Saturday, November 27, 2010

Anna and the French Kiss (Stephanie Perkins)


Release Date: December 2, 2010 (Soon, guys! Soon! BE ON THE LOOK OUT!)

Amazon says:
Anna was 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. So she's 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? Stephanie Perkins keeps the romantic tension crackling and the attraction high in a debut guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt.
I say:
Oh, gosh, you guys.
This book is so cute.
Seriously. Maggie and Sarah (their names link to their reviews) have been talking about it for literally weeks (like, nonstop love talk) and I can totally see why. I'm overwhelmed with the need of emoticons for this review -- that's my level of incessant adoration. It was sweet and well written and hilarious. It had a cute boy that was the best friend as well as the love interest. There are snippets of Paris and of young love and of awesome food and great cinema.
Anna is sent to the boarding school because her dad is a novelist and wants her to be cultured. And honestly? I totally love that, because it seems realistic on some level. She doesn't utterly, totally and completely hate the idea, but she sure isn't thrilled. I mean, the girl took Spanish -- she knows nothing about France. Well. Nothing more than like, I would know. (Hello, Spanish 3.) And I can just tell you -- I would NOT be happy to be uprooted and tossed in Paris, even if it is Paris.


(Well. Maybe.)
But honestly, it would suck -- lose your life to move to a city where you don't even speak the language. Anna is not thrilled. But then she's there.
And there is a BOY-THING.
And BOY-THING is BRITISH.
Seriously, dude.
British boy in Paris. What more could you want?
The thing is, this romance is so real. Like, St. Clair is more than just Anna's object of omigawdhawtness. He's her friend. This is a story about finding love, but more than that, it's about friendship. And, you know, Paris.
(I sooooo wanna go to Paris.)
Books like this are not my favorite, normally. Too easy they can cross the line into cliche and possibly annoying. The Summer I Turned Pretty is about the closest I've come to true love for a book in this genre, and I've got to say,  the list after that doesn't get all that much longer. However, Anna and the French Kiss is just as good as my favorites in any genre; I love it just as much.
:P Seriously. You won't be disappointed. If you buy a book this Christmas, I suggest this one whole-heartedly.

(Also, randomly, I love the girl on the cover. She just FITS.)

4 comments:

Colene Murphy said...

Gosh. I'm with you, not drawn to these kinds of books but the blog world has blown up about this one so I will definitely be grabbing it up! Awesome review! Eep! Excited!

mo said...

I love this book. That is all I have to say. <3

Sam said...

Colene: It really is great. :P Like, I kind of feel the need to marry the entire book, and normally I'm waaay too cynical for that.

Maggie: I know. You wouldn't stop teasing me with love for it for like, a month.

Ceska said...

Her first friend in town Meredith, helps get Anna acclimated to the school and to what the city has to offer. But the real help is the hot English boy, Etienne St. Clair. Oh! Em! Geee! If Anna didn't want this boy, I would have eaten him up in a heartbeat! The tension that builds through the book is enough to make your heart race, and the way Stephanie Perkins really makes you feel like you are right there in Paris and the Residence Lambert. Once you start getting really into this book, you feel like you are right there in the scenes, watching everything unfold. I like how you see what life is like at a boarding school overseas.