Friday, December 3, 2010

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

21 comments:

  1. Brilliant, brilliant review! You captured everything that is swoon-worthy and crushable about Anna. And I agree I couldn't think of a writer to compare her too either, she is one of a kind :) I simply can not wait to meet Lola and Isla.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So many good reviews of this book are popping up in the blogosphere! I WANTS it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perfect review. I love it almost as much as I loved ANNA. I know--just looking at the cover makes me smile. :) Man, you said it all. The list seems to be a popular format for ANNA reviews. I'm sure all these positive reviews will convince even the hesitant reader to give this one a go.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing review! I agreed with every single word, especially this one:

    "Scenes that you want to be in."

    Dude! I want to move to Paris for a year :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amazing review! I agreed with every single word, especially this one:

    "Scenes that you want to be in."

    Dude! I want to move to Paris for a year :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely review, been hearing lots of great things about this one. I hope to get it soon!

    ReplyDelete
  7. sounds great, i love YA romance.
    added bonus that i actually like the character that has my name. i usually hate them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awesome review Nomes! The character sound brilliant and well I can always do with another literary crush.

    I can't wait to get my hands on this.

    ReplyDelete
  9. After reading that review, I *know* I will love this book. I've been a little torn between the fact that everyone seems to love it and the fact that while I like the premise, I'm not exactly sure what it is that appeals so much about it. But, your review: wow. Bring it on!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Now this is a crushy review if I ever saw one. I have had my eye on this mainly for the setting, and it reminds me of one of my favorite Meg Ryan movies French Kiss, so I guess I will just have to go out and get this one like now since your review is so enthusiastically convincing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Like I said on Goodreads, thanks to your review, this book is now on my wishlist!
    Thanks, Nomes!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Okay, you've convinced me - I just ordered this despite having a massive to-read pile already!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I need to head to the bookstore ASAP to grab my copy! Everyone seems to be raving about ANNA!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm so, so crushing on your review. This is perfection. My favourite review to date.
    Been looking forward to this book. Now I just can't wait =D

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey Nomes! Just wanted let you know that I reviewed the trailer you suggested a while back ... it was really cool! Here's the link:

    http://the-open-vein-ejwesley.blogspot.com/2010/12/trailer-talk-book-trailer-reviews.html

    ReplyDelete
  16. YES, you've pinned down every reason for why this book is amazing! I love this review! :D

    And this is slightly off-topic but I saw that you reviewed HANDCUFFS and I went to read that review. I knew about the book before but reading yours thoughts on it has me dying to read it now. WOOT!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I haven't read the book, but I did read the article which does make a lot of sense. Thanks for the review!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh, I just KNOW I'm going to love this book. Your review is so brilliant, I'm dying to read it right now, haha. I'm such a fan of contemporary YA, and this sounds so, so perfect for me.

    Writer-me also kind of wants to dissect how she's put together this brilliance. I haven't seen a single negative review of it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Fabulous review! I can't wait to read this one, every review I've read has been stellar, yours included. I love a book that can make me laugh and one that has beautifully imperfect characters. Thanks so much for your thoughts on this one, I'm a new follower to your blog and really enjoyed reading them!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the review, I might have to read this book.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for the commenty love :)