Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie PerkinsSeries: Anna and the French Kiss #1
Published by: Speak on December 2, 2010
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 372
Source: Purchased
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Rating: ★½
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 Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.
But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?
Anna and the French Kiss was the book I read to make up for Just One Day… well that obviously failed.
I wanted another cute, romantic, Paris book. Anna and the French Kiss did start off kind of cute, but after the half-way point, it tanked hard. I could not finish this book fast enough. In the last quarter in particular I was whipping through those pages because I just wanted it to end!
Honestly, I don’t even have enough desire or energy to talk about “the good” in this book, so I’m only going to talk about the bad.
Anna.
I didn’t mind Anna at first. I didn’t start to dislike her at all until the second half of the book. I hated her when she expected Étienne to leave his girlfriend for her. I hated her when she went out with another guy as a “rebound”. I hated that she did things with that other guy (Dave) that she didn’t want to do, and she probably just did them to make Étienne jealous. I hated when she got drunk and acted like a complete and total bitch. Also, this paragraph makes her sound totally lame:
Why have I never drunk before? I was such an idiot—it’s not a big deal. I totally understand why people drink now. I’m not sure what I’ve been drinking, but I do know it was something fruity. It started out disgusting, but the more I drank, the better it got. Or the less I noticed it. Something like that. Man, I feel weird. Powerful.
Maybe it’s just because I’m not a party girl, but I thought that was a pathetic sounding paragraph.
But I really started to hate Anna when she let Étienne cheat on his girlfriend with her (and that’s also when I started hating Étienne). Cheating isn’t suddenly “okay” just because the guy is doing it to be with the main character. I don’t care if the MC is the one benefitting.. cheating is still horrible and quite frankly, I don’t want to read about it. Cheating is a quick and easy way to make me hate any book, and this was no exception.
Then, that was followed up with another doozy. I still don’t understand this..
Amanda (the stuck up, queen bee bitch of the school) spends the whole year making fun of Anna here and there. She calls Anna a skunk (because of her hair style), a slut, and just throws in insults all the time. But what pushed Anna to the edge was when Amanda called Anna’s best friend a dyke (to Anna, not to the friend). Anna got pissed and kind of tackled/hit Amanda. When they got called into the principal’s office, Anna refused to tell the principal what Amanda said that provoked her… WHY? Well, apparently because:
The detention was divided unfairly because I refused to tell her what Amanda said. Because I hate that word. Like being gay is something to be ashamed of.
You hate the word so you refuse to tell the principal when someone uses the word in a derogatory way? WHERE IS THE LOGIC HERE??? Amanda was a freaking bitch using derogatory words and you just let her get away with it because you “hate that word”. What the hell??? I literally feel like there’s no logic here, and it’s still bugging me even after finishing the book.
So as a result of Anna’s silence, Anna got two weeks of detention and Amanda got like nothing. Nice one, Anna. I hope you feel like you’ve accomplished something.
Then after this point, Anna continued to annoy me with her “OMG Étienne hates me” attitude, when he so obviously liked her. It was painful. Everyone knew Étienne liked Anna, despite the fact that he refused to break up with his girlfriend (which was also annoying).. but Anna went around moping and crying about how he hates her and doesn’t want to talk to her—boo hoo.
Seriously, towards the end it was just pathetic high school drama that made me want to finish the book as quickly as possible. Ugh.
Signing off,
The Black Sheep
The Verdict
Wow, I can’t believe so many people love this book. I literally hate books like this. Cheating is a no-no and whiney teen dramas are not fun. And the whole “I won’t what that word” so the bully gets no punishment is just effing stupid. I so don’t want to read this one now. I had a “hate” book just yesterday I reviewed. So I know how you feel.
It wasn’t my favorite but I didn’t hate it. I thought it was okay, but I couldn’t see why so many people loved it.
I think I mentioned it in the comment I left on your review of Just One Day yesterday, but I felt the same way about this one too! Except I sort of disliked Anna from the beginning. It was hard to be sympathetic towards her supposed problems when she was being so whiny about being in PARIS. I mean, if it had just been homesickness, I would have been okay with that, but seriously, girl, you’re being sent to PARIS. Enjoy it a little! And yeah, just everything you said basically.
I actually really liked Anna and the French Kiss and couldn’t put it down. I really didn’t understand why the whole world seems to love St. Clair though–I thought he was such a jerk and the cheated bother me to no end. I actually made a list of “You know you need to break up with your girlfriend when…” in my review if you’re interested: http://www.abouttoread.com/anna-and-french-kiss/
FINALLY, I’m not alone anymore 😀 I felt like an outsider for hating this book so much. I don’t like the romance. I don’t like how Etienne cheated on his girlfriend. I don’t like Anna. The only thing I liked was the setting and that is rarely explored..
Actually I love the book! I totally get your points, I have to agree with annoying cheating in action. At that point I don’t like Etienne because he was totally uncertain. But I really enjoying Stephanie Perkins’ writing style XD
I actually really liked this book, but I can understand where you’re coming from. Anna was kind of whiny, and cheating really isn’t okay in my book either. Hopefully your next read is amazing, Ashley! It seems like your recent reads haven’t been all that great. :/ Awesome review!
FINALLY. Okay, I started this one and wasn’t really too pulled in by it. But I kept saying that I would read it because EVERYONE and their mama seems to love it. And finally, someone else didn’t enjoy it. Frankly, I don’t remember much, I think I skimmed once I reached the halfway point. Who knows. Anna sounds pathetically annoying and very illogical, which I can’t stand. Great review! *high fives*
It’s interesting to see another opinion because I did like this book! But you bring very valid points and in retrospect, I’m starting to see the same things you did! I love the quotes you starred – I had a fun time laughing at the ridiculousness of what Anna said. HOW did I miss this?
And by the way, I just realized the cool rating tool you have! I love it, such a great idea! 🙂
I glanced at your rating on GR and was really curious specifically why you didn’t like this one. Man, it’s hard to get into a book when you dislike/hate or just can’t connect with the MC. Nine times out of ten, when I don’t like an MC I end up giving the book a low rating.
I definitely know what you mean about cheating. I JUST read a book where that happened and it made me basically hate the entire ending of the book.
I enjoyed this book but I understand why you wouldn’t like it. I like how Anna was vulnerable because I could connect to that (though I definitely don’t see becoming powerful from drinking) but she did whine too much. Fantastic review!
AHH *sobs for days*
So sad you didn’t like this one at all! I LOVED it. LOVED. I really, really hate cheating in books to. It kills me. But it happens and I know relationships where the people might have made a mistake and cheated (SO NOT CONDONING THIS BC I WOULD DO BODILY HARM TO WILL IF HE DID) but they ended up with the right people. It does make you wonder though — would they do it again?? Anyways, I hated it but I also understood that people do dumb things and hormones are a bitch and mess with you. I can’t explain why I hate something but it didn’t affect my thoughts towards the book but other times it totally does lol. BUT I totally get where you are coming from with this complaint and with Anna expecting him to just break up with his gf. I think remembering myself as a high school girl being in love with a boy who had a girlfriend but SO wishing this would happen because I felt like there was a connection…SOOO personal experience may have factored into me ignoring this haha.
I think at the end of the day I just connected really well to Anna and to the story. I totally see all your criticisms but I guess my feels for it ignored them 😛 Great review though it hurts my heart a little. Always hard to post a negative review of a beloved book but I think you articulated it well! 🙂
I’m so sad too!! Bah! I’ve been wanting to read this book for like a year and thought I’d adore it. *sobs*
I’m so glad you were able to connect with Anna and enjoy it though! I’m jealous! But I can relate because there are definitely times when I throw any bad things out the window because I just love a book so much.
I enjoyed this book, but hated Anna. Who complains about living in Paris? Gosh. And I couldn’t really understand how she could love St. Clair so much, when he was a total jackass to her. I still liked the book; I even gave it 4 stars! (Is there something wrong with me? lol) Nevertheless, I understand where you’re coming from. Great review!
I know, right?? I mean I know it would be hard to be uprooted and pulled away from your friends, but it’s Paris for crying out loud! And I also despised St. Clair. Also what’s up with his names? I think they’re lame (both of them) lol.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the book more though! I wish I was able to. 🙁
I hope you don’t turn yourself off of Perkins’ books though! Lola and the Boy Next Door was amazing, in different ways than Anna was. Compared with a lot of contemporary YA lately, I actually loved Anna. BUT reviews like this remind me again and again that not everyone likes the same book — which is why there are so many out there!
1.5? NOOOOOOOOOO. 🙁
I still want to read it to find out for myself, but it makes me sad that you didn’t love it like everyone else did. And afraid…very afraid lol. I shall have to come back to this review to discuss after I read it!
I’d be soooo curious to see what you think! I’m honestly pretty floored that I didn’t love it. I thought this would be a slam dunk LOVE for me.
I’m so sad you didn’t like this book! Although I did dislike the ending a little – it irritated me when she started dating Dave.