Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's not too pleased when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new friends, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best
friend. Unfortunately, he's taken--and Anna might be too.
Will a year of romantic near misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for?
Having this book as a book I've been wanting to read for nearly a decade, I was almost afraid that it wouldn't meet my expectations. Thankfully, not only did it meet my expectations but I actually feel like it exceeded them.
I was once told that Anna and the French Kiss was the very embodiment of YA contemporary and I agree full-heartedly. The one word that kept repeating in my mind was 'cute'. It was so darn cute. Perkins found a way to teleport me back to my thirteen year old, preteen, self. I was gushing and blushing with each scene and each sentence. Etienne St. Clair found his way into my heart and I found such a relate-able character in Anna.
All the characters were their own people. I didn't feel like there were any unnecessary filler characters that didn't have their own personalities. The characters we were supposed to like were so like-able and the antagonists were so hate-able. It really made you feel every emotion that Perkins was trying to convey. I wanted to cry in sad scenes and I felt loved in romantic ones.
In the first two chapters, I distinctly remember being reluctant about the story. I wasn't used to Perkins' style of writing and the perspective given by Anna and for a second, I thought it was too childish. However, after I passed chapter three and throughout the rest of the novel, I not only got used to it but I loved it. It is reading the mind of a teenage girl and the story would not be the same with a different writing style.
One thing I did notice, however, was the predictability of some events. Not all and certainly not the most important outcomes, I would say. But little side stories, I think it was easy to tell what would happen before it was announced. The announcements, you could tell, wanted to shock the reader but it was easy to see from chapters away. However, since that is not including the main storyline between Anna and St. Clair, which in my opinion, was foggy until the very end, I don't think it was much of a downfall.
The pace of the story was perfect. I felt that we saw just enough of a relationship forming and life in Paris. It wasn't so slow that it felt boring and dragged on and it wasn't so fast that it felt cheesy and unrealistic. Any and all relationships in the book had a clear formation and lifeline.
Each chapter started and ended on such high notes that all I wanted to do was to keep reading. Its the reason I finished this book in just two days. There was no unnecessary parts added to make the book longer, everything was interesting and needed.
Overall, I found myself not wanting the book to end. I struggled between wanting to keep reading because I enjoyed it so much and not wanting to read so that the book would last me longer.
Was Anna and the French Kiss overdramatic at times and just a little cliche? Yes! But that's what I loved about it and that's why I was so excited to start reading it. In fact, finding a deeper meaning on the meaning of home and family in what I thought would just be a romantic YA novel just pleasantly surprised me and added more to the list of why this book was so good.
I don't think I'll ever forget this story or Etienne St. Clair.
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