WARNING: This post kind of contains spoilers. This is not a normal review - this is a blog about a book.
For the past two years, I have heard nothing but AMAZING things about Anna and the French Kiss. I heard so many AMAZING things, that I even bought it last year and put it on my TBR bookcase. When friends and other book nerds found out that I haven’t read Anna yet, I would get yelled at. This wasn’t just, “what?! you NEED to read it!” This was, “WHAT!?! YOU NEED TO READ IT. RIGHT NOW. GO HOME AND READ IT.” So on my vacation, it became the first book I opened. Well, maybe it got too much hype over the past two years, but I wasn’t amazed as my friends clearly were. Granted, it has been hyped for me for TWO YEARS. I was expecting near-perfection. Everyone told me how realistic it was and how it was such a perfect love story. “Perfect” and “amazing” is what they were saying, but I didn’t think it was perfect or ah-maz-ing. I thought it was a good, and yes, realistic, romance novel - naive girl, “perfect” boy and all.
Anna Needs a Logistical Lesson
Okay, seriously, was Anna born minutes before the book started? I couldn’t believe some of her dumbness. Are girls this dumb now a days? How could you not think there would be movie theatres in a WORLD CITY? I’m sorry, do you know how to use the internet? That bothered me.
I was also SO ANNOYED at how naive she was about St. Clair’s feelings for her and what was going on in Georgia while she was gone. Maybe it’s because I’m older and a little more worldly than her, but she annoyed me a LOT. I would KILL to spend a year in France. Sure, I wouldn’t want to miss my senior year either, but this was the opportunity of a lifetime. I think my age plays a huge part in me not liking Anna. I'm 23 and she's 17. There is a maturity difference. But I think 17-year-old Kelly would have been pissed at her, too, for being that upset about this opportunity.
Overall, Anna was VERY believable. I liked - no, loved that. She didn’t have a great relationship with her parents, but she didn't hate them. Her relationship with her best friend was almost identical to how Laura and I talk. I loved that she didn’t just like movies, she was passionate about them and ran a blog - every aspect of her was whole, down to her brother’s obsession with Star Wars. She was so real that the story felt more like a movie or television show than a book. John Green does that for me and I’m glad Stephanie did that, too. Her writing is truly fantastic.
But St. Clair...
Just let me roll my eyes at all the cheesiness that came along with St. Clair.
Okay, I’m done.
That’s all I’m saying on the subject.
Where is this damn french kiss?
First of all, I loved Dave. I wanted Anna to GET IT TOGETHER with her brain so badly and date him sooner. Sure, he wasn’t perfect, but what 17-year-old is? I loved him. I love how he flirted with her and asked her out and he was so great, until he was a 17-year old. Stephanie’s story had perfect realism (except for how dumb Anna was sometimes and even that is debatable realism). The ups and downs of the story were 110% possible for Anna and her life. Except how pretty she was. I don’t think she was pretty with the gap in her teeth. But maybe that’s just me. Whatever. She was the main character so OF COURSE the guys liked her.
Still, the french kiss is in the freaking title. I don’t think Stephanie could have waited longer for this damn kiss. I was SO HAPPY every time Anna and St. Clair got closer to being together. At the very end, I was so upset at Anna for being mad that St. Clair ran after Meredith and then still didn’t come to her. I knew what he was doing. So why was she so DUMB? I’m sorry, but she was DUMB.
Yes, I liked it, so hand me Lola.
I did enjoy Anna and the French Kiss. It was everything I love in a contemporary YA romance. There was a cute (and British! -ish) boy, there was a girl, there were complications and there was an awesome kiss in a french graveyard. Plus, Stephanie Perkins can write. I always appreciate an author who can write round characters in believable situations set in awesome cities. I laughed, I teared up, and I screamed when we FINALLY got that french kiss. I will recommend it and I may even read it again one day. I’m excited to get and read Lola, as I think it will be better. Stephanie’s stories have an originality to them that’s hard to come by these days. I see contemporary YA becoming so much more realistic than it was ten years ago. I’m glad I read it. Was I amazed as you all seemed to be? No. But that’s hype for you.
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