Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss 

Author: Stephanie Perkins
Pages: 372 Pages
Publisher: Dutton
Released: December 2nd 2010
Age Group: Young Adult (12-18)
Book Source: Received (?)
Award(s): Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author, Young Adult Fiction (2010)


      Anna. Living in Atlanta, eager for her crush to love her back,  ready to live up her senior year with her best friend. Much to her dismay she her father is shipping her off to boarding school. French boarding school, with its abundance of rich kids, who have known each other at least since freshman year. Yeah, Great. America was great but France, ugh. That was before Etienne St. Clair. St. Clair. Super Foxy, Super Sweet, Super Yummy, and most definitely Super Taken. Anna is also dedicated to her boy at home. But the chemistry is undeniable. Delicious. Sweet. Confusing. As the seasons change, so do Anna's feelings. After oh-so-many 'almosts' will she ever get the kiss she has been longing for? The kiss haunting her dreams? The kiss from the boy she CAN'T be in love with?


      Oh. Mah. Gawsh. I have no idea why I took so long to join the Anna parade. I have always read raving reviews of it but never had enough courage, (or just never felt like it) to pick it up. Oh boy, do I regret that. This book completed my life, for a day at least. It was like a Sarah Dessen novel with the obvious romance, without the obvious plot. This book always had me guessing.

     As for throughout reading this (AWESOME) novel, I was team Etienne all the way baby. All the freaking way... I would cheer him on and boo when it didn't work out. As for Anna, she was predictably unpredictable. She was a normal teenage girl with horrifying moodswings. You could never expect what was going to happen next. Anna would be a fun best friend, she was so independent. To be honest she was oblivious to the fact I wanted to punch her, several times in fact. But I love to feel the emotion with the characters, and this book was no exception. I absolutely loved it.

      Stephanie Perkins. She is an ideal novelist and creates such a cute world for her characters to live in- this book lives up to Paris's romance cliche. In my mind without a doubt she created the most perfect imperfect romance with a gorgeous city to host it!
If you haven't read Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Read it. Right. Now. A friendly word of advice, if there is a book everyone loves and you have not read it yet. Read it, most likely it is wonderful. People don't love books because they suck. They love books because they rock!

      However I ordered this book on amazon... and it was signed copy, and I treasure it greatly!


      Personally I believe this book deserves all the hype it got- and lived up to my great expectations. Personally I would love getting lost in Paris, France with a Foxy-Foxy boy. I quite frankly, wouldn't mind!!

“The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.”

“Boys turns girls into such idiots.”

“I wish friends held hands more often, like the children I see on the streets sometimes. I'm not sure why we have to grow up and get embarrassed about it.”

“Why is it that the right people never wind up together? Why are people so afraid to leave a relationship, even if they know it's a bad one?”

― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

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Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

RELEASE DATE: September 29th, 2011
PUBLISHER: Dutton
PAGES: 338
AGE GROUP: 15+
GENRE: Romance
RECOMMENDED FOR: People who enjoyed Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Stay by Deb Caletti, and Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
SEQUEL TO: Anna and the French Kiss
RATING: 4 Stars out of 5 Stars

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.-GOODREADS

Cricket Bell. Forget Etienne; this guy is my type. Smart, funny, nerdy, shy. European guys are so out of style now. The ones you really want are the boys at home, especially the ones right next door.

Lola and the Boy Next Door is its own exuberant costume-panniers, stays, wigs, and all. It's unexpected, sweet, and a charming story set in the lovely background of San Francisco, California. The romance is to die for, and references to Anna and the French Kiss made me want to squeal.

My favorite part of this story was Lola. What kind of girl was she? Blind, maybe. Brunette, so so. But Lola? All the way; especially when she wants to wear something like a Mary Antoinette costume with a wig and combat boots to her Winter Formal. At first, she wants to go with her boyfriend Max, five years her senior to her young age of seventeen, when the family next door-the Bells-move back in, and she has to search deep within herself to reconcile the feelings she's had with Cricket Bell.

Especially if that means awesome fashion (oops, I meant costume.) I know SO many people who would love this book just for the fabulous clothing.

The only thing I really have to complain about Lola was the voice. Stephanie Perkins was so good at Anna-sarcastic, funny, and breathtakingly captain obvious. But Lola? Her voice never really breaks out in a true, unique way, and I like the difference between her and Anna, but I needed some laughs.

And-okay, maybe there's one other thing-the romance. Just so... so.... so.... well, I don't know. That's the thing. The romance was already there, but someone needed to act on it, whereas in Anna and the French Kiss, the romance built and was created. You don't see a lot of that development here. And in Anna, Perkins managed to be romantic without getting chaste, but here, there's a lot of mention of those kinds of scenes, if you know what I mean.

Nonetheless, Lola and the Boy Next Door makes me want to dress up in a renaissance dress and march to my school dance. And maybe meet a boy named Cricket on the way. (Grasshopper will do too. Praying Mantis? Maybe.) Whatever happens, I want the next book of these companion novels to come out, and I WILL read it, no matter what.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Release Date: December 2nd, 2010
Publisher: Dutton
Pages: 372
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: Borrowed (onceuponawanderer.blogspot.com)
Format: Hardcover (signed!)


Mon oh gawd. (That's French for, oh my gawd, but Google Translate is never one to trust.) Where has this romance book been all my life? It's the bestest blend of breakfast crepes, romance, the eiffel tower, romance, vintage theaters, romance, and did I mention, PARIS! Yep, if you didn't get this from the title, Anna just HAS to move to Paris to go to a boarding school where she meets the handsome-est person in the world: Etienne St. Clair, who was born in America, raised in London, and has a French name. But here's the catch-he already has a girlfriend. And thus begins a journey of humor, hair-raising heights, the occasional sleepover, and the best part is the eccentric romantic duo that Anna and Etienne create in Anna and the French Kiss. 
Stephanie Perkins is so good at breaking the stereotypical 'muscular, tall, six-pack dude'; St. Clair is a guy that Anna describes as short, sometimes pasty, and always funny. Scratch that. Not always. Nope, in this book, there's actually some bickering scenes, and they make you boo at Anna and St. Clair with an intensity that you've probably been holding up from all those other 'eternal love we'll never fight paranormal fantasies." 

And she knows so much about Paris! Before, I was like, Italy for vacation of course after I graduate, but now I'm like: if I meet a guy named Etienne St. Claire on the way, I might just stay in France. Hee hee! 

And Anna-I LOVE Anna. The author has created such an amazing voice for her that I wanted to laugh at every page turn. Usually when I'm immersed in a book, I truly am deep under-I never laugh out loud, I never cry, and I don't stand up for hours straight. But here, I was chuckling, like, at every word. 

I can't believe I was so late to the Anna and the French Kiss faze. But I promise you, it hasn't died out yet, and it probably won't for years to come. 

(P.S Have you noticed how many series there are these days? I am so glad to have a book like Anna and the French Kiss where you can just kick back and not worry about getting the next or the next or the next book in the series. But I am excited to read Lola and the Boy Next Door. Are you?)