Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Publish Date: December 2, 2010

Publisher: Penguin Group

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. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited? (From Goodreads)

Primarily, I picked up this book for something to read that wasn’t supernatural, fairies or angels etc, etc. This is a plain Jane nothing-out-of-norm-about-it book. I hadn’t expected to like it as much as I do. I definitely hadn’t expected it to make me cry or cheer for the team, or laugh out loud, but I did all those things too. ^_^ 

Etienne St. Clair is gorgeous, funny, and short, as he likes to continuously point out. He’s also got an amazing human fear of heights, and even a good set of stairs can put him into a near panic attack. These weaknesses might I add, is a rarity in our male characters unless they’re an antagonist so this was quite a surprise. He speaks French and English (with a British accent) but he claims American citizenship too. Etienne is an irresistible character and I found myself liking his personality nearly instantly. He’s got problems, everyone does, but his makes him a more believable and certainly relatable character. His conflict of emotions within himself is so real I felt for him on an entirely new level of feeling for a character. 

Anna is everything I want in a best friend. She has a good heart, and she does try really hard to do the right thing. Very hard in some instances with Etienne. It’s not always the right decision, but I respect her for trying as hard as she did. Her parents are real blokes (^_^) and Ms. Perkins does a good job of illustrating (figuratively of course) Anna’s struggle with trying to keep everything as balanced as possible with her family. Her issues aren’t as grand as Etienne’s in a sense, but hers have a more emotional base more then likely because it is told through her eyes, so the reader does get more of her emotions. I wanted to frustrate for her, cry with her, and laugh with her through out the book. (And I did in several spots.)

By the closing of the book I was anxious to see the outcome between Anna and Etienne as well as the solution to the year long problem of dance around or propriety. The way they dance around each other in the book is a classic example of boy like girl (or girl likes off limits boy) but it’s done in such a refreshing new way that I can’t help but like it. 

It’s really hard for a book to get an emotional rise out of me. In fact, it’s nearly impossible for a book to get me to cry, or at least well up so bad I had to wipe my eyes to keep from crying outright. Anna and the French Kiss pulled me in and kept me riveted the entire way through. I definitely recommend this book for reading to anyone that likes/loves a really good love story. ^_^

My Rating:

Touya