and completely engrossing...so, just read it already!

    ReplyDelete

What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment!

If you like this post, then please subscribe to the RSS feed!