Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Reading Level: YA, 14+
Publication Date: December 2, 2010
Pages: 372
My Edition: Hardcover
GoodReads

Cover Rating: C-
Book Rating: A

Plot - 19/20
Characters - 20/20
Writing - 18/20
Originality - 18/20
Entertainment - 10/10
Recommendation - 10/10
Total: 95/100

Summary: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 Etienne St. Clair: 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?

Review:

I was so not prepared for how much I was going to love ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS. It was absolutely delightful. I honestly cannot say a bad word about it.

It started off really pleasantly; I was instantly titillated with Anna and why her dad was sending her off to Paris and I really wanted to see what Paris and SOAP were like. I truthfully just could not put the novel down from the very first page.

I had read LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR before ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS so I was just counting the words until the amazing, gorgeous Etienne St. Clair came into the picture. Then he and Anna bumped into each other and I was instantaneously in unconditional love with Etienne St. Clair. He is just... ugh. I cannot say in words how much I loved St. Clair. He is so impeccable. From the very first part where Anna and St. Clair meet, he beat Owen Armstrong for the top position of swoon-worthy literary characters in my book. I found myself doodling his name in my notebook the day after I finished the novel. Nobody, real or fiction, has ever made me do that. So, in other words: I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Etienne St. Clair.

As for the other aspects of the novel, they were pretty darn close to being as impeccable as St. Clair is. I really loved Anna. She felt so real to me, I felt like I could relate to her. Her personality was so likeable and sensible. I probably would have done exactly what she had done in that situation.

Paris was amazing. I was so jealous that I will never be able to experience going to high school in Paris. The backdrop and most of the best scenes between Anna and St. Clair took place at such famous and romantic monuments in Paris that it just set the tone for the whole love story. It was not predictable. I didn’t know when they were going to get together at all. Perkins kept on getting close at times, and when they still didn’t it was really frustrating, but well worth the wait.

If any literary character, who wasn't created by Sarah Dessen, ended up beating Owen Armstrong in my list of Top Swoon-Worthy Literary Characters, well, they deserve a cookie. Stephanie Perkins rightfully should get a whole batch of homemade chocolate chip caramel cookies because Etienne St. Clair and her whole novel were incredible. This book deserves every single word of praise it’s received yet far. I cannot wait for ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER next year!