Andrea Continues to Try to Review: Anna and the French Kiss (Chic Lit Week: Day 2)

I HAVE CONQUERED LAZINESS! Okay, no, not really. I'm probably going to end up writing this review part by part. Like, a paragraph today, a paragraph tomorrow, so on and so forth. Anywaaay, as promised, Day 2 of Chic Lit Week is Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins!





As per usual, a summary from 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. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss? 








 I'm going to skip the star ratings because, again, I am against them (okay, against is too strong of a word). But, I will leave you with their Goodreads rating! AatFK received a 4.10 out of 5 from Goodreads people. It's a pretty great standing, if you ask me.

There will be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

It took me quite a long time to get myself to sit down and write a review on Anna and the French Kiss. I mean, with Eleanor and Park, I gave myself a day before writing. Not exactly sure if it was pure laziness or if it was because I couldn't find a negative thing about Anna and the French Kiss. It wasn't perfect, no. Definitely not. In my standards, anyway. But I had absolutely no idea what makes it imperfect.

I know, I know, that's probably the worst thing I could say in a review. I asked my sister (who also happens to be a big book nerd) if she ever felt like this about a book before and she told me that maybe AatFK was just too cliché. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just that it's cliché. It's a completely typical chic lit novel. And bless my sister because I finally found out what I didn't like about AatFK.

How Anna and Étienne met was seriously super cliché. There was actually a voice in my head wishing that no, no, please don't let her fall for Étienne (although he actually is a very great guy). All throughout the book I was waiting for a plot twist, something different. But no, Anna ends up with Étienne in the end, but of course there are bumps in the road. I guess that's kind of the only thing that separates it from other chic lit novels, the bumps Anna and Étienne went through were different.

Although, I do have to admit that in the middle of reading this, I seriously considered stopping. Reading it became a chore and I think there was a point where I just wanted to read it because I needed to. I read it for the sake of finishing it. And that is seriously the worst motivation for reading a book. I wished there was more.. I don't know.. adventure (and I don't mean this sexually) in Anna and Étienne's story.

I guess this is just my own reading preferences speaking, but I like a good heartbreak. It shows you the reality that some stories don't end well, but that's because that's not exactly a full story yet, it's merely a chapter. Plus I do have a special place in my heart for tear-jerkers. And AatFK was none of those two.

Nevertheless, I think Anna and the French Kiss is a pretty light read. In my opinion, it's an 'okay' book. Overrated? Nah, I don't think so. I just think a lot more people prefer light, easy novels probably. I'm not even sure if I'm still making sense here.

I think I'll end the post here before I ramble any further (this review was longer than I had expected and probably sucked just as much).

If you've made it this far, I love you very much.

The "A" in LAMP,
Andrea