Friday, April 1, 2011

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins


“Anna and the French Kiss” by Stephanie Perkins is a-freakin-dorable so READ IT NOW. There. That’s all I need to say, right? Seriously though, this book is so fun and romantic. I do not normally like contemporary young adult fiction and I absolutely adore this book. I went out and bought a couple copies of it to give to my sisters and my best friend.

Anna is sent away to Paris by her nouveau riche father (who is an author a la Nicolas Sparks..mwahaha, nice touch Ms. Perkins) for her senior year of high school in an effort to broaden her horizons and make him look super fancy. As if leaving her best friend and guy friend (def boyfriend potential) behind wasn’t hard enough, she’s thrown into the world of upper-crust snobbery in a country where she doesn’t even speak the language! Luckily, she falls into a great group of friends and meets the perfect guy, Etienne St. Clair. He’s a Parisian, whose also American, but has lived extensively in London so he has a British accent. Plus, add in the fact that he’s an incredibly nice guy and is slowly becoming her best friend. Perfect right? Oh yeah, there’s just one little hiccup - she’s maybe-sorta-kinda taken by that potential boyfriend back home and he’s in a long term relationship. Yowza.

To be honest, the description of the book didn’t have me convinced. As I said earlier, I’m not a big fan of contemporary YA. I’m more of a fantasy/paranormal/historical gal myself. I decided to take the plunge and give “Anna and the French Kiss” 50 pages... if it hooked me, great, but if not, I’d go back to my comfort zone. It had me in less than five pages. The writing is just so sharp, fresh, and charming. I instantly loved Anna and Etienne. I cared so deeply about their happiness and let’s face it, I’m always a sucker for best friend romances. (Yes, Twilight fans, I was unabashedly Team Jacob and will continue to pretend that “Breaking Dawn” never happened. Ugh.) For a teen romance, it is so wonderfully realistic too. It’s so very real and sweet. There is no crazy love triangle. There is no lusty instant sexual connection. It’s real world love and it’s beautiful.

This book will have you saying “oo la la!” Seriously, I know I’m being a total cornball here, but I cannot stress enough that if you like LOVE, you will ADORE Stephanie Perkins’ “Anna and the French Kiss”. And if you don’t like love, um, please go get help.

I know this came out a little while ago, but I just had the opportunity to read it recently (thanks Lalitha for loaning it to me!). I now own my own. :D You can get your very own copy at your favorite bookstore. It is published by Dutton Juvenile (Penguin).

2 comments:

  1. So awesome to hear your take on this, since I know you don't usually read realistic fiction- so it must be reeeeeally good, if you liked it! I can't believe I haven't read this yet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't worry, "Breaking Dawn" never happened. The honeymoon was off the west coast of Brazil, which doesn't exist.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...