Saturday, June 11, 2011

{Review} Anna and the French Kiss 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 Étienne St. Claire: 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?

Title : Anna and the French Kiss 
Author : Stephanie Perkins
Publication : 02nd December 2011
Publisher : Dutton
368 pages

Two companion novels will be published: Lola and the Boy Next Door (29th septembre 2011) and Isla and the Happily Ever After (Fall 2012).

My review

First of all, I must say that the cover of this book is really gorgeous and stunning, I totally love it. As I'd read a lot of positive reviews, I was afraid to be disappointed but Anna and the French Kiss totally deserves it. It has met my expectations and even surpassed it.

Anna and the French Kiss is a brilliant book, it's light, funny and delightful. It's the kind of book that gives you butterflies in your stomach and put you in a good mood. It's one of the loveliest stories I've ever read. It's intense, romantic, sometimes a bit sad but always full of hope.

The characters are really appealing, you can easily relate to them and you'll enjoy following their story. Anna has a lot to cope with, she has to move to a new country, she doesn't know the customs or even the language. As to boys, she's also a bit shy and she'd rather be friend with them than confess her feelings. In fact, she's quite young but also really cute and she reminds me of me a  little.

As for the other characters, yeah I must admit it, I'm adult and happily married but gosh, Etienne made me swoon and I wanted to be 18 years old again and to go to a boarding school just to meet him. He's so charming and sexy and hot. At the end of the book, in the acknowledgments, Stephanie Perkins writes that she frequently asked her husband during writing it : Is the boy hot enough ? My only answer will be Yes, yes and yes again. Etienne is so utterly and freaking hot, sexy and you'll love him.

It's true that for French people there're some clichés but it didn't matter because I was so in the story that I didn't care. Moreover, I'm sure that if I had to write a story in the US there'd certainly be some clichés on American people. But, no, not all Parisians swing by the markets every day to buy fresh fruit and meat and dogs are not that common in stores in France, they're forbidden in the vast majority. As for alcohol we don't have the right anymore to buy alcohol -even wine before 18 years old, but it was true a few years ago, in fact a new law has been made. But it's true that there's no legal age for the consumption (if the alcohol is bought by the parents for instance) and it's still earlier than in the States. However as I said I didn't care because the story was so compelling, perfect and dreamy.

Stephanie Perkins's writing is really smooth and pleasant. It's full of humor, funny and I often laughed. It's not a book full of suspense or mysteries but I nonetheless stayed awake until 3 o'clock in the morning (3:05 AM to be precise) because I wanted to finish it and to know the end. Anna and the French Kiss is also full of touching moments, Stephanie Perkins doesn't avoid more serious themes as illness or difficult family relationships.

To sum up, besides falling in love with St. Clair I really really loved this book which was freaking awesome. It was such a wonderful and delightful read. The feelings are so well described and Anna and the French Kiss made me smile like crazy, laugh a lot and also cry -a little. Now I really can't wait for the next book of Stephanie Perkins. I will definitively preorder Lola and the Boy Next Door and I'm totally looking forward to reading it.

I accept the tissue.
"I'm here." St. Clair is angry. "I'm just sorry I'm not there. With you. I wish there was something I could do."
"Wanna come beat her up for me?"
"I'm packing my throwing stars right now."

Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

12 comments:

  1. Awesome review ;) !!
    I loved this book .. and to be honest I fell in love with St Clair too .. so back off, he's mine. Just kidding :D !! I look forward to read Lola and the Boy Next Door as well !

    I'm so glad you created this blog .. I'd like to post about it on my blog as it's pretty uncommon to have French people who blog in English .. Would you be okay with that ?

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  2. Thank you Elodie, for the comment and for the review :D I agree to share St. Clair if you want to :D I really can't wait for Lola, I've already pre-ordered it (thanks to the 10% at Bookdepository :D)

    As for the post, are you joking ? That would be really really awesome. That's sooo sweet of you, really I'm touched.

    At the moment it's a bit discouraging because even if I try to make reviews regularly traffic and comments are a bit slow :D French people'd rather stay on the French one and English don't know it -yet I hope :D So really that would be fantastic :D

    Thank you so much.

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  3. I'm in looovvve with this book! My favorite! =D
    En fait, je suis française. Mais je lis plutôt les blogs en anglais. =) Je trouve que ce que tu fais est courageux. Peut être que je me mettrais à écrire en anglais moi aussi. (Yaurait peut être plus de monde sur mon blog )
    Bonne Journée!

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  4. Thank you NeuroHormone :D Je ne sais pas pour le blog lol Pour l'instant c'est un peu décourageant, il n'y a pas grand monde qui visite ou qui commente :D Par rapport à mon blog en français c'est sans comparaison :D Mais bon ça va peut-être venir, j'espère mdr. Ou alors c'est que j'écris tellement mal en anglais qu'ils fuient mdr

    Bonne journée à toi également et je te souhaite de belles lectures :)

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  5. Je commente rarement les blogs perso, mais je te suis :)
    Et oui tu es courageuse de les écrire en anglais tes critiques !
    J'avoue que si je lis en anglais, l'idée d'écrire en anglais me terrorise XD

    En tout cas, merci pour ton avis;) et bon courage for the next reviews ;)

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  6. Merci Nyx pour ton message :D C'est gentil de me suivre ^^ Moi non plus je n'ai pas souvent le temps de commenter :( Mais c'est adorable de me suivre. L'idée a mûrit très lentement :D Pour être honnête j'ai ouvert ce blog en mars et mis en ligne seulement il y a quelques semaines :D Mais je me lance et puis on verra bien si je tiens le rythme ou pas. J'espère que ça m'aidera à progresser.

    Merci beaucoup en tout cas :D A bientôt ^^

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  7. (St Claiiir!! I love him :D)
    This book is amazing, great review :)

    (ce sera une des seules fois où je me la jouerais english, je crois, tu m'en veux pas? j'ai toujours plus de choses à dire en français, lol)

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  8. Thank you L0raah_ :D Nan Nan je ne te veux pas :) Tu peux commenter en français ici aussi ça ne me gène pas tu sais :D mais je suis d'accord St. Claaaiiirrr et puis au moins ça tout le monde comprend :) Merci pour la chronique !

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  9. What a great review! I loved Anna and the French Kiss and can't wait for Lola either! St. Clair is swoonworthy, isn't h? *sigh*

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  10. Thank you Miss Page-Turner for your comment :)

    Yes St. Clair is totally swoonworthy :D Love him :)

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  11. I loved Anna and the French Kiss too! I totally cannot wait for Lola and I heard it was even better than Anna! (I can't believe it!) I wish everyone had their own St. Clair :D

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  12. Thank you page turner paulina for your comment :D

    Gosh if Lola is even better it would be wonderful, but I can't believe it either, Anna was so awesome. Now I really really can't wait :D

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Thanks for stopping by and leaving your mark :D I'm so sorry I really don't have time to answer to everyone right now but I read them all :D