Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Genre: Young Adult
Number of Pages: 372
Publisher: Dutton
Source: Picked up from the library Reading Anna and The French Kiss made me smile and crave french food like Brie cheese all the way through it! A Big Thank You to Lynette from Lynettes Two Cents for her tweets on this book. It's because of them that I picked up this book at the library.
Anna doesn't really want to go to Paris for her Senior year of high school. She's quite happy to stay at home in Atlanta, with her best friend, the hope of her crush becoming more then a crush and her job at the movie theater which she loves. Her father has become a famous author, and has gotten it into his head that Anna has to spend her Senior year in Paris. Anna feels bad about not wanting to go because she knows it's a great opportunity. Just not one she wants-but no one asks for her opinion. When she gets to Paris she is surprised that it's not as bad as she thought. It's mainly because of one person: Etienne St. Claire, or St. Claire as he's known to his friends. Anna develops a crush on him, and feels really guilty about it because he has a girlfriend and she has someone who might be a boyfriend when she returns back to Atlanta. She and St. Claire become best friends instead, and he opens her eyes to a whole new world and makes her realize that good things can come from being in Paris.
I can not say this enough times: I loved this book with a capital L. Stephanie Perkins made me feel like I was experiencing Paris with Anna, and I could see it through her eyes. I loved how she made the city come alive. Anna was a great character. She was strong, yet at the same time vulnerable because she feels totally out of her element. St. Clair made me love him. He was just so sweet. I think what I liked most about this book though was that Anna and her friends actually acted their age-which is rare in Young Adult books these days. There were a lot of teen angst moments, but they all worked.
I know it's only January, but I think this is going to be one of my favorite books of the year. It was just that good.
