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

by Stephanie Perkins

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 Etienne St. Clair: 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?

• ISBN10: 0525423273
• ISBN13: 9780525423270
• Publish Date: 2 December 2010 (first published 1 December 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: E P Dutton & Co Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525423270

Reviews

[Kelly]

Ramblings of a Diva Booknerd

This book was adorable! As cute as a button. It was funny, and beautifully written. If you've always wanted to see the city of love, Stephanie Perkins takes us on a journey to see the sights of Paris.
If you love sweet, innocent but quirky romantic comedies, you'll fall in love with Anna and the French Kiss.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Anna and the French Kiss is a really fun and romantic read, combining all the right elements to build an atmosphere that will make readers swoon.  It has a romantic setting (Paris), an attractive and caring love interest (Etienne), and a relateable narrator (Anna). It also takes place in a boarding school—where the characters have the freedom to build relationships that are closer than at a normal public high school.

Behind the romantic daydream setting, however, there is a strong story populated by realistic characters who learn real life lessons.  Anna’s voice is a great combination of kindness, humor, and teen bitterness (created when she is sent away from home).  She sounds alternately mature and young depending on her circumstances, as all teenagers do; Perkins nails the adolescent voice and experience of being caught between childhood and adulthood.  Anna experiences real homesickness and awkwardness in a foreign country, and the book is as much about her personal growth into culture and confidence as it is about her budding romantic relationships.  Beside her is a great cast of friends—artsy, athletic, funny, and angry in turn.  Together they figure out that friendship might not be always easy, but that they can make it work.

The romance, while certainly swoon-worthy, can also teach young readers how to build good relationships.  Things are tough in Anna and the French Kiss.  Etienne is not attractive because he has a girlfriend and is off-limits; he is just a guy who is handsome and good and kind and happens to be off-limits.  All the characters do their best to respect that, but, as in real life, things get tricky when someone is still in a relationship but beginning to be interested in someone else.  Important questions arise, such as When should you break up?  And how much interest in another person counts as cheating?  As teens—as humans—the characters struggle with these issues, but Perkins allows the characters to address them seriously and she herself treats them with thought and care.

Anna and the French Kiss is a delicious, yet thought-provoking read.  It is the perfect combination of fantastical romantic situations (a boarding school in Paris!) and teenage reality.  This is not a romance with issues tossed in to make it “serious.”  It is a romance where issues occur naturally because the characters are human, but where the characters learn to deal with them as best they can and still find their happily-ever-after.

[Jyc]

★★★★ // enjoyable teen flick, and it helps that it made me think of Wild Child.

[boghunden]

3,5*

Let me just put it this way: St. Clair. I liked him. I loved him. I liked him. I thought he was a fool. I liked him again.

Young love...there's nothing like it. Such a happy book, but the characters didn't really grow on me... :/

[ellieroth]

Más vale tarde que nunca, aquí viene la reseña de “Un Beso en París” (y no vuelvo a buscar "French Kiss" nunca más en ningún lado)
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.
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Reseña completa: El Extraño Gato del Cuento: Un Beso en París

[rakesandrogues]

Review posted at Muggle-Born.net

First of all, what's with all the good books I'm reading lately? To find a five-star book is practically a miracle and to read two in the same week is just impossible! I can't believe I'm saying it, but ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS, is a book worth its five-star rating - my second one this week and the nth 5-star rating the book has received. There was just so much hype about this book that I thought it was too good to be true. I read a handful of reviews all saying the same thing and I had to see for myself just how fantastic this book was. I was not disappointed.

One of the reasons that I enjoyed this book so much was because Anna was just so easy to relate to. I saw myself in her shoes so many times throughout the book. Despite the fact that she is in high school, her experience of being alone for the first time reflected a bit of my hesitations when I finally moved into my dorm at college. (Minus the language barrier, of course.) I couldn't help but feel that Anna is just like me while reading.

And don't let me get started on the romance. Banter, tension, the most romantic city in the world... The romance had a great build-up; it was very well developed which made it realistic. This book has everything I want in a great romance. Etienne St. Claire is definitely one of my favorite fictional male characters. What's not to love about him? He has a British accent for crying out loud!

Furthermore, ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS has given me an appreciation for Paris. It was never one of my contenders for a study abroad program but that has changed. I want to see for myself the culinary delights as described in the book. Paris sounds like a magical city and I want to visit and learn more about the culture.

Stephanie Perkins is such a great writer. Her writing is fun and addictive. Once you start, you just have to devour the book like a yummy macaroon. ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you want to hop on the next plane to Paris. She's definitely one of the best new voices in YA and I cannot wait for her next book.

[Stephanie]

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is probably hands down the best young adult novel that I’ve read this year. The whole book was just full of awesome. Anna is going to a pretentious school for American students in Paris…against her will. Anna would rather stay in Atlanta with the people she knows and loves. Anna’s convinced she’s going to be tossed into the midst of a bunch of snotty, preppy teens who have known each other for years. What Anne hasn’t taken into consideration is that the other students are more or less in the same situation she’s in.

The group that adopts Anna is filled with some great characters. They have their inside jokes but seem genuine towards Anna. Her classes aren’t too bad. The best and worst thing that happens to Anna in Paris is St. Clair. Etienne St. Clair is forbidden fruit. Not only does he have a girlfriend but if he didn’t Mer would be next in line…if you followed the laws of teenage girlhood.

Watching Etienne and Anna trying to maintain a friendship when both would clearly like to be more induces all those feelings from high school. The ones where if you looked at a boy you were crushing on at the time and it felt like a cage of butterflies had been released just for the nearness of that person? Yeah. I’d say reading Anna and the French Kiss feels just like that.

If you haven’t read Anna and the French Kiss yet, you need to. This book was written to appeal to a vast audience. It is one of those books not to be missed!

[Kelsenator]

Originally posted on my blog Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf.

One thing I have to say about this book first, is it was the perfect thing I needed right now. It had me smiling and laughing the whole time. I actually had to stop reading it on the bus because people were giving me weird looks.

Anna gets sent to Paris for her final year of high school by her dad, who is a cheesy novel writer and thinks this is the perfect thing for her. Upon arriving she’s feeling alone, abandoned by her family, but then her neighbor Meredith welcomes her right away. She starts to make friends thanks to her; Josh and his girl Rashim, and the gorgeous Étienne.

She already starts to fall for him a bit, but he of course has a girlfriend, who is at college now. As the school year goes on, she tours the city of Paris, becomes best friends with Étienne, and continues with her love of the cinema. Then of course the drama begins. Her best friend has been hiding something from her, she has confused emotions about how she feels for Étienne especially since he already has someone, and there are other students spreading rumours about her.

This is one book I was not expecting to be so good, it just had me engaged the whole time. I loved Anna, and I could feel what she was going through the whole time because it was written so well. There were a few moments where I even wanted to cry with her.

This is the perfect contemporary and romance book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to read something of those genres, and anyone who wants to try something new and fun.

[notajammiedodger]

First Read: April 2012

I absolutely loved this book. Right from the first page the story drew me in. I loved St Clair immediately, I mean, how could you not :P
Anna was a fantastic character, she was funny and her thoughts constantly had me laughing or smiling. All of Anna's new friends in Paris were funny and fun to read about.
Can't wait to read Lola. I just bought it for my Kindle.

[journalingirl]

This is my second favorite book of 2011. I absolutely love it. Which makes me question, why don't I own a copy of this book?