Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

I'm sure you all have fallen prey to book hype. You know, where there is so much talk about how great a book is, but when you finally get around to reading it you feel let down because it was built up so much? I have had this happen to me numerous times over the past year, and it makes me sad. I really wanted to like Stephanie Perkins' debut novel Anna and the French Kiss. I will admit that I was a bit worried that the hype would get in the way of an otherwise awesome book. You guys, that was not the case.

AT ALL.

I not only fell in love with this book, but I literally hugged it when I was finished reading it and went straight to my computer to pre-order it. I even made space for her on my bookshelf (her new neighbors are Evie and Sophie..I think they'll get along great). You want to know a little more about it, don't you? Well you're in luck...

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. Claire: 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?

Anna and the French Kiss is a great story full of fantastic and witty writing, well developed characters, romance, tension, and kissing. There was only one thing bad about this book and that was that it should have been longer because I wanted more. The fact that I wanted more has nothing to do with the story itself, it's just because I'm greedy and didn't want it to end. If that's not enough for you to want to read this book I'll give you the main reason.

Etienne St. Clair.

Etienne is beyond swoon-worthy and quickly became one of my book crushes. I totally got the book crush butterflies when reading and he was also the only one this year to do that. Oh, Etienne how I love thee. OH! Plus, he has an accent. If that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what will. 

To my other book crushes: Marcus Flutie, Jamie Fraser, and Ron Weasley you boys have SERIOUS competition. Also, did anyone else notice that those three are all gingers? I just realized that today.

This is my favorite book of the year, so far, and I can't wait til later this afternoon for my brand new, shiny copy to appear on my doorstep. I will definitely be reading it again before the year is up.  

Thank you Stephanie for writing such a wonderful book and thank you Jessica for sharing your ARC with me. 

If you want to experience the awesome for yourself, you can purchase Anna and the French Kiss here.

This was also book #11 in the 2010 Debut Author's Challenge