Thursday, February 10, 2011

Book Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Author: Stephanie Perkins
Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Pages: 384
YA/Teens

Book Despcription from author website

Anna and the French Kiss


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.

My Thoughts
Do I dare admit that I liked this book? It is a love story with romance and finding that perfect love while trying to find yourself. The difference in this story is that they backdrop is Paris for these students who have wealthy parents for a variety of reasons that send them to this American boarding school. What a way to spend high school! Independent and on your own.

This book is nothing more than a love story. But a wonderfully written and composed love story. It is funny and hits upon all the elements and drama of growing up and finding that perfect someone. We all know that many times it stares us right in the face and we can never quite have it due to other factors. We have either lived those moments ourselves or watched them on the big screen or on Sex and the City.

I highlighted many key phrases from the novel that I rather enjoyed. They are highlights of funny passages, or a reference to a movie or book that I want to read/view, or a quote that I thought was powerful. A few of these have some minor foul language so please skip if you don't want to read that sort of stuff.

Here are a few of my favorite highlights

Two-point deduction for Paris. Suck on that, Preppy Guy.


What my parents never considered is that I just wanted a choice.
And he’s totally callipygian (look it up, lazy ass).
“Yes. God, you’re right. That was pants.” I sidestep another aggressive couscous vendor. “Pants?” “Rubbish. Crap. Shite
Words are engraved in the stone around it: POINT ZÉRO DES ROUTES DE FRANCE. “Mademoiselle Oliphant. It translates to ‘Point zero of the roads of France.’ In other words, it’s the point from which all other distances in France are measured.” St. Clair clears his throat. “It’s the beginning of everything.”
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
I’m jittery. It’s like the animatronic band from Chuck E. Cheese is throwing a jamboree in my stomach.
Why is it that the right people never wind up together? Why are people so afraid to leave a relationship, even if they know it’s a bad one?
I wish friends held hands more often, like the children I see on the streets sometimes. I’m not sure why we have to grow up and get embarrassed about it.

“The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.”

This is a top read for me. It does fill my lovestory quota for the year at one, but it was well worth it. Stephanie has earned herself a male fan. I can only believe that this book will be in the hands of many many teen girls because it is right up their alley and provides them with things that they can relate to and also dream of. In the end don't we all love a perfect love story?

This book is going in my top reads of 2011. This is one that lived up to all the hype I read about on the blogs. It is hard to live up to the hype sometimes. This one delivers.

All quotes were highlighted on my iPad Kindle App which I LOVE!!!!!!

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