Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss
By Stephanie Perkins
published December 2nd, 2012 by Dutton

"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?"
                                                                                       ~blurb from goodreads.com


Review:
      WHY did I not read this book until recently??? Oh, wait. I know. It's because of the cheesy blurb and title. Yes. I admit it: I totally judged a book by its cover. And I totally wish I hadn't because this book was absolutely AMAZING. No, "amazing" doesn't even really do it justice. Words can't even describe how much I love this book! Literally, if this book were a person, I would marry it----no scratch that, I'd totally settle for St. Clair. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself...

        So, I had seen the book multiple time before, but I was always quick to dismiss it due to the aforementioned cheesy-ness. However, after reading all the raving reviews on goodreads, I decided, what the heck? So I read it. And I fell in love. This book has humor, a swoon-worthy crush, a great protagonist, and that special magical touch from being in the City of Love. The protagonist, Anna, is great; she's hilarious and totally relatable and you just can't help but root for her and St. Clair. And speaking of St. Clair...

         Good lord, how does the author come up with such a lovable guy? He's attractive, witty, and has an english accent! I don't want to go into too much depth because he will be featured in My Book Boyfriend soon, but really, I could just go on and on about how much I adore him. What I love most about this book is the fact that the romance isn't like the ones where the characters lock eyes and—Bam! Instant love! Perkins creates a beautiful story in which the boy and girl start as friends and you, as the reader, get to see their relationship grow.

          You'd think that this typical girl-likes-boy-but-boy-has-girlfriend storyline would get kind of boring, but it wasn't AT ALL. Perkins does such a great job constructing the story and the chemistry between Anna and St. Clair that the words flow perfectly from page to page. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop! Let me just say that this book is totally deserving of every single raving review because it was just absolutely perfect.

And if you haven't read it yet, why are you still sitting in front of your computer?! Go! Go to your nearest book store or library and get it!

5 stars. (But I'd give it more if I could!)
And now, some quotes:

“Soap?"
"School of America in Paris" he explains. "SOAP".
Nice. My father sent me here to be cleansed.” 

“Madame Guillotine gets mad at me. Not because I told them to shove it, but because I didn’t say it in French. What is wrong with this school?”  

“I moan with pleasure.
"Did you just have a foodgasm?" he asks, wiping ricotta from his lips.
"Where have you been all my life?" I ask the beautiful panini.”  


“I'm not sure how to order."
"Easy," Josh says. "Stand in line. Tell them what you want. Accept delicious goodies. And then give them your meal card and two pints of blood."
"I heard they raised it to three pints this year," Rashmi says.
"Bone marrow," Beautiful Hallway Boy says. "Or your left earlobe.”

“Imagine," she said, after registering, "a whole city of gorgeous Italian guys. They can say anything to me, and it'll be sexy."
"You'll be so easy," Rashmi said. "Would you like-ah to order-ah the spa-ghe-tti? 'Oh, do me, Marco!”