Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Book: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Published: December 10, 2010
Started: August 3, 2014
Finished: August 4, 2014
Format: E-book
Own or borrow?: Borrow
Synopsis: Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's less than thrilled when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new people, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately, he's taken —and Anna might be, too. Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's waiting for? Can Anna find love in the City of Light?

Five french stars! I loved this book. I miss the characters, I miss the setting, and I miss how I felt when I read this book. As soon as I got done reading it, I jumped right into Lola because I didn't want to stop hearing about Anna and Etienne. This was the perfect book.

Usually I don't like the insta-love or the super mushy gushy stuff that happened in this book, but I had just got done reading an 800 page book about Ted Bundy, so I NEEDED fluffy and cute, and that's exactly what I got. I don't doubt that I wouldn't have loved it at any other time. Stephanie Perkins has some serious writing talent.

At times, I actually didn't want Anna and Etienne to be together at all. I didn't like that Etienne was in a relationship and stilled had feelings for Anna and was trying to act on them. That bothered me, but I went along with it because of the book mood I was in. I also didn't like that Etienne's actual girlfriend ended up being the antagonist in this book. She never did anything wrong and just by being the reason that Anna and Etienne couldn't be together, she was the bad guy. That trope needs to be burned and never brought back.

I gotta admit though, Etienne is swoon worthy. He's a sweetheart and tries to hard to make everyone happy. Unfortunately, whoever ends up being happy there is always someone else that ends up being upset. I think that's why everyone likes Etienne so much. Because he's a genuinely nice guy and yet he's making people upset without meaning to and we're supposed to feel bad for him. And we do because he's swoony. Swoony isn't a word but if it was, his face would be next to it in the dictionary.

PARIS. The description of Paris in this book seriously made me feel like I wasn't in Michigan in the summer. I felt like I was in Paris in the winter. It was great writing and great imagery. When I go to Paris one day, I'll feel like I already know everything about it because of this book. Thank you Stephanie for turning me into an art snob.

This book was just adorable. Sure, there were some things that I didn't like. There were things I might have changed but overall, this was a great love story and I'm glad that I finally gave Stephanie Perkins a chance. I'm thinking of re-reading it soon before I get Isla and the Happily Ever After.

If you like cute love stories with even cuter male leads, this may be the book for you.
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