Anna and the French Kiss

Audio Book

I have to admit that this has been on my list for a while. Yes, it caught my attention. Yes, the cover is cute and the description interesting enough. But no, I was not in a hurry to read a YA chic lit/contemporary. Adult chic lit/contemporaries have no issues with. Mostly. However, I am always weary about YA chic lit/contemporaries because when you are my age you kind of lose the patience to deal with some of the off the wall things these kids do. You know, doing things they and everyone with a brain know they shouldn't do but because they are teens they get permission to just do it anyway. NO. No patience for that behavior especially since I didn't behave that way at that age. However, I thought that I would bump this one up on my list after attending a workshop where the author of this book spoke. She didn't really talk about her book but more about the genre. At any rate, she was extremely smart, down to Earth and cool! It was the push I needed to bump her book up on that TBR list. I'm glad I did.

It's Anna's senior year in high school and she has just been shipped off to Paris, France to attend a boarding school for American children. She's never been to France, doesn't know the language, doesn't know anyone and didn't want to be there to begin with. She is forced to start over and to be self-reliant whether she likes it or not.

I thought this book was extremely cute. It was a fast paced, light read and for the most part, very believable. You felt as if you were in France and could vividly see the streets of Paris and all its loveliness. All of the characters were well developed and you knew exactly what to expect from them. I grew to like all the likable characters and not so much the nasty characters. There always has to be at least one; there were a few in this one. There was the dreaded love triangle in this book but not too bad. I liked the friendship that blossomed between Anna and Etienne aka St. Clair aka Etienne St. Clair and how they dealt with their communication issues.

I won't lie, something happens between Anna and her best friend back home and although it might have been the presumed adult thing to do as an adult I would have NOT handled it the same way. LOL There is such a thing as GIRL CODE/WOMAN CODE/BESTIE CODE! COME ON! Something else that bugged me a bit was that we really don't get a clear justification from Anna's dad or his reasoning for sending her abroad senior year.

All in all it was a perfect coming of age, coming into your own, moving one step closer to adulthood read.

I must mention that the reader of this audio-book did a great job but could have worked on her English/British accent a bit better. :-)

Much respect to you Ms. Stephanie P. for writing the book YOU wanted to write and not what the industry dictated you write.

So, I heard a lot of great things about this book. From people much younger than me. Who really like cutesy-cliche-love stories. And it was exactly that. Cutesy. Cliche. And some french kissing in France.

It's not a bad story, it's just that it is hard for me to keep reading something that is SO INSANELY PREDICTABLE.

Overall, it was good writing and gave me a couple of chuckles but I definitely wouldn't read it again.

I was really hoping I was going to love this book, but it was just okay. I felt the plot seemed a little juvenile in the way it was presented. The story didn't get interesting until I was about 80% done with the book. I may read the next book in the series just to see what happens to the characters. Overall, this book could have been better, but I think if I was around the ages of 14-16 I would have enjoyed this book a lot more.

Romance novels, much like sitcoms, provide a comforting familiarity that makes them easy to devour. They serve as a personal favorite literary indulgence, akin to a gentle laxative, effortlessly propelling me through their pages. When faced with more demanding reads that linger in my mind, these easy-to-digest romance books offer a welcome respite, ensuring my reading habit remains intact.Anna and the French Kiss was good for a debut novel. After all, the genre is chick lit, so if there were too many cliches in it I have only myself to blame for picking the book up in the first place. The writing was good, the dialogue was (sort of) cute, Anna was a likeable heroine, but (unlike everyone else, apparently) I didn't fall for St. Clair face first into a French carpet. Her second book, [b:Lola and the Boy Next Door 9961796 Lola and the Boy Next Door (Anna and the French Kiss, #2) Stephanie Perkins https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1358271832l/9961796.SY75.jpg 7149084], really blew me away, it was fantastic. Anna is nothing compared to Lola, and Cricket will make you literally swoon. Rarely do I find a reflection of myself in the stories within these pages. That is not their intended outcome, romance novels first and foremost, are relied on to transport readers to worlds of love, passion, and happily-ever-afters. However, in Lola, a creatively eccentric and independent teenager on a journey of self-discovery through complex relationships, I did catch a glimpse of myself.

I really liked this book. REALLY liked it. Stephanie Perkins did a wonderful job in telling a cute romantic story. I loved the fact that she used Paris as much as she could, without falling to the typical “city of love” crap. She actually described the city, not only its landmarks but the little things. I felt like I was there and she made me want to visit Paris someday.

Also, she created the ultimate perfect boy. I can't really put into words how much I loved St. Clair. Perkins incorporated everything, and I mean everything, that makes me swoon in one super perfect guy. Lucky Anna that gets to keep him ¬¬

That being said, there was something that bothered me quite a bit. I thought the book was really great because it had a nice story, lovely characters, great dialogues and awesome writing BUT almost at the end Stephanie Perkins unleashed the drama. 90210-type of drama and I felt it was completly unnecesary. To be honest, if she would have taken out the whole Dave and slut naming drama and just picked up where St. Clair's dad comes in I would have liked it a lot more. That's the only reason I'm giving it four stars. Oh! And I did hate that Anna seems to love every boy she lays her eyes on.

Cute, romantic, a bit cliched but a really nice book to make me forget the horrors of war in Clash of Kings.

I like the writing style. Started off really cute but turned way too love-triangly by the end for me. Otherwise, it does bring back memories of high school and how all girls think when it comes to relationships during those years. I laughed when thinking of myself doing some of the same things as Anna way back when.

This is a sweet love story, but I wish the extras with the triangle had been left out.

Aku berharap menyukai buku ini, dgn membaca byk review positif dari org2 yg ak follow di GR. Tapi ternyata hem, biasa saja.
Anna dikirim ke Paris untuk sekolah asrama oleh ayahnya, disana ketemu cowok yg mempesona yg bikin Anna suka, sayangnya si cowok, St Clair udh punya pacar. Morality, shocking right, me, of all people, care about morality. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR.
Ini mirip dgn Colleen Hoover's Maybe Someday, yg sbnrnya ceritanya manis, tapi krn jd org ketiga hem, menjatuhkan rating. Bedanya ini untuk YA. Nah, gpp sih, namanya juga remaja, hati berubah tergantung mood. Makanya ak memberi buku ini kesempatan.