After reading The Lost Hero back in October, I went on YA-hiatus and started reading romnovs again. Yes, you read it correctly. I read trashy romance novels. So sue me. It started with Nora Roberts, actually it started with J.D. Robb. Then she started to scare me (I’m really chickenshit when it comes to scary books). So I started Nora Roberts (same author, different pen name, different genres). Then she started to scare me, so I moved on to regular romnovs.
Let me point out, I rarely read the historical ones. Its rot with your quintessential damsel in distress, who’s annoying dialogue consists of “but I simply can’t” or “I shan’t” or “I’ll be the laughing stock of the ton”. Who bloody cares? They end up doing it anyway. Well not it it. Well, okay, that too. But I was talking more of whatever lame crisis the author fabricates to befall the damsel, which creates her distress, thus leading to her needing to be saved by the aloof, yet secretively caring hero.
Ugh.
When I considered researching English nobility rankings (is a Duke higher than a Count?), I decided enough was enough. I needed get back into YA because apparently these romnovs were rotting my brain.
Then along comes Stephanie Perkins with her freshman novel, Anna and the French Kiss. Le sigh.
Anna’s father has been catapulted into fame and fortune and decides his daughter needs some culture. And what better way to culturize her (yes, quite like yogurt) than to send her to a chic boarding school in Paris. Of course her father doesn't even bother to think about how she’d feel about it, rich and famous father knows best after all. And so, Anna finds herself alone in a foreign country.
Well as alone as one can be in a boarding school where all your classmates speak English anyway.
Enter Etienne St. Clair, resident hot boy, an American with an English accent to boot. And everyone knows us American girls love boys with accents. Especially English ones. Especially ones that say wanker, tosser, and right git. Oh wait…sorry, I was thinking of Draco Malfoy*.
Not unlike the hottie, bad boy blondie, St. Clair is charismatic, charming and, most importantly, devastatingly good looking. (Yeah I know I’m shallow.) Anna is immediately smitten with him, despite the fact that she tries not to be. So really it sounds like this book is going to be one of those annoying Love-Pow books right? Well Perkins proves to the masses that you can indeed have love/lust at first sight but still create a swoon worthy relationship that isn’t reduced to the Bellard variety*.
The story follows Anna’s progression from feelings of isolation and loneliness to slowly adjusting in a foreign country and school. I’m sure the distraction of the St. Clair form help ease the situation. We all know nothing can distract a girl and make her life exciting like a good ole crush. Even if he’s supposed to just be your best friend and already has a girlfriend.
One of the things I loved most about St. Clair was his faults. He was shorter than Anna (which is usually a no-no in writing relationships). He bit his nails. And he was deathly afraid of heights. St. Clair was flawed and yet so completely perfect.
Anna and St. Clair form a bond slightly reminiscent of Macy and Wes*, so you actually understand why they feel the way they do. This relationship isn’t some unexplicable, otherworldly romance. Its two people, who support, defend and understand each other. And of course they do it all with some major sparkage factor. I’m talking “fry your bones to a crisp” sparkles. It’s the little interactions here and there that just hook you. And before you realize it, you’ve been at the bookstore for three hours and your boy, who’s already read four different comics, wants to go home.
My only complaint - well, okay I have three. The first is that the story went a little too teenage drama mama for me near the end. But it’s forgivable because I dislike the too tidy happy endings. The second complaint is that I desperately wanted a French pastry after reading it. And the third, I have to wait nearly seven months for her next book.
Anna and the French Kiss will take you back in time to sitting in the movie theater next to your first crush. Where his arm brushes yours and all you feel is sparkles.
I digs. So much.
Let me point out, I rarely read the historical ones. Its rot with your quintessential damsel in distress, who’s annoying dialogue consists of “but I simply can’t” or “I shan’t” or “I’ll be the laughing stock of the ton”. Who bloody cares? They end up doing it anyway. Well not it it. Well, okay, that too. But I was talking more of whatever lame crisis the author fabricates to befall the damsel, which creates her distress, thus leading to her needing to be saved by the aloof, yet secretively caring hero.
Ugh.
When I considered researching English nobility rankings (is a Duke higher than a Count?), I decided enough was enough. I needed get back into YA because apparently these romnovs were rotting my brain.
Then along comes Stephanie Perkins with her freshman novel, Anna and the French Kiss. Le sigh.
Anna’s father has been catapulted into fame and fortune and decides his daughter needs some culture. And what better way to culturize her (yes, quite like yogurt) than to send her to a chic boarding school in Paris. Of course her father doesn't even bother to think about how she’d feel about it, rich and famous father knows best after all. And so, Anna finds herself alone in a foreign country.
Well as alone as one can be in a boarding school where all your classmates speak English anyway.
Enter Etienne St. Clair, resident hot boy, an American with an English accent to boot. And everyone knows us American girls love boys with accents. Especially English ones. Especially ones that say wanker, tosser, and right git. Oh wait…sorry, I was thinking of Draco Malfoy*.
Not unlike the hottie, bad boy blondie, St. Clair is charismatic, charming and, most importantly, devastatingly good looking. (Yeah I know I’m shallow.) Anna is immediately smitten with him, despite the fact that she tries not to be. So really it sounds like this book is going to be one of those annoying Love-Pow books right? Well Perkins proves to the masses that you can indeed have love/lust at first sight but still create a swoon worthy relationship that isn’t reduced to the Bellard variety*.
The story follows Anna’s progression from feelings of isolation and loneliness to slowly adjusting in a foreign country and school. I’m sure the distraction of the St. Clair form help ease the situation. We all know nothing can distract a girl and make her life exciting like a good ole crush. Even if he’s supposed to just be your best friend and already has a girlfriend.
One of the things I loved most about St. Clair was his faults. He was shorter than Anna (which is usually a no-no in writing relationships). He bit his nails. And he was deathly afraid of heights. St. Clair was flawed and yet so completely perfect.
Anna and St. Clair form a bond slightly reminiscent of Macy and Wes*, so you actually understand why they feel the way they do. This relationship isn’t some unexplicable, otherworldly romance. Its two people, who support, defend and understand each other. And of course they do it all with some major sparkage factor. I’m talking “fry your bones to a crisp” sparkles. It’s the little interactions here and there that just hook you. And before you realize it, you’ve been at the bookstore for three hours and your boy, who’s already read four different comics, wants to go home.
My only complaint - well, okay I have three. The first is that the story went a little too teenage drama mama for me near the end. But it’s forgivable because I dislike the too tidy happy endings. The second complaint is that I desperately wanted a French pastry after reading it. And the third, I have to wait nearly seven months for her next book.
Anna and the French Kiss will take you back in time to sitting in the movie theater next to your first crush. Where his arm brushes yours and all you feel is sparkles.
I digs. So much.
*Draco Malfoy - Yeah, I loves Draco. My perception of him might be slightly irrational and noncanon, but I dont particularly care. Like other Dramione shippers, I don't let silly little things, like the epilogue, his wimpy canon nature and her subsequent marriage to Ron, deter me.
*Bellard variety – Relationships like those of Bella and Edward in which the couple becomes annoyingly co-dependent on each other, prone to bouts of weepiness when separated from their most beloved. And their constant whining and pathetic cow eyes make you sort of want to punch them in the head.
*Macy and Wes - characters from Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever. Their fabulously swoon-worthy and perfect love story trounces Bellard any day. Seriously. Bring it.
