Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Book: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Published: Published December 2nd 2010 by Dutton

My rating: 5/5 Stars (WHY ONLY 5 STARS??!!)

Genre: YA

Goodreads 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. 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?"

My thoughts:

Just a warning before you guys start this review... I loved this book, like it is a new top favorite so there is a chance that my review will be one big fangirl rave :) There will also be many words or phrases in ALL CAPS. Please feel free to imagine them being said with an obnoxious, high pitched fangirly voice. Because that is how I am thinking them. Now that you have been warned, you may procede:

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO SOOOO MUCH!! All I have been thinking about since I read this book is 1) How awesome it was 2) How I really really need to read Lola and the Boy Next Door and finally 3) I need to go to Paris. NOW. Like for real guys, I finished this book in the early afternoon-ish, then spent my entire afternoon looking up flight and hotel info to Paris. Now my savings account is titled "TRIP TO PARIS <3" and I have decided to set a specific amount of money out of each paycheck to save up. Unfortunately,  I have small paychecks so it will take me a while to get there, but it will happen!! 

Anyway, y'all probably don't care about my money situation so I'll drop it. You want to hear about this wonderful, amazing book :) Honestly, I was really nervous to start it. I have heard so many great things about this book and nobody I have talked to did not love it. But lately I have been in a bit of a reading rut. I am still reading and I really want to be enjoying it, but I have not been really loving the books I have been reading. They were alright, just nothing that really made me feel passionate about reading. So I was really afraid that that would happen with this book. I had such high hopes for it! I mean who wouldn't? Teen love, Paris, boarding school (I don't know why but I love reading about girls who attend boarding schools)! Thankfully, this book met all the very, VERY high expectations I had for it.

Things I enjoyed about this book:

-Y'all. If you have not noticed by now I say y'all a lot. It is a regular word in my vocabulary and I don't even notice when it is used. So when Anna said y'all in the book and everyone laughed at her, I had to back track and reread to catch it. I love that she says this. I don't know why, but it was just one of those things that made me smile :)

-World building.  I don't usually comment on world building, just because I don't always notice it. It is important but it is not really my main priority. But this book really made me second think that and appreciate a good book with good world building. Since I have never been to Paris, and I really dont know anything about Paris other than Oui and the have the Eifel Tower (a lot like Anna in the beginning of the book!), I really did not have a good solid picture of Paris in my head. And I really enjoyed reading about everything that was around here and learning about some of the history there. 

-Character growth. This is another thing that I don't always notice. I mean if a character starts out whiny and bratty and ends the book the same way I notice, but usually as long as there is a small change I am pretty accepting of whatever I am told. But in this book you really got to see the characters grow and learn about themselves. It was really obvious to me in this book, and it made me love this book so much more. Anna is such a great character and I felt like she was possibly a real person and I would totally be her friend!

-Everything. It was funny, adventurous, made me really feel like I was there. I cant even form coherent thoughts anymore, I should probably take a break because I am getting extra fangirly! 

-Their friendship grows into love. Okay, break was good, I'm a normal person again :) So another thing I really liked (okay loved) about this book was how Anna and Etienne's (I prefer this name to St. Clare) relationship started out as a friendship. It went through all the awkward stages expected in real life, especially since he had a girlfriend. they were friends, then they were awkward and liked each other and it continues to grow until they are best friends and more. To me, this is ideally how relationships should work (minus the gf of course). This growth of their relationship also showed the character growth. 

Things I didn't like about this book:

-Yeah right. I loved this book, everything about it. 

-Lola?  This is not, at all, a complaint or something I didn't like. I just wanted something in this section. But, I kept waiting to meet Lola from the next book and I never did, at least I don't remember meeting her. So I am curious how she is related to the series. Naturally, I would read the book to find out, but I don't get paid until Friday so, yeahhh...

Overall: Not only is this a really fun book that takes place in PARIS, but it is also written really well. I am a terrible writer, all my thoughts are jumbled around (notice the random order of my bullet points above), and I have a very limited vocabulary, so it really does not take much to impress me. Just give me a cute story and I'll enjoy it, written well or not. But this book really makes me feel like I should have higher standards for my books because this has it all. Really, it does. I loved it and you will to! 5 big, bright and shiny stars! 

Have you read Anna and the French Kiss? What did you think about it?

PS- I have an awesome giveaway going through the end of the month! Check it out HERE.