Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Summary: 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?

Review: Marissa and Charlotte have been telling me to read this book for ages, but I never got around to it. It just didn't seem like my kind of book. But this month, my school chose it for the book club, so I figured I'd finally give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did!

Honestly, this book is amazing. While it is technically a romance novel, it didn't seem like one. The characters were interesting and flawed (in a good way), and the plot was riveting. I was mentally screaming at the two main characters the entire time, dying for one of them to finally make a move. Stephanie Perkins's writing is so fantastic, I was in awe.

This book is somewhat of a fantasy romance, but I think Anna's experiences are relevant/relatable to teens today. The characters and the story broke my heart and then put it back together again and tore it out of my chest again and again in a vicious cycle, but when I finished it I was smiling like an idiot. It's not a challenging book in that it makes you think or makes you cry (too much), but it's just so darn cute, and you can't help but love the characters.

The past few books I've read I've managed to find flaws in, and I was beginning to worry that I wasn't enjoying books as much as I used to. However, this novel restored my faith. It is literally flawless, and if you haven't read it yet, you're missing out! It doesn't matter if you're a sci-fi or nonfiction fan--go out and buy/borrow this book, and I can guarantee you'll find yourself sucked into the story in no time.

(When you finish this book, there's a companion to it titled Lola and the Boy Next Door, which I plan on reading soon. You can find Char's review of it here!)

(Also, I'm currently reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, which is about 1500 pages long, so if I don't post anything else for a while, I wish you all Happy Holidays! :D)