Anna and the French Kiss

This book has some great moments. It also has some really sexy moments. Sadly, it also had some moments that really frustrated me. About 3/4 of the way in, I was ready to punch 'ole Anna in the face. I debated back and forth between giving it a range from a 5-star rating to a 3-star rating. In the end, I settled in the middle with four stars. I really liked it, and I'm going to give Lola and the Boy Next Door a try, but it was certainly not up to par with Fangirl. Sorry, super fans, it just wasn't.  

 

The book's main voice is Anna, a movie buff who works in her hometown movie theater. Her dad, a Nicholas Sparks-inspired romance novelist, sporadically decides she needs to become more cultured. So, for her senior year of school, he sends her to a boarding school in Paris for America teens. She's scared, at first, by the newness of it all. She has no friends, no familiarity with the language, and no desire to be 1,000s of miles away from her mom and little brother. This all changes when she becomes friends with Mer, the athletic girl across the hall. Mer introduces her to her clique of school friends including St Clair, THE boy that captures all of her attention. The problem is ... this perfect boy has a lovely girlfriend. Predictable romantic chaos ensues. 

 Things I liked about the books:

* The setting - Ironically, I started reading this book right around the time of the 2015 attacks on Paris. It made me appreciate the beauty of Perkins' descriptions even more. It's not a setting I'm used to, or a place I've visited, so I enjoyed her details about the city. It made the characters' adventures in the city heartbreaking, but beautiful at the same time. I probably won't forget that I was reading this book when the tragedy took place any time soon.

* The Characters - For the most part, the book is filled with really likable characters. St. Clair is delicious, Anna is smart, and their friends are definitely kids I'd want to hang out with. Of course, she had to throw in a couple of bullies to make the story believable. All of the main characters, though, are pleasant folk. I did have a few problems with Anna toward the end, but more on that in a minute. 

* The Thanksgiving Break Chapters - I'm a firm believer that romance, when done right, can be really sexy without being fodder for late-night TV jokes (yes, 50 Shades chick, I'm talking to you). I think Gena Showalter and Rainbow Rowell are two examples of writers who can compose really romantic, not trashy, love scenes. After reading about Anna and St. Clair's time together during Thanksgiving break, I'm adding Stephanie Perkins to that list. I can dig some romance when it's done right, and those moments in the book were done right!  

Things about the book I didn't like: :-( 

* Girls Fighting Over Boys - I understand this is a romance novel and there has to be some spectacular spectacles to plump up the plot, but at some points in this book there are four girls fighting over one boy. I think St. Clair is cool, but he isn't worth all that. By the end, things are semi-resolved. But, it still doesn't melt the impression that girls have to be eye-clawing, horrific fiends toward one another to attract a boy. Honestly, the story would have been just as good if St. Clair had been single from the beginning, Meridith had found her own happy ending, and Anna and St. Clair had fallen in love with one another without all the girl on girl pettiness. There is always going to be a school bully, and Amanda fit that roll well, but the other girls fighting over him bugged me. Grrrr ... bugged grimace ...    

*After Christmas Break Anna - Here's the breakdown: Girl goes home to America from Paris for Christmas break, girl decides all Americans are disgusting slobs and way beneath her, girl fights with back-home best friend and back-home love interest because they are now romantically involved (knew that was coming), girl goes back to Paris with a snotty attitude, girl starts calling St. Clair (last name) Etienne (first name) because that's her mating call for him, girl gets drunk, girl says she hates Etienne's actual girlfriend, and girl fights with every other girl in school over "her Etienne." Honestly from Christmas break (the plot line follows a typical school year) to springtime, I hated Anna's character so much I planned on only rating it 2 or 3 stars when I finished. Luckily, things get better by the end of the book. I actually thought it had a really sweet, most problems resolved, ending that paid a nice tribute to the city. So, I bumped my rating back up to 4 stars. But, I definitely didn't like Anna's character morph halfway through the book. I still stand by the idea that the book would have been much better if Anna and St. Clair's relationship could have naturally evolved without the cheating (he has a girlfriend when they meet) and if Meredith hadn't also been in love with him. Still, the book is worth a chance.

It's a book with some super sweet, super romantic moments. Just beware that there is a girl against girl against girl against bitchy girl vying for a boy's heart ick factor involved.   

One final note: When I keep mentioning that things were "mostly" resolved by the final page, it's because I thought she left Meredith hanging over the edge of a cliff with a crap ending. Her planned solution, I think, was to have readers believe that Meredith wasn't in love with St. Clair, after all, because she was a lesbian (huh?). But that's okay, Anna thinks absentmindedly, because lesbians are cool. Look, a lot of lesbians ARE hot (girls in pic), sexy (girls in pic, I say) and cool (dreamy sigh, girls in pic), but that was an odd way to resolve the story when she had been one of the girls fighting for St. Clair's attention all along. Plus, only a few pages after the lesbian declaration, wait, no, she's TOTALLY just into boys. I liked Meredith's character and thought she deserved better than that. I know the bully calling her a dyke (her word, not mine), was a poop head, but still it left a lingering question about her sexuality in the minds of readers. Great end for Anna, crappy end for Meredith. She should have just hooked her up with another lady Beatles fan from the beginning. Problem solved.