All You Need is LOVE

Anna and the French Kiss

Written by: Stephanie Perkins

Released: December 2, 2010 by Dutton

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?

I honestly don’t think I could ever do this novel justice by writing a review. I absolutely loved this novel and I just wish that I hadn’t waited as long as I did to read it. First off, I want to thank Brenna for sending me the copy which now sits all pretty on my shelf – THANK YOU!

This novel was just everything I wanted from a contemporary novel. It was cute, sweet, sexy, funny, sad, and simply perfect. I first heard buzz about this around summer of 2010. This was a debut novel and it was getting rave reviews from all over. I’ll admit that I was sceptical. Sure, I was really into reading the 2010 debut authors but was this really a novel I wanted to spend my time on? It sounded just a little cheesy and I was worried that Paris as a setting would lean too much towards Paris being a selling point for readers than a setting.

Oh how wrong I was.

Paris is a key factor in this novel, I’ll give you that, but it also becomes a character in and of itself (as Paris is wont to do). I loved reading about the adventures of Anna and St. Clair in the City of Light from Notre Dame to Les Jardin du Luxembourg not to mention to French theatres. I laughed, I cried (ok, I balled my eyes out), but most of all I was on the edge of my seat needing to know that everything would end happily ever after.

I loved Anna and St. Clair, and all of their amazing friends. I swooned along with Anna over St. Clair too, though I’ll admit that I don’t go for short guys so it’s not for me. I wanted to bonk Anna over the head in all her stupid moments and kick St. Clair really hard about every second chapter. I got so invested in their relationship which just goes to show how amazing Perkins’ writing is. Her characters all drew me in and kept me in until the very last page. Heck, I didn’t want the novel to end (so I started reading Lola right away).

For everything that makes this book one that you need to read right now – and I’m definitely going to be passing it on to my friends and family to borrow – I’m giving it a 10/10. If I could go higher I would! I can’t wait to read whatever else Perkins comes out with in the future. She has made a fan for life out of me!

One thing, though; where's Anna's white hair stripe in the cover art?

Ps: Happy 11/11/11!