Contemp YA Month: Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

Pages: 372

Publisher: Dutton (Penguin US)

Release Date: 2^nd December 2010

Other Titles by this Author: Lola and the Boy Next Door, Isla and the Happily Ever After (2012)

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 Etienne St Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Etienne has it all...including a 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? Stephanie Perkins keeps the romantic tension crackling and the attraction high in a debut guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt.

This novel has received a ridiculous amount of hype since it’s release over a year ago and so naturally I bought myself a copy. Why on earth did I not read it straight away?!

There’s something I have to get out of the way before I try and write this review properly: Etienne St Clair. Okay, I’m good. But his smile, his hair, his sense of humour, his being a sweetheart... Right, I’m really done complimenting him now. Pft, no I’m not! I literally want one for my birthday. I had high expectations and he exceeded them effortlessly; there was a lot more to him than I was anticipating. I was completely suckered by his defence of Anna and all of the little things that a girl hangs on. I also loved that he was a little unconventional in a few ways and that only made him more adorable.

Nevertheless, he wouldn’t be quite so awesome without Anna to bounce off. She’s charming, witty and so, so likable. Anna’s far from perfect but she’s real and I could imagine being very good friends with her. The way that her and Etienne were so close and how deeply they cared about each other but couldn’t do anything about it made me choke occasionally. Everyone could see how perfect they were together but a few crossed wires, misinterpretations and insecurities just made the tension get more and more fraught and it was literally sparking b the time it all came to a head. It was frustrating, addicting and extremely romantic.

And Paris. Oh my goodness, Paris. I can’t quite articulate how much more Anna and the French Kiss has made me want to go to Paris than I already do. I want to walk around the City of Light with a beautiful boy who knows stories about everything, I want to stand on point zero and have a moment in Notre-Dame. I want to try the hot chocolate and the beautiful sounding cakes, I want to see a film in one of the old-school cinemas and duck out of the rain into Shakespeare and Company. I want to fall in love in Paris.

Just in case you hadn’t realised, I loved Anna and the French Kiss and I’m already waiting for my copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door to arrive through my letterbox. Stephanie Perkins could easily become one of my favourite authors.

I purchased a copy of this book myself.

Sophie