Anna and the French Kiss

Let me just start off by saying that "I only read paranormal" or "I only read fantasy" is not a legit excuse for not reading this book. I've never been a fan of published general fiction for some unknown reason, but I don't think I've met a single person yet who hasn't liked this book.

Of course, it helps that this takes place at a boarding school. In France. I think that ought to get anyone interested.

The book starts off with Anna's parents leaving her at her school in France. Practically abandoning her. I found it kind of funny, because really, whose parents just abandon you on a different continent when your kid knows nothing about her school?

Anyways. The characters. Definitely the best part of this book. Anna's narrative is so easy to read and understand, even easier to connect to. Her emotions seemed real and realistic.

I still can't get used to calling St. Clair Etienne, though. That was a problem of mine -- for more than half the book, Anna calls him St. Clair, but then suddenly it's Etienne every time she's talking to him. It seemed to come out of nowhere.

Anna and St. Clair's relationship was never dull. From the moment Anna met him, she was practically in love. (Not that she knew that. But still.) And St. Clair was always so nice and funny . . . . The only problem was his girlfriend.

Throughout the book, St. Clair takes Anna all around Paris, especially to the theaters, since Anna is a film freak. That's another thing I liked about the book - how realistic Anna was. She had a hobby, she wasn't perfect, she didn't understand any French, her emotions were almost never irrational. And St. Clair was that way, too. Maybe not at first. At first, he seemed perfect, and that irritated me, but then you started to see that he was just as human as Anna, that he had his hobbies too.

Another great thing - Etienne had flaws. He was clinging to his old life while basically having an emotional affair the entire book, which you really don't see much of these days.

The only complaint I have about the book is that there was a lot of unnecessary drama. Okay, obviously St. Clair couldn't dump his girlfriend right in the beginning. What kind of story would that be? But like Michelle said, there were about twenty unnecessary pages at the end, all because of a very stupid and pointless thing that St. Clair did. I felt like Perkins was trying to make everything that could go wrong actually go wrong.

But that's the only thing I didn't like. Which is saying something. And on top of being adorable and realistic, Anna and the French Kiss was funny, too. Anna's got some subtle sarcasm that I absolutely loved.

I feel like you'd have to be insane not to like this book.

I know that nearly everyone has read and reviewed this book for me, but I am just getting off of the sweeping tour of Paris, and the anticipation rush from Anna and St Clair (I'll call him that not because I didn't feel effection for him, but because I'm not the fondest of E name.)
I've seen so many positive reviews, I tried to wipe my slate clean before reading so that I could just enjoy (or not) the story before me. And enjoy it I did. It was a fast, fun, and romantic story that surprised me with the emotional depth at times. There aren't just cute and fun issues here, there are some hard ones--sickness, barriers to friendship, and just raw emotions from events playing out.
I do sympathize with St Clair's reasonings behind Ellie, but I still have to say that it still didn't sit right with me. Sure, she's not there and his feelings for Anna are strong, but why drag it on? It would've been hard as a girl seeing it from Ellie's eyes, but I think that would've been the right thing to do.... I guess I just had to mention that because that's the one thing in the book that still nags at me.
That is not to say that I thought negatively of the book, I loved it. Anna grows and learns so much, and she has a great (and wonderfully written) group of friends, and the tension between her and St Clair kept me on the edge of my seat.

Read this! What are you waiting for? Trust me. Read.

Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. Stephanie Perkins has written some well-rounded and believable characters. In addition, her ability to bring Paris to life made the story all the more believable. A great book and a great love story that shows that not all relationships have an easy start!

a review by Courtney

This is a hard book review to write because there were some things I just loved about this story and other things that drove me crazy!! To sum up what goes on in this story; Anna is forced to spend her senior year at a school in Paris for Americans. She is not thrilled to leave behind her best friend or her possible boyfriend. She soon begins to love Paris though when she meets a couple of new friends and a hunky English American St.Clair. Unfortunately he has a girlfriend though so she only idolizes him from a far!

What I liked about Anna and the French Kiss; I liked the characters and the plot a lot!! Anna was a lovable character and so were all her friend she made in Paris. They reminded me of the group of friends I always hung out with in high school and we did everything together! Very genuine and believable.

The plot was pretty unique and I although I could guess the ending pretty much from the beginning I never knew what was going to happen next. It had a very satisfying ending which is always a make-or-break for me and this ending sold the book!

What I didn't like about it; I did not like the annoying romantic tension. Usually that doesn't bother me but in this book it did. I was getting a bit frustrated with the way things were progressing SO SLOWLY!!

CONTENT ALERT: This is more of a PG-13 book for me!! There was no sex scenes but sometimes the language was pure filthy, for example there was a few cuss words and the word slut was used repeatedly! It didn't really bother me a whole lot but I definitely wouldn't want my young teenager reading it.

I will be looking to see what else Stephanie Perkins wrote because even though I was annoyed at times, this really was one of a few contemporary books I actually enjoyed!

Reader reviewed by Krystal Larson

Reader reviewed by Kayla

Wow. This was a roller coaster ride of a read (try saying that 10x fast).

There are times when I'll become so invested in a character that I will experience her emotions right along with her, and with nearly the same intensity. This is what happened with me and Anna. A big reason for this may be that we were so alike. If I were in her situation (attending a boarding school for the first time in a country where I didn't know the language), I would be thinking and acting exactly like she did. And I have the same insecure thoughts when I'm trying to make new friends-I guess we all do. There were times I actually cried while reading because I felt so frustrated and upset over Anna's escalating problems near the end of the book. Needless to say, the happy ending left me breathless and ecstatic. Anna and St. Clair's relationship developed so naturally. I love how true to life the whole story was and how real all of the characters seemed. This was an incredible book.

Side Note: A small problem I had with the book was that Anna's father was described a lot like Nicholas Sparks (a Southern author who writes love stories with depressing endings and has a very large and loyal following, as well as a good number of movie deals). This wouldn't have been so bad except that Anna's father was written up to be a real jerk. He was even greatly criticized and called insensitive (by Anna) for making a profit by "exploiting" those situations, which she was especially upset about after learning that a friend of hers had a mother that was suffering from cancer. It kind of felt like a slap at Sparks, though I'm sure this was unintentional on the author's part. I don't mean to judge. I just thought I'd mention it.