Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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Synopsis taken from book cover:

Anna was 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.  So she’s less than thrilled about being shipped of to boarding school in Paris – until she meets Étienne St. Clair.  Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all…including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Lights, wishes have a way of coming true.  Will a year of romantic near misses end with their long awaited French kiss?  Stephanie Perkins keeps the romantic tension crackling and the attraction high in a debut guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt.

I admit it.  I am a sucker for romance.  Sure a lot of girls like a little romance in their books.  But I am talking about a book just about romance.  No plots about Shadowhunters fighting evil and mind control (no offense Jace).  No plots about fallen angels trying to sacrifice girls in order to become human (don’t worry Patch, Bel still wants you).  I am talking pure unadulterated romance.  The kind of story where the main plot is about the Boy pursuing the Girl or the Girl crushing on the Boy.   All of it leading up to a smile-inducing ending where the Boy kisses the Girl and they live happily every after (or so we assume).

Anna and French Kiss is THAT book.  It is THAT romance.  It made me think of all my favorite romantic comedies.  Princess Diaries.  Serendipity.  Definitely, Maybe. When Harry Met Sally (yes I am dating myself). The movies I don’t mind watching over and over again because they make me happy.  Positively giddy.

Stephanie Perkins does an amazing job of building the tension between Anna and St. Clair.  Her simple descriptions such as legs accidentally brushing each other in a darkened movie theater will set your book on fire.  Quick, make sure you put that fire out though because the story is just getting started.  We suffer with Anna and St. Clair for an entire school year of mistakes and misunderstandings that keeps them apart.  All the time wondering, is this it?  Is it finally going to happen? 

And as much as I enjoyed the romance in this book there were a myriad of other things to love.  Such as:

• Anna’s growth as she maneuvers through her senior year at a new school, in a new country, with no immediate familial support.

• Anna’s new friends.  These aren’t token friends added to the story just because.  They are wonderfully developed characters that you learn to love as they take Anna under their wings.

• The laugh out loud moments.  Anna’s internal dialogue often had me laughing hysterically.  She is wonderfully dry.  I don’t know that anyone else could make me laugh at the following sentence  “Trousers.  Honestly.”  And yes, the exchanges between Anna and her friends were also hilarious at times.  Let’s not even mention some of the funny exchanges between her and St. Clair.

• Never have I been happier to hear a girl call a guy an asshole.  Won’t tell you who, what, when, where or why.  But it was fitting and it was deserved.

• I learned a new word that I will now use regularly…Callipygian.  Seriously, look this up.  It’s fabulous.

• And most importantly, how can I not love a book where a group of friends bond over crepes and Girl Scout cookies?  This is Bibliojunkie heaven.

Really, I could go on and on.  I enjoyed it that much.  I haven’t had many happy reads lately and to me this was a happy read.  So go!  Go now.  To your local bookstore or library, either one.  Just go and pick up this book.  In the end you will be smiling and will be happy that you listened to me.

~Nat