Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss, #1)

by Stephanie Perkins

“Stephanie Perkins’s characters fall in love the way we all want to, in real time and for good.” -Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Anna can’t wait for 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 when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her crush back home. Will a year of romantic near-misses end in the French kiss Anna awaits?

• ISBN10: 0593857178
• ISBN13: 9780593857175
• Publish Date: 2 April 2024 (first published 1 December 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593857175

Reviews

[writehollydavis]

Super cute and heartfelt contemporary romance filled with drama and swoonworthy moments! I enjoyed the characters and plot, and it gave me the same enjoyment and vibes as To All the Boys. I'm looking forward to checking out the other books in the series!

[Cocktails and Books]

3 3 3 Etienne!

[vagasker]

I forgot to shelf this one as read since I was on holiday and just picked up the next one without bothering to go on Goodreads. The reason I am telling this is because I already forgot specific details about this book. This shows that this book (eventhough I did enjoy it) wasn't really that impactful. Nothing really special or interesting happened, but it was perfect as a summer read when I don't want my brain to work and I just want to read something meaningless but fun.

[kymmiejournals]

Anna is a good example of a classy lady! She didn't put her emotions first when St. Clair is having a rough time with his parents and girlfriend. I love St. Clair, the way he was physically described in the book makes him a perfect example of a "Prince Charming". I hope there's a film adaptation!

[Stephanie]

I needed this book. It was cute, and adorable, and soooo French. Now, I just want macarons.

[Sam@WLABB]

This was adorable. I loved the slow build to the final prize, and I really appreciate that even without an epilogue (I am an epilogue whore), Perkins gave us a HUGE peek into the future of Anna and St. Clair. An added bonus for me -- taking a tour of Paris with the kids. I visited several years ago, and loved the visual Perkins supplied.

[Leigha]

A high school senior gets shipped off to boarding school and finds Paris to indeed be the city of love.

I absolutely adored the Paris setting. The author did an amazing job describing the scenery and personality of the city. And that's about all I enjoyed with this book...

All the elements were there for a wonderful story - engaging setting, interesting characters, surprising twists. However, I really could not enjoy the romance between Anna and St. Clair. He's in a romantic relationship for the majority of the book despite the very obvious attraction he has with Anna. Instead of respecting his girlfriend or Anna, he continues his relationship with both until he finally breaks up with his girlfriend. I'm sorry, but emotional cheating IS STILL CHEATING. To me, he completely and utterly failed as a romantic lead. Sorry cheater, you need to be alone for a while before attempting to be in any relationship with anybody.

Along with the romance, there was a surprising amount of girl hate in this book. Anna feels jealousy and anger toward her supposed close friends because of their relationship to other guys. While I appreciate Anna finally learning to let go of the hate to embrace her friendships, it saddened me that we really didn't get to see a healthy female friendship in the narrative. I guess it is not surprising considering I didn't see a healthy romantic relationship in the narrative either. I have no interest in reading the companion novels.

tl;dr A well-written novel with cheating and girl hate in spades. Truly disappointing.

[Angie]

Anna and the French Kiss was my first YA novel after Twilight, and I'm happy to report that I still super adored it four years later! Anna is not happy about being sent to Paris for her senior year of high school. She has to leave her friends, her family, and she doesn't even speak the language for goodness sake! But once there, Anna makes new friends, including Etienne, whom she immediately starts crushing on, but won't pursue because he has a girlfriend. Can girls and guys just be friends in the most romantic city in the world? Probably not.

Anna and the French Kiss just makes me smile. I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy it as much the second time around, but that simply wasn't true. I still adored Anna and her awkwardness around Etienne. I found all of her fears and bumbles and drama totally believable. I mean, who wasn't a mess at 17?! Etienne did frustrate me with his back and forth, but I get it. It's a weird situation to be in, and I doubt most people would have handled it any better at that age. The drama does get a little out of control near the end, but teenage hormones are flying everywhere. I'm just glad everyone made it out unscathed!

Anna and the French Kiss is a quick, feel good read. Yes, I still think the plot is totally cheesy, but it worked! I loved how Anna and Etienne started off as friends, then moved into some questionable territory where neither one of them really knew how to act around the other, and then finally moving into the love stage. It's so nice to see a young couple get to know each other before they start declaring ever lasting love. The one thing that did bother me was that we don't get anything about Anna and Bridgett making up. That's kind of left dangling, and I felt like friendships were an important theme of the story, so I would have liked to have seen some resolution there.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Bianca]

I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

[melanchalina]

Любители романтики и душевных переживаний прекрасных дев не проходите мимо. Здесь есть все, что вам понравится, и что вы ищите в книгах такого рода. Любовная история на фоне прекрасного Парижа, что может быть лучше?

Мне понравилась «Анна и французский поцелуй», даже очень. Хотя должна признать недостатков в ней предостаточно, и были моменты, которые я действительно НЕНАВИДЕЛА.

Но начнем сначала.
Книга начинается с переезда Анны во Францию и того, как она вливается в обстановку, знакомится с новыми людьми и по-настоящему узнает Францию. И влюбляется. Этьен Сент-Клер прекрасный, беззаботный и умный молодой юноша, в которого влюблены практически все девочки школы. Тот в кого влюбляется Анна (хотя сама она утверждает обратное). Есть лишь одно НО… девушка Сент-Клера.

В книге хорошо показана борьба героини с самой с собой, ее понимание того, что она поступает неправильно. Анна не хочет терять дружбу с Этьеном, не хочет кому-то переходить дорогу и быть камнем преткновения в чужих отношениях. Но она не может бороться со своими собственными чувствами. И все это с каждым днем все запутаннее и запутаннее.

Мне нравился период дружбы между героями. Я вообще люблю тему дружбы между парнем и девушкой (да я в нее верю). То как весело и беззаботно герои проводили вместе время. Мне нравились романтические искорки между ними. Герои были очаровательными, Париж был прекрасен, а повествование легким и забавным.

В книге поднимаются самые обычные подростковые проблемы, а герои совершают ошибки, которые знакомы многим… и это делает книгу весьма реальной и настоящей. Но в книге были моменты, которые я не могла принять.

Я НЕНАВИЖУ любовные треугольники с двумя девушками и одним парнем. Я прекрасно понимаю, что это распространенная вещь в реальной жизни, да. Но, черт возьми я не люблю о таком читать. Я терпеть не могу парней, изменяющих своим девушкам, неважно морально или физически. Если не любишь, если не хочешь быть с человеком – отпусти его, не дари ему ложную надежду, не насилуй сам себя. И да… героиня немного раздражала. Она слишком много себя жалела, придумывала проблемы на пустом месте (как например заказ еды в школьной столовой) и порой высказывала претензии на пустом месте. Я не люблю таких девушек.

Но честно говоря, я смирилась с этими недостатками и вскоре перестала их замечать. Наверное потому что автор дал достойное объяснение всему этому.

Моя оценка: 8/10