Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Summary: 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?

Review: Last year I pretty much heard, "blah blah blah READ ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS!" Well I finally did, and I was pleasantly surprised. I worded it like that because I don't read a lot of comtemps, and I assumed Anna was going to be a lot of some random girl kissing some random French guys. I loved the way Stephanie developed the story. Anna wasn't annoying the way I thought she was going to be. I think the reason why she didn't obsess over Toph the way she probably would have is because she was in Paris, and he wasn't around. I liked that. It gave us the chance to get to know Anna with a minimal amount of male influence. St. Clair was a sweet guy, but some things he did bothered me. I think he needed to grow up a lot during this book, and I was pleased to see him do so. I saw a definite change between the St. Clair at the beginning and the Etienne at the end. I don't know if I have a favorite character or not. All of the characters seemed good, but none of them stood out enough for me.

I think the story was adorable. It wasn't a girl drooling over the first guy she met. It was a girl developing a friendship and then acknowledging her love for this friend. Personally, that is how I like my love stories. There was a moment when I thought Anna was getting a little creepy obsessed, and that's when it looked like things might heat up between Anna and St. Clair. That didn't last very long so I wasn't too bothered by it. Overall, an adorable read that deserves the hype it's getting.

5 howls