Hey there internet!
Today i'm here with a review of the
Anna and the French Kiss Series!
This review will may contain spoilers, so consider yourself warned!!
Anna and the French Kiss
4.5/5 stars
I changed my mind so many times when reading this book. At first i didn't really care about the story, or the characters. In fact the only character i liked at all was Rashmi. But by the end i was so engrossed in every aspect that i didn't want it to end!
I really loved the development of the friendships, especially Anna and Rashmi, and that surprised me, because going into the book it didn't seem like a story that cared about friends, more that it just cared about the hot boy. But i loved how real the friendships felt. They weren't all easy and great from day one, all of them had problems, and that's what kept me so interested in the plot. It felt like i was reading about a real group of friends.
The opinions that changed the most however were the ones i had about Anna and St Clair as individual characters. Anna was an odd one for me. At the start i didn't really care for her, then she really grew on me, then she lost me completely, then i was her biggest supporter. I honestly couldn't stand her at the beginning, she just annoyed the hell out of me, but by the end it was like i had literally seen her grow up. It was very odd.
Then there's St Clair. Oh St Clair. What a turbulent relationship we had. I truly hated him at the beginning. I couldn't understand why everyone who had read this book was so in love with him - i just wanted to punch him! But then i wanted to hug him. Then i loved him. Then we went back to the "i hate him i want to punch him" feelings. Then he was my favourite person in the entire book. His story was really interesting to me. I loved seeing his relationships with his parents - even if they were just snapshots through Anna's eyes. He was just someone i wanted to hang out with all the time.
I hated Toph. Ugh i don't even want to waste time talking about him, but him and Bridge were a big part of me coming to love Anna, so here we go. What they did was awful and it sucked so much. But i could see where Bridge was coming from, Toph - not so much. He was such a douche i just hated him instantly. Ugh let's move on.
There was one scene in the book that i still don't understand why it's there. And that's the scene where Anna attacks Amanda. Now don't get me wrong the actual "attacking a girl who's saying mean things about friend" is something i can 100% get on board with. What i hated about it was the particular insult that Stephanie Perkins decided to use. This book was written in 2010...there are 1000000s of different insults she could have used and i'm just really not okay or comfortable with the one she decided to just throw in there.
Overall, i thought this was a super great, fun contemporary and as soon as i finished i had to read the next one!!
(also a big thing i learnt - american's say banana different to english people. who knew....well...except literally everyone else!)
Lola and the Boy Next Door
5/5 stars
LOLA! MY GIRL!
Lola is my favourite of the series. I love the characters, the plot was my favourite, the setting was my favourite, and i just loved every aspect of it!
This book had me gripped from the very first page, which was so nice after taking so long to get into Anna, and even though i hated Max with a passion (more on this in a second) the whole story was just so perfect i read it in one sitting.
Now. Max. Ugh. I have one thing to say. 22 year olds should not date 16/17 year olds under any circumstance. It's so wrong and i just hated it so much. I don't care that Lola kept explaining that she "lied about her age when we met" because as soon as he found out she was 16 he should have ended it. He shouldn't have slept with her. He shouldn't have treated her the way he did. Max was the ultimate awful, terrible boyfriend character. And oh boy did i hate him.
Cricket however is a whole other story.
Cricket is the kind of boy that makes reading contemporaries fun. He was interesting and funny and exciting and so clearly cared for Lola that it made me care even more about her. He was so different to St Clair, and i loved him instantly. I even loved his twin sister Calliope.
One of the things i really loved about this book were the family relationships. Both Lola and her two dad's relationship, and Cricket and his family's relationship. They just added so much to the story and to the individual characters. I also loved the fact that both Lola and Cricket had two, normal, caring, loving parents - which never happens in YA!
I loved how Anna and St Clair were incorporated into this book as well. I thought having them both work with Lola while St Clair was also going to school with Cricket was fantastic, and i loved seeing all their little friendships grow and change and deepen. Plus i just loved getting to see Anna and St Clair all happy and in love!!
Overall this book was probably my favourite YA contemporary i have ever read, and i am so glad that i decided to pick up this series!!
Isla and the Happily Ever After
5/5 stars
Oh Isla. Isla. Isla. Maybe i should have lowered my expectations.
It took me at least half of this book to actually get interested in it! But man as soon as i was interested i literally couldn't stop reading!
I loved Josh as much as i did in Anna, but it took me SO LONG to like Isla. She just seemed really annoying and whiny. I don't know exactly what it was about her, but there was something that just made me hate her.
One of the big issues with this book were the sex scenes. Now i'm all for adding sex scenes to books, because hey it happens in real life why shouldn't it happen in books? But the ones in Isla were so awkward, and cliche, and cringey that i just wanted it all to go away.
Another issue i had was the feeling that Stephanie Perkins literally just chose two characters that were left and that didn't really do anything to be together in this book, and until about 70% of the way through i just didn't understand how they would ever work as a couple.
I did love how at the end he gave her the finished version of his graphic novel and then waited out in the rain for her. It was ridiculously cute, and honestly that graphic novel was the only thing that sold me on their relationship. But i'm glad it did.
But let's be real. The best thing about this entire book was the Anna and St Clair proposal! I cried. Like actual tears came from my eyes when i realised what was happening. I just love them so much. That moment was so perfect and so THEM that it made this whole book seem so wonderful to me.
Overall i did love this book, and honestly i think my running order of favourites is Lola, Isla, Anna....it's because of that damn comment that i just can't get over i'm sorry!!
But Isla was the perfect ending to this series that i was looking for, even with all of it's faults i did love it and i was rooting for everyone in the end.
Meghan xxx
