Anna and the French Kiss Review

by Stephanie Perkins

Rating: 3/5

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?

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This was another cutesy teen romance I’ve been wanting to read for ages! I’m glad I finally did, its finally checked off my backlist! And this one definitely gave me vibes of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, except we’re in a boarding school in Paris.

We’re following Anna, whose father decided that she should spend her senior year abroad at a fancy boarding school in France despite her protest. Anna is alone, separated from her friends, scared to be in a place that speaks a foreign language. But she’s surprised to find a group of friends who welcome her with open arms. And among them, Etienne, who is simply stunning, except he’s got a girlfriend. 

I’ll be honest, I didn’t love this one. There were parts I found adorable and so incredibly sweet. But I am not of fan of cheating. So the fact that Etienne had a girlfriend that he wouldn’t break up with was very infuriating to me. If I forget about that detail and see this just as a friends-to-lovers romance, I would say I loved it.

And I truly mean that. I found Anna and Etienne’s relationship cute. They bonded together immediately. Anna is trying her hardest to stick to just being friends, ignoring her attraction for him, to not overstep that boundary, knowing he has a girlfriend. And Etienne was endearing towards her and helped her overcome her fears of being in a foreign country.

And what’s a high school story without some drama! Of course, we see a taste of that here and there throughout the plot. Even that, I found entertaining to follow at times. It was definitely giving off some Mean Girls vibes with some of the drama we get to see.

Overall, I found this to be cute and sweet, overlooking the fact that Etienne already had a girlfriend. I could have done without that part. I think this would still have been just as sweet and dramatic without it. This was also a very quick read. I breezed through it fast. The drama kept me on my toes, not wanting to put it down.

If you enjoy teen angsty romances, you should definitely consider picking this one up!