Lynnie
young adult, romance
In Anna and the French Kiss, Anna is sent away by her parents to spend her senior year of high school at a boarding school in Paris. She misses her best friend, her almost-boyfriend, and her little brother back home. She makes new friends, explores Paris, and learns to love coffee. Relationships happen. Teenage drama occurs. There's a happy ending.
Amy's review
I would never have cracked this book open based on the title. While I adore the young adult genre, I typically stay away from typical teen love stories. I am drawn to young adult novels for the adventure and playfulness, the satisfaction of a young person discovering they are stronger than they thought they were, the boldness and resilience of youthful, unjaded characters, and the beauty of teens realizing previously unknown realities in their world. And, sure, I always enjoy the trip down memory lane with a little teen romance. But I typically do not find the average teen love stories appealing because they are just filled with silly hormonal gushes and awkward stumbles and mean girls and troubled students. I especially would not normally want to read teen romances with no fantasy element involved. BUT, I happened to volunteer for the Decatur Book Festival in September 2014 and was given the privilege of assisting the author of this novel, Stephanie Perkins, while she greeted fans and signed their books. Her line was the longest of all of the young adult genre authors that were gathered at the teen tent for this particular cycle—at least twice the length of any of the others. She herself was young, vibrant, beautiful, witty, and well-spoken. But, she also happened to be truly appreciative, open, and forthcoming with her fans and seemed thrilled to meet them. She stayed until the very last person in line was greeted. Several fans told her how her novels had changed their lives by making them feel they were understood and that they could be themselves and it would be okay. Some told her how her books got them through some rough period. And, after my time by her side, I had decided I had to give this novel, the first in a series, a try. I’m only sorry it took me almost a year to get to it.
I do enjoy novels that take place at boarding schools—it makes for a rich setting since the kids develop such close relationships by living and “working” together. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor are my two favorites that come to mind but both are also fantasy novels. And, reading about Paris in such detail through the eyes of a young, appreciative observer was a treat. But, outside of that and the typical parental issues that are rampant in the young adult genre, it really was just a well-conceived and entertaining teen romance. And I liked it! (Although, I don't know ANY teenager that would have simply taken it without fighting when her parents decided to send her away to another country for her senior year of high school.)
Stephanie’s writing was very clear to follow and was injected with the right mix of humor, remorse, and teenage angst. I found myself compelled to continue reading so I could find out what happened next to these lovable characters. Sure, there were a few places where I wanted to slap some sense into these clueless teens—but that happens a lot for me in young adult novels. I’ll read the next one!
Lynnie's review
This book is adorable- there's no doubt about it. Sometimes though, it's distracting in it's quest to be cute.
Anna is our heroine & more than once I wanted to strangle her. She's a bit whiny, generally self-obsessed (though aren't most teens?), & naive to the point of silliness. Generally I preferred her when she was interacting with others.
We're supposed to be swoony over her best friend/crush St. Clair & at times he was incredibly endearing. I kept wondering though why everyone adored him instead of recognizing him for the indecisive jerk he was. I get it, they're young & haven't learned to make hard decisions yet, and tend to communicate through meaningful stares rather than actual conversations, but it was hard to cheer for him when he spent the majority of the book being such a pain in the arse.
Still, it was a cute little romance, the descriptions of Paris were really wonderful & most of the time I enjoyed it. I definitely think the high school girls will enjoy it & will likely appreciate all of the characters more than I did. Overall, it's an easy end-of-summer read.
No comments:
Post a Comment