Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Published: August 2014

Publisher: Dutton

Pages: 352

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

Love ignites in the City That Never Sleeps, but can it last?

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart.

Featuring cameos from fan-favorites Anna, Étienne, Lola, and Cricket, this sweet and sexy story of true love—set against the stunning backdrops of New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—is a swoonworthy conclusion to Stephanie Perkins’s beloved series. 

Review:

I'm fairly certain that I read these all out of order but does it really matter??  What matters is that Stephanie has a special writing gift that allows her to capture the absolute essence of falling in love and spill it all out on the pages of a YA novel.  She did it again.  She took everything passionate, innocent, lust-worthy (in a PG sort of way) and turned it upside down and inside out to make a wonderful novel that I think all teens need to read.  If you can remember Anna and Etienne in Paris chasing one another around and pretending they weren't falling in love, but really were....well, Josh is Etienne's best friend. He doesn't have the same kind of charisma but he has a new sort of confidence all his own.  And Isla has liked him for years.  Are any of your following this? Years.  Put your hand up if you have ever done this. Its like stalking...but more discreetly.  I've done this.  I remember there was this one guy I liked so much that I used to write pages and pages of I love Tony in patterns. With colors. Yes, it was pathetic.  But Isla does something similar so at least I know there are others out there like me.  She knows dates.  Remembers certain events.  Like when he first smiled at her.  Or when they've talked.  Coming face to face with your crush can be mind-numbingly horrific and there are events in this book that made me laugh out loud...and others that made me cry.  As Isla and Josh try to work out what they "have" and "don't have" with one another, it truly is a work of art.  Thank you Stephanie Perkins for capturing so perfectly, those first love moments.  :)

Same Book, Second Look - Anna and the French Kiss

Published: December 2010

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Pages: 372

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

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 Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming,beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend. 

Review:

If you follow our blog regularly, you know that I'm not a big fan of contemporary YA but I do read it every now and again for a break from the supernatural and because there are some books that receive so much buzz that I have to find out what the hulabaloo is all about.  Anna and the French Kiss is one of these books.  I have been waiting nearly 4 years to read it and found it to be incredibly refreshing.  Stephanie Perkins captures the very essence of falling in love for the first time.  I had this book finished in two days and it takes a lot for me to read that quickly.  Or rather to find the time needed to read that quickly.  

Anna was not thrilled to go to Paris for school and was totally against it.  She has to cope with making new friends, culture shock, adjusting to language barriers.  She's got a lot on her plate.  Normally I don't like it when books make modern day references but I love how Anna compares her board in school to Hogwarts without everything cool.

Not to mention, Anna starts to fall for a friend.  A guy friend who has a girlfriend.  And a friend who has another secret admirer.  It is all very confusing but somewhere along the way, Anna and St Clair develop a bond that makes sense and works for the time being.

Anna's journey takes her through a lot of personal development and she bends the rules a little bit.  She is a good girl who makes some really good decisions.  I loved this book.  It felt real and the environment in Paris made me want to spread my wings and try something new.  Read Anna and the French Kiss if you want to reminisce about falling in love, going outside of your comfortable boundaries and exploring the limitations of your heart.    

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Published: September 2011

Publisher: Dutton

Pages: 338

Copy: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

I don't read a lot of contemporary novels - I tend to read more historical and/or fantasy type, but when I read Anna and the French Kiss earlier this year I really, really enjoyed it. and I was on the waiting list for Lola as soon as it appeared in the catalogue at work. (I think I may even have suggested we purchase it.)  Well Ms. Perkins did not let me down at all.  LATBND was everything I was expecting, and more.

Ms Perkins writes with humour and pathos.  Neither is overwhelming, but both are effective.   I just fell in love with Lola and Cricket. They were such amazingly real characters.  Lola is wonderfully colourful and creative and has such an amazing belief in herself.  Her periods of self-doubt were heartbreaking and utterly believable.  Her relationship with Cricket was so unusual, yet at the same time it was easy to recognise the feelings they both had.   I loved having main characters that are not part of the 'beautiful people' crowd, but are a little on the outcast side.  Lola's costumes sounded so wonderful and I wish I had had the courage to be as different as she is.

If you read Anna and the French Kiss ( and if you haven't, you should have), you will recognise Anna and St Clair and it was so lovely to find out a little bit about what happened to them after they left France.   Lola and the Boy Next Door is a contemporary romance that should satisfy anyone's need for a romantic fix and I highly recommend it.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Published: December 2010

Publisher: Dutton

Pages: 372

Copy: My own.

Summary: Goodreads

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?

Everything I have seen about this book has been full of praise, and I admit to starting it and looking for fault.  I was wrong, there isn't any.  I loved, loved, LOVED this book, every page of it. The characters were so well done that I was right there in that school with all of them.  I was walking up to Notre Dame with Etienne and Anna.  I was eating crepes with chocolate sauce - well maybe not that, I hate chocolate sauce, but you get the picture

Anna's hopes and fears were so legitimate.  I know I'm a long way off 18, but I do remember what it was like, and this story brought it all back to me. All the inner angst and outer awkwardness.  Wondering about what might happen and missing what actually does happen.  Oh to be a teenager again - nah, I'll stick to reading about it in books! And the humour - it was amazingly funny and had me laughing out loud in so many places.

'"Nice umbrella.  Could've used that this morning." He shakes a hand through his hair, and a drop lands on my bare arm.  Words fail me  Unfortunately, my stomach speaks for itself.  His eyes pop at the rumble, and I'm alarmed by how big and brown they are.  As if he needed any further weapons against the female race.' (page 23)

Every one of the characters in the book was whole and complete - very real, and very easy to relate to. Somehow the stereotypes weren't quite as OTT as they sometimes are, and were all the more believable for that. The story is set in Paris and the school is the 'School of America, Paris' or SOAP as it is referred to, but the school itself could have been any regular, run of the mill boarding school in the US that we love to read about. Co-ed dorms - yes please! Walks along the Boulevard de Paris - I'll say.  Visit Paris - sign me up for the next flight.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you what my favourite thing is about the story, because it would be a major spoiler and I really hate spoilers when I can avoid them.  Like I said before, I loved this story and I think you'd have to be pretty jaded not to enjoy it as well.  Try it out for yourself - you'll see.