Review for Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

"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 Étienne St. Claire: 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?" I am in love with this book. Yes this review is going to be less professional and more of a fan girl squee but I can’t help it, this book has everything and I can’t act rationally about it. Every so often a book comes along that makes you laugh and cry and you close it with warm fuzzys inside your chest because it just makes you feel so damn good and that’s what Anna and the French Kiss done for me. Reading Anna and the French Kiss is the literary equivalent to eating a pint of your favourite ice cream or taking a warm bath on a cold day. It’s comforting, uplifting and guaranteed to put a smile on your face even after the most awful day. Everything about this book was brilliant but what I loved most were the characters. Anna is now up there with my all-time favourite heroines. She’s funny, smart and just an all-round nice girl. I liked Anna from the start but she had my respect when right at the beginning of the book when she first arrives in Paris and makes her wish on the point zero star she wishes not for the gorgeous boy with a girlfriend or for said girlfriend to drop off the face of the earth, no, she wishes for what’s best for her. That’s the kind of girl Anna is. She’s not bitchy or whiney or any of the other things that put me off female lead characters. Anna is awesome and I think she’s a brilliant role model for female readers. As well as Anna’s awesomeness there’s also the heart melting, swoon worthy St Clair who is one giant ball of British, Parisian, American hotness. I loved St Clair’s Britishisums, being English myself I found him hilarious and highly entertaining to read about. Then there are all of the wonderful secondary characters who each had such vivid, quirky, personalities. Stephanie Perkins is wonderful at developing her characters and making them positively sparkle. She’s a born writer who really brings Paris- the most romantic city in the world-to life, creating the perfect backdrop for Anna and St Clair’s romance to bloom. Her writings funny and charming making this book a joy to read. Anna and the French Kiss has that something about it that will make it stand out against other contemporary Young Adult fiction and I can’t wait to see what Stephanie comes up with next. A magical, feel good, read that comes with the highest of recommendations. My Rating 5/5 stars ***** Synopsis taken from Goodreads