Isla and the Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss, #3)

by Stephanie Perkins

[Nessa Luna]

Last year I read a book called Anna and the French Kiss because I had heard so many great things about it, I had gotten very curious. While the main genre of the book wasn't really my thing, I enjoyed the book a lot and decided I would pick up the second and third book as well. Book two, Lola and the Boy Next Door, wasn't as great as Anna, but this third book picked up a bit in my opinion.

Isla and the Happily Ever After tells the story of Isla Martin, who has had a crush on Josh ever since she can remember. The only problem was that he already had a girlfriend. Until now. What happens next is a whirlwind relationship that could go anywhere. I honestly have to say that I liked this relationship best, because they got together pretty early on in the relationship. With the previous two books, the couples only got together at the end of the story, after flirting with each other for almost the entire book, and that's honestly what I don't like so much about these romance books. So thank you Stephanie for not doing that to me again with this book! (And no this is not a spoiler, it's sort of in the summary already).

Both these characters were already introduced in Anna; we knew Josh because he's St. Clair's best friend, and Isla was mentioned a couple of times in the first book as well (I believe Anna stopped a person who was bullying Isla or something like that). So from Josh's side we didn't need much introduction. Isla, however, was only a cameo in the first book, so we got to know her a bit better in this book. I liked her, but there were some things that bothered me. Like her kind of obsession with Josh throughout the book, even when they were in a relationship. But her friendship with Kurt was great, and I honestly wished there were more male/female friendships in books like that.

The book took place mostly in Paris, at the American school that we read about in Anna, and honestly I wasn't really happy with it. I would have loved a new location, but of course Josh and Isla were still in school and there wasn't really anything we could do about that. I loved their little trip to Barcelona apart from the fact that they basically went there to have sex, after being together for like a month or so? and the holidays spent in America of course.

I have to admit, Isla and Josh's relationship moved fast, perhaps a bit too fast in my eyes. I don't mind them getting together early in the book, but I don't know it kind of felt rushed at some points, so yeah even though they didn't have the typical romance-book relationship, it still wasn't the greatest relationship ever. And when Isla broke up with Josh because of some thing that she'd made up in her head, that bothered me so much. I honestly wouldn't have blamed Josh if he hadn't gotten back together with her at the end.

In the end, I really enjoyed Isla and the Happily Ever After, but honestly I don't think that this book, nor Lola, was as great as the first book. If you love romantic books, and you love Paris, you should definitely pick up this series!

My opinion in one gif: