Anna and the French Kiss (Anna and the French Kiss #1) by Stephanie Perkins • contains 400 pages • published 2. December 2010 by Dutton Books • classified as Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult • obtained through Overdrive • read as eBook • shelve on Goodreads • shelve on The StoryGraph
Synopsis:
Anna can't wait for her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a good job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's not too thrilled when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her crush back home. Will a year of romantic near-misses end in the French kiss Anna awaits?
I finally decided to join the party and read Anna and the French Kiss. It’s one of those books I read because I wanted to know what the book was about. It keeps popping up everywhere online—in the blogosphere, on Instagram, as well as Twitter—and all the online bookstores seem to have it under their recommendations right now. At first I did mostly enjoy the book. For the most part, I liked Stephanie Perkins’ writing style, which was well-suited towards a sweet romance. Sadly, towards the last third, prominent cracks started appearing for me.
Group Dynamics
In the beginning, it took me a while to get past Anna’s whining over being shipped off to boarding school. (Though what’s up with that? For all her whining, I don’t recall a proper reason for her father’s decision to send her to boarding school.)
Once she got over herself and settled into SOAP, things finally got going and I was swept away into the story. It was fun seeing Meredith take Anna under her wing and include her in her clique. I liked how her friendships were developed in individual levels with Meredith, Rashmi, St. Clair and to a limited extent with Josh as well, thus establishing the group dynamics as well.
Very often romance books are so focussed on the couples/triangles/involved parties/whatever, that the other people in their lives hardly feature at all. That is a common gripe for me at least, so I was glad for their clique. I thought it was especially cool that it took Rashmi quite some time to warm up to Anna, and how it took a moment of spilling guts before they finally became truly friends.
Love Web
Love triangles are such weird concepts. A likes B. B likes C. C likes B, not A. See where the problem lies? It’s not a true triangle. But that doesn’t matter because Anna and the French Kiss had a tangle of webs, which in of themselves were fine and dandy but over time just made me want to smack Anna, and St. Clair, and Meredith, and… Scrap that. I want to smack everyone involved.
Basically, this is how their web looked like:
To recap,
- Anna kissed Toph before she left Atlanta.
- Meredith had a long-time crush on St. Clair.
- St. Clair was together with Ellie for a year already.
- Bridgette ended up with Toph behind Anna’s back.
- Anna fell for St. Clair.
- Anna briefly had a thing with Dave.
Technically, messy is good. Messy gets the plot going. But when messy relies a lot on clichés, then the details better make the story worth reading. It also means that there should be enough material to not keep moving in circles, which Anna and the French Kiss ultimately did. It went round and round in circles.
Anna missed Toph. Anna discovered St. Clair. St. Clair had a girlfriend. Meredith wanted St. Clair. Anna wanted St. Clair as well. St. Clair wanted Anna. St. Clair rejected her. She wanted Toph. St. Clair fought with Ellie. St. Clair wanted Anna again. She wanted him too. St. Clair rejected her for Ellie. She wanted Toph again. Toph chose Bridgette, leaving Anna to pine after St. Clair. St. Clair wanted her. St. Clair rejected her. Anna picked Dave. St. Clair fought with Ellie. St. Clair wanted Anna. Anna dumped Dave. Anna wanted St. Clair…
There was so much to and fro! It go tiring in the end, if you ask me.
Sweet Toxic Romance
Anna and Étienne—how sweet when they finally found each other. How wonderful their future might be. Now hold up. He cheated on Ellie. With Anna. Even said so himself:
“I cheated on her every day. In my mind, I thought of you in ways I shouldn’t have, again and again. She was nothing compared to you. I’ve never felt this way about anybody before…”
That’s supposed to sweep me off my feet and compel me to root for their romance? I don’t think so. Once a cheater, always a cheater. I’ve met guys who cheated on my friends. They didn’t just cheat on my friends. They cheated on others before, during, and after. They didn’t change.
What bothers me is that Anna knew all along that he had a girlfriend. Yet she was optimistic about her relationship with Étienne. Sure, she couldn’t help her feelings for him. I get that. She also wanted Ellie to be out of the picture. Also natural. Yet Étienne kept sending her mixed signals and finally made out with her before breaking up with Ellie. That is full-on cheating, which is no good basis for a sweet romance in my books.
To make matters worse, Anna wasn’t worried about Ellie as much as about Meredith. Anna thought that what she did was wrong ultimately because Meredith had feelings for St. Clair as well. Let me point you to the diagram I composed. The romantic link between Meredith and St. Clair is dotted, meaning she had no claim over him. On the other hand, the romantic link between Ellie and St. Clair is solid. Need I say more?
Hypocrisy
It gets better. Anna felt betrayed when she found out about Bridgette and Toph. They got together around Thanksgiving without telling Anna. Anna cut off all ties with Bridgette as a result. Once again, look at that diagram. Her romantic ties to Toph weren’t official. They kissed but didn’t declare anything between them. Nonetheless, Anna thought Bridgette betrayed her.
In spite of her hurt, Anna made out with a guy who had a girlfriend. She knew the pain of betrayal to a lesser degree yet still went on to do so much worse. I wish someone knocked her off her high horse. Alas, nobody did.
Anna wasn’t alone in her hypocrisy. Lover boy joined her. In fact, he said,
“All I could think about was what that bastard did to you last Christmas. Toph never tried to explain or apologize…”
So what does that make Anna’s wonderful Étienne? An even bigger jerk and a hypocrite to boot, that’s what.
Moving On
With that assessment, I’m a bit surprised I ended up giving Anna and the French Kiss 2 stars, instead of 1 star or even 0 stars. See, the thing is, I did enjoy the book at first and like I said, Stephanie Perkins writes in a way that makes you want to smile yourself silly over a sweet romance. Since romance isn’t a favourite genre of mine, that’s saying a lot.
Since I did like the writing style, I do intend to give Lola and the Boy Next Door a chance. If no cheating or hypocrisy is involved, I expect to like it a whole lot more than Anna and the French Kiss.
“For all her whining, I don’t recall a proper reason for her father’s decision to send her to boarding school.)” — Wasn’t it something like cultural immersion? I vaguely recall something being mentioned, but it’s not really discussed at length though. It’s not integral to her story the way it is to everyone else’s there.
“I liked how her friendship’s were developed in individual levels with Meredith, Rashmi, St. Clair and to a limited extent with Josh as well, thus establishing the group dynamics as well.” — Agreed. A lot of romances don’t develop the side characters as well, or just in real life, you run into that issue of the shared/mutual friends among the couple, but sometimes those issues of loyalty/split affection between the two people doesn’t get portrayed in the actual novel as well. Especially with teen relationships, as I imagine that drama to always be a little more intense.
“That is a common gripe for me at least, so I was glad for their clique. I thought it was especially cool that it took Rashmi quite some time to warm up to Anna, and how it took a moment of spilling guts before they finally became truly friends.” — Also agreed, though I find it a little funny that my main issue with Anna is not quite really knowing too much of Rashmi/Mer/Josh beyond their personality types, despite their being friends with Anna, and that is one thing you’re okay with ;). Or we just agree to disagree on that portrayal.
“Technically, messy is good. Messy gets the plot going. But when messy relies a lot on clichés, then the details better make the story worth reading.” — yes yes yes. This reminds me of our twitter convo.
Also your figure is amazing. Also, though I liked the book, sometimes I did have a hard time with it because of the angst. I like Lola much more than Anna and now I’m wondering whether it had the same level of angst or if I was going to tell you to read Lola and then you’d be stuck in angst again. Hmm…
“Once a cheater, always a cheater. I’ve met guys who cheated on my friends. They didn’t just cheat on my friends. They cheated on others before, during, and after. They didn’t change.” — The quote in question from him… yeah. I mean, really Etienne, how much more do you need to break up with Ellie when you’re not even thinking of her properly? I completely agree that it makes Etienne not look very good, particularly as a romantic interest (which is partially why he’s always way further down the list in Perkins guys for me at least… though somehow makes it at the top of a lot of other blogger lists???).
“Yet Étienne kept sending her mixed signals and finally made out with her before breaking up with Ellie.” — Yeah. Yeah. I feel like in Anna’s position, I might’ve been a lot angrier with Etienne because keeping her on a leash… but then again I also discount anyone who’s got a boy/girlfriend so. *shrug* ALso re: Ellie. Good point. I think I’ve seen other reviewers point out that Ellie kinda gets villainized as a “slut” – slutty nurse who doesn’t care about Etienne sort of thing.
“I wish someone knocked her off her high horse.” — Ahh, here’s where I’ll disagree with you, cause I do think Anna knocks herself a bit off the high horse. And Matt does too. Doesn’t she realize that she had done the exact same thing? And then they become friends again? Doesn’t make Etienne or Toph particularly okay, but at least the Bridgitte/Anna friendship got repaired?
“See, the thing is, I did enjoy the book at first and like I said, Stephanie Perkins writes in a way that makes you want to smile yourself silly over a sweet romance.” — Agreed. This is one of those books where I can acknowledge why it wouldn’t work for someone else and the problematic things but still like it and probably still like it if I reread it too.
Also don’t hold your horses on Lola. She starts off with a boyfriend. If you want less cheating and hypocrisy, maybe go for Isla instead? Though I do love Lola and Cricket…
I’m sorry you didn’t like Anna and the French Kiss. I really liked it. I actually think that that love web is very common in high school, especially a small high school with not a lot of people. Similar things happened at my high school.
But not every book is for every person. Sorry this didn’t work out for you.
Don’t be sorry! Like you said, not every book is for every person :)
You’re right, love webs are common, and in a way, I’m glad Perkins went with that rather than just focusing on a love triangle of Anna, St. Clair and Étienne. But it’s just beyond me how so readers can ship Anna & Étienne when their relationship is tainted by cheating and hypocrisy. If the second half of the book didn’t exist, I might actually have walked away liking it. But I considered the book in its entirety, so I couldn’t look past these issues that bothered me so much.
The paragraph about everyone wanting everyone else making everything go in circles WINS.
I love the web you made. It really makes the plot looks so absurd in terms of relationships and reminds me of Gossip Girl a bit. Étienne is one hell of an infuriating character and Anna is just as bad.
I hate, hate, hate how the double standards are portrayed in this book. Whyyy would you make Anna go through the betrayal if it wasn’t going to stop her from doing the same to someone else’s boyfriend. What’s the logic in that? This was pretty much the deal breaker for me; if not the whole drama over St. Clair becoming Étienne and then St. Clair and then Étienne again. Ridiculous, I tell you.
P.S. Let me know how the experience of reading Lola goes for you.
Well, it is true. That skeleton of the story’s so simple, I could’ve written it in French.
Actually, I was happy to see a web. It shows that Anna’s world is bigger than just her and St. Clair. It’s the sequence of events that put me off. Hahaha. Gossip Girl. Didn’t think of that but I can totally see the parallel! Lol.
Yes! The double standards made me so mad. As you said, going through her own betrayal had such a minor impact on her character development, there hardly was any point in it. Sigh. Personally, I could identify with the significance of St. Clair versus Étienne. Like, I have different nicknames that specific people call me and I hate it when people who are less close call me by nicknames that people closer to me use. It’s like a level of affection is attached to each specific nickname. But I agree that the constant switching from St. Clair to Étienne and back was a bit much.
I’ll be happy to spoil the entire book for you, if that’s what you desire ;)
I read this one a lonngggg time ago so the details are fuzzy. I remember really enjoying it but getting peeved by the cheating as well. Hate seeing that in books! And unfortunately, I think Lola has cheating as well but not on the level of Anna? It was still really cute though and I liked it a lot more than Anna so if you’re interested in it, I think it’s worth a try!
Oh no! I was hoping that cheating wouldn’t carry over to the next book :( Now I’m torn. But at the same time, I want to know what happens with Lola. I was told she’s quirky, so I’m keeping up my hopes for now.
You have no idea how pleased I am to find someone else who understands my feelings towards this book. Everyone else is so in love with it that I’m sitting here going “Am I missing something?” Your review of the book pretty much summed up why I just didn’t care for it. Especially this:
That’s supposed to sweep me off my feet and compel me to root for their romance? I don’t think so. Once a cheater, always a cheater.
EXACTLY. I did not like Etienne and I couldn’t swoon over him because of this. I just. Ugh. :| Cheating boyfriends in books do not make for a swoon-worthy love story for me, it just makes me sick.
There are a few others who do share the same gripes. Haha. But for the most part, a lot of people seem to adore this book. If I shred the second half to pieces, I can see why but as an entire book, I am baffled. If Anna was a real-life friend, I would have made her snap out of all this nonsense. It’s just sad.