Anna and the French Kiss

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary.

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Year: 2010

Ranking: 3,8/ 5

  Synopsis

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 Author

Stephanie Perkins was born in South Carolina, raised in Arizona, attended universities in San Francisco and Atlanta, and now she lives in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. She is most know by her companion trilogy “Anna and the French Kiss”, “Lola and the Boy Next Door” and, “Isla and the Happily Ever After”.

Personal Experience with This Book

I decided to read this book because since I started blogging and watching BookTube videos I saw it and everyone said that the book was the best and it was super cute and many good things about it. So… who says NO to a book like that? Surely not me.

I literally read the book in one sitting. It took me about 7 or 8 hours to read it and I stayed up until 5 in the morning because I had to finish it. It is a book that definitely hooked me and makes stuff in your stomach and heart while reading it. Even though I think this book was a very good book I gave the book 3,8 in my ranking because I liked it, but I also had many problems and complaints about it.

I'll start by the plot. The story of the academy in Paris and the whole issue of a boarding school is very cool but this school does not have some classes as mandatory ones. Some classes that should have been mandatory ones like Math, for instance.  I felt the school was not real at all. I mean, it is logical that at Hogwarts mathematics is not a mandatory class, it is not even a class, because it is a magic school right? ... but in an ordinary school, in a totally nothing great but completely normal school and in a world like the one set in this book (our world) is illogical that a senior high school student does not study math ... even if you want to be a film critic you have to study math. Not that it seems bad to me but it felt unreal.

The plot is very romantic and cute but not to the point of wanting to throw up. I liked it because there was a balance between friendship and romance with typical teenage problems, which make the book gain points with me. But, there is a severe case of Insta-love here. Anna falls in love with Etienne virtually from day one and it's like this guy has something,  I do not know what it is but, every girl at school is in love with him…not my kind of protagonist. BUT ... I liked that the author knew how to develop this Insta-love and put it into a second place and concentrate in the friendship between these two. As the story progresses, the Insta-love is well justified and the chemistry between the two main characters is just amazing. It is well understood why they fall in love.

Now, Anna made me angry at first because ... this girl is in a boarding school in Paris, has a super mega best friend who she likes and it is like a super cute guy that almost everyone loves, and she is able to make friends from day one.. and even so she complains in the first half of the book; "I do not want to be here", "Why my dad did this to me?" .. blah blah blah. Her character improves a lot after a while with the help of Etienne (whom I thank wholeheartedly because I would have hated Anna if it is not for him).

Now, Etienne is great character. He is outgoing and has this personality that makes everyone around him to like him and wanting to be his friend. If you see him on the street you think that this guy has no problem at all but, when you get to know him you realize that actually he DOES have problems some of them are serious. The boy is afraid of being alone, like alone in life not just in a place (perfectly understandable), and therefore he is the one that complicates the story in a part and you are like…. “Seriously Etienne? Seriously!”

But it is at this point when I have to say that I loved them both as a couple because one feels that they complement each other. Anna is always for Etienne when he needs her and Etienne wants for Anna to get out of her shell and ENJOY. And when the two of them are together is like the world is complete and beautiful and there are no other people than the two of them. So beautiful!

We also see a lot of friendship with other classmates and have a bit of teen drama and a little family drama that gives a little more to the story so it will not simply be a romance. I also liked that a lot.

I Gave 3.8 to this book because even if I found many “buts”, I also think it is a book that captures the reader and makes you enjoy it to the point of not realizing you have read almost the entire book. Besides that because of the fact that the love story is very cute and slow (by the time these two get together one also feels how much you wanted them to be together, it is like you can breathe… like FINALLY!!!!). The book didn’t make it to a 4 because of the complaints I already mentioned.

I recommend it to people who like contemporary romances. I think if you're not in the mood to read a cute romance like this you will not like the book. You will not find any psychological problem or a super intriguing family background or trauma. No. Just a romance that is slowly developing (Not due to the fact that Anna and Etienne did not like each other but because of the fact that he has a girlfriend and Anna does not tell him what she feels), and although the author did add some drama to the book the same one plays only a secondary role in the story so even if you find some ugly stuff here it is not made to make you cry.