Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton Books
Publication Date: 2 Dec 2010
Source: UK Book Tours
Synopsis: From GoodReads
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 am going to cheat on this one a bit because out of the entire world (I think) I must be the only person that did not fall head over heals in love with this book. I will explain why but first take a look at Sya's review from The Mountains of Instead here as this is the review I wish I could write and I do agree with absolutely everything Sya says.
However, this is why I didn't totally love it:
1) I don't think I fully bonded with Anna from the start, she seemed quite insular in her attitude providing an uneasy road to self discovery.
2) I think that anyone that deludes themselves that much that they are just friends should be certified.
3) And possibly most importantly I really thought both Anna and Etienne were the worst friends to have. They were totally self-absorbed, only after their friends were hurt did they stop to consider the consequences of their actions. I really got on my imagery soapbox for this one.
What I will say is that all the characters were extremely well developed, the group dynamics were fantastic and provided insight into each character via their relationship to Anna. The chemistry between Anna and Etienne nearly sets the page on fire. I loved the comparison between European and American diets which was really interesting and funny.
So there you have it a really condensed review.
Go read Sya's you will be blown away.
Ach, you're making me blush again! Thank you for your lovely compliments.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that you didn't love this one, I clearly adored it. However, in retrospect I can see what you mean about the two of them being a bit self-absorbed but I just passed that off as general teenage-ness... Perhaps you'll like the follow up better.
We can't all love the same books. Sigh. I still want to read it though.
ReplyDeleteAh, I'm sorry you were disappointed. It's impossible to like every single book, thanks for the honest review! Will you be reading Lola and the Boy Next Door?
ReplyDeletedespite you not loving one I still think it might be one for me to hunt down as I've heard so much about it
ReplyDeleteThanks for this review, l like it when l see a different opinion on a book! Shame you didn't love it!
ReplyDelete