Friday, January 7, 2011

Review: ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins


ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS
by Stephanie Perkins
Hardcover, 372 pages
Published December 2nd 2010 by Dutton
Placement in the Pile: Top Picks

Summary:
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?

Review:
I LOVE this book. I had heard so many awesome reviews for it, I knew it had to be good. But there's always some trepidation going into a book with that much good buzz. I've been disappointed in the past, because my expectations got too high. Not this time. I was immediately sucked in to Anna's world, I adored Etienne St. Clair (even though she kept making such a big deal out of how short he was, and being a tall girl, that doesn't really help me think a guy is attractive. So I pretended he was taller, and we were all good). ;) Stephanie did an amazing job making you feel like you are there in Paris (and also, making you WANT to go to Paris, oh man the food sounded heavenly). The characters are layered, complex, and all have their own troubles and triumphs. This is a book with depth, it isn't just a light chick-lit read--though it has those fun, exciting, light-hearted elements too, at times. Anna is definitely a fast read (mostly because I couldn't put it down), but you will want to savor this one. Also? Wow, does Stephanie know how to build romantic tension. Yes, indeed.

Just be warned for all of our readers that like to know, this is an upper YA book. There is some pretty intense language at times, and mature content. In this case it didn't bother me, but we always like to let our readers know what to expect.

This is one that I'm glad I bought! (I nabbed the last one at my local bookstore, but hopefully they'll keep getting more in.)

1 comments:

Aubrey said...

Thanks so much for the review Guinevere! This is one that is on my list. I have heard good things about it. I worry I will be disappointed with my own work in progress when reading what it could have been had it been this book...but still, it sounds great!