Review: French Kiss by Sarra Manning

Title: French Kiss (Diary of a Kiss #1)
Author: Sarra Manning
Published: June 8th 2006
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New town, new college, new people, Edie's feeling overwhelmed. What if nobody wants to be her friend? But then something happens that turns her life upside down: Edie spots Dylan. Messy-haired, pouty, frustratingly elusive Dylan. . .
Fast forward to the college trip to Paris and things are really heating up. In between the shopping, the clubbing, the kissing and the making up, something happens between Edie and Dylan that changes both their lives for ever. But do boys like Dylan ever play for keeps?

I had heard amazing things about Sarra Manning’s books. They’re supposedly light, funny, romantic and adorable. I know that French Kiss isn’t her best work, but that’s why I decided to read it with Jasprit [The Reader's Den]. What better way to start than not with the best work and move forward from there? Ok, it sounds a bit weird, but that’s what I thought. While French Kiss was quite light and definitely funny, it didn’t exactly sit right with me either.

“It wasn't like I'd woken up and decided to be a bitch, it was more like I'd woken up to find bitchiness thrust upon me.”

Let me tell you what I did like. I really enjoyed that t was written in a diary form which let us into Edie’s mind in a very intimate way. Yes, she came off as a little (ok, a lot) stalkerish at first, but she grew on me by the end and I really liked seeing her grow into a girl who spoke her mind and get a backbone that she was in desperate need of. The writing was humorous and kept me turning the pages. I also loved the scenery: England, France and a small part of the road trip to Paris and back. I have been to England, but haven’t been to France and all these books with French settings really make me want to go there someday. Another thing I enjoyed was the ending—all that followed the birthday kiss was just adorable and somewhat made up for the previous happenings. While I do appreciate a good amount of drama, I felt like I was watching an episode of Made in Chelsea on crack lol. Sometimes ‘the bigger the better’ just doesn’t quite hit the mark.

All the what-the-fuckery with Dylan. Does he have a personality disorder? Because that’s my best guess. I don’t really feel like I know Dylan at all and that may be the reason why I don’t understand his actions. He was a real douche to Edie most of the time, but I don’t know anything about his home situation, his past, his family—that’s the reason I’m judging him based on solely his actions and his actions are just beyond.. Idk. He made me so furious. He kissed Edie like no other (their kisses were hot and adorable, not gonna lie), but then in the next scene he acted like a real d-bag. I don’t get his deal and I certainly don’t approve his behavior. Perhaps he can grow, but I’ll believe it when see it. Also, he has mood swings worse than Adrian Ivashkov on his worst days and we all know that the handsome moroi has some grave issues. What’s Dylan’s problem? I have no clue. For now my opinion stays that Edie deserves better than a 19 year old guy who acts like a 5 year old spoiled girl.

All in all, I think it’s more suitable for 13 year olds than people who are over 20, because Jasprit and I definitely didn’t get the magic out of this one. While there were lots of things that I liked, I couldn’t look away from all the things that frustrated me, that being mainly Dylan, and I think my rating clearly shows that. I won’t give up on Manning. This was originally published in 2004 and things have changed a lot since then, plus Adorkable, which sits on my shelf as we speak, seems like a really good read so hopefully I’ll have better luck with that. Plus, there is Jasprit loving Manning's adult lit so... bring it on!

Overall rating: 2.1 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★

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