Anna And The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: Review

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

When Was It Released?:  2nd Decemeber 2010
Where Did I Get It From?: The Library
Who Published It?: Dutton Publishing
   Number Of Pages: 372 Pages 

Anna and The French Kiss is a book that I have heard so much about. Everyone seems to love the novel and I have been recommended this book by so many people I have lost count. Many times when a book has so much hype surrounding it, I find that it is never able to live up to it and I end up disappointed., so, I put this book off until I could not take it anymore! Let me tell you this book did everything but disappoint.

Anna is sent to Paris to attend boarding school, which she is less than thrilled about. She loves her life in her hometown of Atlanta with her best friend and her almost-boyfriend. Anna feels lonely and an outcast in Paris, that is until she meets St Clair, an irresistible guy with a cute English accent. There’s just one problem St Clair is already taken and in a relationship with his long term girlfriend.

I’m unsure where to even begin with how much I love Anna and The French Kiss. This novel had everything I love to read about filling the pages. I picked this up and could not put it down, it literally had to be dragged out of my hand at one point just so I could go to sleep. This is such a beautifully written contemporary YA novel, I was swept away with the pages and Stephanie Perkin’s writing style. I loved the setting of Paris for this novel, it was almost like a character in itself. The description was so well done that at times I felt as though I really was in Paris along with Anna and her friends. I love Paris, so any novel that can transport me there within the pages gets major bonus points from me.

I loved Anna as a character, finding her to be so relatable. She is awkward yet surprisingly likeable at the same time. Many girls will be able to relate to her, and the feelings she has during her time in Paris, because she is just your average girl. She is also very intelligent, which I loved about her, as it shows girls can do well in school and still be interested in boys at the same time. She is hilarious yet far from perfect which makes her seem much more real as a character. I also fell in love with St Clair (Etienne), again for his flaws and imperfections. He is just a normal guy and does not pretend to be anything that he is not. Even though Anna and St Clair, are my favourite characters, all of the characters with in the novel are beautifully written and memorable in their own ways.

There was one thing above all else that I loved about Anna and The French Kiss and that was the romance. I felt as though Stephanie Perkins created the romance between Anna and St Clair perfectly. I truly believed in their feelings for one another and their relationship throughout the novel, without any sense of doubt at all. I was willing the two to get together the whole way through the novel. I just wish they had been able to show their true feelings to each other sooner. I believe that the romance was so good because it was built up and not rushed into, it was built on a friendship and that is what makes me swoon over it so much. I want a relationship like theirs!

I honestly do not think I have loved a novel as much as I love Anna and The French Kiss. I want to read this all over again, right now! It is such a cute, beautiful, feel good novel which will grip hold of you and not let go until long after you have finished the last page. Anna and The French Kiss is like a hot, frothy, comforting hot chocolate that you will want to curl up with and savour for hours. I will definatly be buying a copy for my bookshelf, as well as Stephanie Perkins latest novel Lola and the Boy Next Door, and reccomend that you do too!