Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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?

Reviewed by Angie on

4 of 5 stars

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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.

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