Anna and the French Kiss
Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Release Date: December 2, 2010
Pages: 384

Rating: 5 stars

A contemporary romance set in the City of Light, guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt.

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. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American), 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?

Anna and the French Kiss is a book like any other that will melt your heart and demand your constant attention until you are finished. It’s a book that latches on to your life, and you carry with you every where to sneak in a few more pages of reading time. I loved every single page of it. It’s smart, funny, set IN PARIS, and very down to earth. Every page makes you love the story more and more.

I loved the characters. Every single one of them. They were all flawed and made mistakes. Better yet, they even made note of these and learned from them! Now on to the characters themselves… I’ll start with Etienne St. Clair. He was just lovely and he stole my heart. He is an American who lives in France AND has an AWESOME English accent. What’s not to love? He’s also fairly short, which is something brought up many many a’ time. Anna Oliphant has one of the best names ever. She was funny and I liked how no matter what was thrown at her, she still kept her self respect.

Stephanie Perkins has a serious way with words. Not a single word in Anna and the French Kiss is wasted. Anna and the French Kiss is very real. While romance is a big idea, the story is so down to earth and all the characters have many different issues. I hate when characters have perfect lives, and that is not the case in Anna and the French Kiss. With all the characters having trying matters in their lives, it made it really easy to connect with each and every one of them. There was also a lot of variety in emotion in Anna and the French Kiss. Parts of the book had me laughing so hard I was almost crying and others were very touching and emotional and sad.

Another awesome thing about Anna and the French Kiss was how the story didn’t just talk about the main character’s relationship. You had the romance problems of other characters, whether it be relationship issues or something else. I liked that it wasn’t just centered around the main characters.

Basically to sum this all up, I say: This book is perfect beyond anything you can imagine. Stephanie Perkins is a gold star author, and I am very excited for her next book, Lola and the Boy Next Door, for if Anna and the French Kiss was any indicator, it shall be amazing. Stephanie Perkins is the next big thing.

I made a list way back in July when I read this, about my Top 8 Reasons for reading Anna and the French Kiss