Review: Anna and the Fench Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the Fench Kiss 
Author: Stephanie Perkins 
Published: December 2nd 2010 
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

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’d heard so many great things about this book and there seemed to be a Stephanie Perkins fan everywhere I looked. Even 90% of my Goodreads’ friends had given it 4-5 stars. So once I passed this book at a bookstore, I immediately took a few steps back and figured what the heck?! Everyone loves it, why can’t I? I at least need to check out what the fuss is about, right?

“The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.”

It was a very sweet story. An example of exactly how sweet would probably be if one were to eat a bowl full of ice cream with chocolate syrup and honey poured all over it – that’s how toothsome it was. The plot itself was quite cliché. I somewhat enjoyed it, but it wasn’t that interesting, to be honest with you. The writing was good, story moved on quickly, but it felt like it didn’t progress. That doesn’t make any sense, does it? What I’m trying to say is that even though Anna’s year abroad went by quickly and was easy to follow, there weren’t that many, if at all, moments where I was supposed to be O__O. (God.. Even this review isn’t progressing.)

What I liked was that it was very current and from a cultural aspect I enjoyed it a lot. In addition to referencing to one of my favorite football players – Francesc Fàbregas – Perkins featured different authors, history, movies. Also, sightseeing was one key points of this book which made me eager to explore City of Love myself. I loved the graveyard picnic with Anna and her American friends. Oh, and the design of this book – uh-mazing! Love, love, love it! The deckled edges and everything, it’s freaking adorable and even kind of edgy.

However, even if I was satisfied with the storyline and writing, the characters fell flat for me. I just didn’t connect to any of them and the one I liked the most was Anna’s little brother Sean who most of the time wasn’t even with her. I’m not sure what was missing, though.

The one thing this book did achieve in is that I’m eager to visit the capital of love even more than ever before. I’ve travelled through half of the European countries and France, unfortunately, belongs to the bunch I haven’t been to. So City of Light, I dare you to wait for me and be as kind and inspiring to me as you were to Anna.

"Har. Bloody. Har."
He smiles. "Oh, I see. Known me less than a day and teasing me about my accent. What's next? Care to discuss the state of my hair? My height? My trousers?"
Trousers. Honestly.

I think that at the end of the day most of the readers love and adore this book while I just thought it was okay, hence the 2.5 stars. If you want to check out some great reviews by people I trust to give good recommendations, you can check out Jenny’s, Giselle’s or Pricilla’s. I’ll still read Lola and the Boy Next Door though and hopefully I’ll have better luck with that one.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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