Monday, February 21, 2011

Review of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Book:  Anna and the French Kiss
Author:  Stephanie Perkins
Published by:  Dutton
Pages:  372

From GoodreadsAnna 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?

Are you ready to fall in love?  Not your typical love at first sight, but the slow gradual development of butterflies in your stomach, sparks when you touch, heart aching desire, and loss of coherent speech or breath for that matter.  Well here it is...Anna and the French Kiss 

The storyline for this novel is very typical, but the writing, the characters, and the dialogue were not.  Stephanie Perkins did such as amazing job at not only describing the sights of Paris, but also the people seeing those sights.  Her characters were so well rounded, and not just the main characters but all of them.  I literally felt myself falling in love while Anna was, being scared when St. Claire was, feeling hurt when Rashmi was, being hopeful when Meredith was and getting frustrated when Josh was.  I got butterflies and swooned, but I also got mad and hurt right along with the characters.   

All of these characters and situations felt so real.  Besides the boarding school in Paris, Anna, St. Clair, Meredith, Rashmi and Josh were your typical teenagers facing issues everyone of us faces no matter what age.  I think one of the best things about this novel is that it is very universal and anyone could fit their lives into the lives of these characters.  No matter where you live, or what your ethnicity is this could be your story.   

Another thing I want to comment on is the cover.  I love that we can't see the male's (who I assume is St. Clair) face.  It's great that we get to image what he looks like and can put in our own hero, instead of having another image forced into our heads.   

If you are looking for an amazing love story, that's beautifully written and will keep you up until all hours of the night just to finish it, I highly suggest this novel.  It's purely magical! 

Overall I give this book ★★★★★ and it deserves everyone of them.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you liked it !! I finished it two days ago and was really sad .. I love this book and I'm thinking to re read it soon !! Great review Lisa !!

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  2. I've heard nothing but good about this book. I'm glad you like it! I need to read it.

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  3. Ah! I loved this book so much! It was just so sweet and adorable and just like you said, I felt every emotion with the characters as they were feeling them. I can't wait to read more from Stephanie Perkins:)

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  4. I like that you describe the characters as real, makes me want to read Anna even more. Got it on my shelf but haven't read it yet. Great review:)

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