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?

My blog is about crushing on the inky goodness in the world - and if there's one book you can crush on - Anna and the French Kiss would be it.

Anna and the French Kiss easily leaps straight onto my sacred top Young Adult books of all time list. It pretty much is my perfect reading experience and everything I hope for in book:

• It's completely charming and utterly fun.
• It's hilarious, smashingly brilliant dialogue, grin worthy moments and laugh-out loud goodness.
• Characters that are flawed, 3 dimensional, that you want to hang out with. A rich cast surrounds the main characters, all uniquely drawn and portrayed. I love these guys.
• A setting that you feel immersed in. Scenes that you want to be in.
• Alongside the fun and the charm and the swoon-worthy goodness, there's depth and sorrow and a richness that makes your heart swell and ache and hope for the characters. There's some tear jerking moments in there.
• There's moments where you hold your breath and hope hope hope the story is going where you want it to. 
• The plot feels organic and true.
• The romance will have you swooning and crushing hard without cringing :)
• It's ridiculously unputdownable and crazily good in general

A closer look at two main characters who I absolutely LOVE:

Anna Oliphant: She's whimsical and slightly OCD. She's dynamic and confident but also unsure. She's fun to hang out with, brave yet scared. She sometimes makes a mess of things despite her best intentions. I ADORED her from the first chapter. No doubt she will soar to the top of 'favourite female characters' lists :)

Etienne St Clair: What a guy, hey. SWOON. He's beautiful and not at all perfect. Charming and sometimes elusive. He's funny and clever and stuffs things up. A lot. He's genuine and dynamic and lights up the pages of any scene he's in. He is a literary crush that will knock all your other crushes off the top of your list.

Fans of contemporary YA should be queuing up to read this book. Those who don't normally read contemporary - this is the perfect introduction.  I am already dying for the next two books Stephanie Perkins has coming out.

It's not out in Australia until January 4 - so save your Christmas money for this one. It's one you will want to have sitting on your bookshelf. It makes me feel good just looking at it. I'm already aching for a re-read.

I abandoned everything once I started reading this book and I did not want it to end.

If I was to compare this book to another, I can't think of what to pair it with. It's a unique blend: not quite as literary as Melina Marchetta (though just as funny and real and ache-y), it's more dynamically paced than Sarah Dessen (and just as lingering and true) and it's not as quirky as  Jaclyn Moriarty (but is whimsical and has that friends you want to hang out with thing down-pat). It's pretty much the perfect blend of YA goodness.

It's an absolute favourite of mine - lovelovelove.


Anna and the French Kiss @ goodreads (check out more reviews - it's not just me who has fallen in love with this book)
Stephanie Perkins really really funky site

Thanks to the lovely people at Penguin Australia for this review copy