Review: Anna and the French Kiss series (No Spoilers)
00:38No spoilers will be in this review.
Just look at those beauties! This series is YA contemporary and is made up of 3 companion novels, telling three different stories, although the lead characters from each book make cameos in the others.
I dove into this series because 2 of them are set in Paris, which is where I am travelling in March! *dances around my room*
The setting is something perfectly described by Stephanie Perkins, in fact, the setting plays such a huge role, that it feels like Paris is a character in the books, rather than just a location in which the characters simply 'are'. J'adore Paris!
I'll give a review of each one of the books, and how I rated it on goodreads
Anna and the French Kiss
rating: 5/5
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| I love this cover!!! |
This book was one of those ones where you just can't put it down. I devoured the entire thing in one day. I was walking abound the house with this baby (translation: walking into things because I was so distracted). It is the perfect, feel-good, beach read contemporary. This story will give you butterflies, and all of the feels. It follows Anna, who is sent to an American boarding school in Paris
St Clair (it feels wrong for me to call him Étienne, I'm not Anna!) was very charming and swoon-worthy - although his actions, like any 18 year old guy, were infuriating at times, and I wanted to yell through the pages at him.
Anna was a cool chick, I thought she was funny and she seemed like she had some balls. Although I just couldn't picture the bleach strand in her dark hair, it seemed very 90's-esque.
I liked how the relationships in this book seemed very natural, they grew at a believable pace. There was no insta-love like so many other YA books today, which made me very relieved!
I would recommend picking this book up immediately.
Lola and the Boy Next Door
rating: 5/5
As you can probably tell from the cover, this book is set in San Francisco, and tells the story of Lola and... you guessed it! Her next door neighbour. For Lola fashion, and expressing herself is everything. She would wear wigs to match her outfit, whether it be bubblegum pink or black. She is super-creative. Cricket (cute name!) is her next door neighbour since way back. He's in college but often stays at his parents house next to Lola. And boy oh boy. Cricket is an inventor and is every bit as eccentric as Lola.
This second book is a great instalment, and being a contemporary I won't share too much, because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. There are appearances from Anna, who works at the same cinema complex as Lola, and St Clair.
Isla and the Happily Ever After
rating: 4/5
This book was my least favourite out of the three books in this series, but I still really did enjoy it. This last book was set in Paris and New York. Isla goes to boarding school in Paris, and was a year behind Anna.
To me, the problem with this book was Isla was the least likeable character, she seemed like the most selfish, she never took into account how her actions affected other people.
Another problem I had with this book was it seemed like the supporting characters only had there one purpose in the novel, but didn't seem to exist or even have their own problems outside of the immediate story line.
This book didn't quite give me butterflies like the other two did, but there was definitely more than a few "awwww" moments, and I would more than recommend these books for anyone!
Overview
Here are the three books together, and these newly printed editions have gorgeous covers, but I got the third book by a different publisher accidentally and it is a different size from the other two and they don't line up on the shelf evenly (curse you book gods!!)
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| Exhibit A: The culprit is on the right :( |
I would 100% recommend these books to anyone who even slightly likes contemporary novels. These are feel good, and Stephanie Perkins has a lovely writing style, where the settings become a character in the story.
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