3.5 out of 5 This book was highly recommended to my by a friend of mine from Dymocks. I was a bit hesitant to buy a book that practically screamed tween romance. However, I bought the hardcopy out of peer pressure and gave it a crack and I was honestly surprised. I have a deep set love for Paris ever since visiting and that automatically drew me in. This book explores Anna (obviously) and her integration in to Parisian boarding school after being forced there by her father for her senior year. She can't speak a wink of French but she is lucky to realise it's an American International School. She quickly makes a vast array of very different friends from an exuberant Female Soccer fanatic to the alluring Etienne St. Clair who quickly becomes her best friend, but he's taken. Immersing herself in the theatre culture that she oh so loves and embracing her education things start to get complicated with Etienne, his girlfriend and Anna's romantic feelings. |
By no means is it an amazing work of literature; but it's that kind of book you take away on a beach holiday and read in the sun.
It really captures the ideas, feelings and reality of first love; there are obstacles, things aren't all rainbows and lollipops.
I really enjoyed the storyline and the environment and the world building really brought you into the situation you could almost small the baguettes.
However I do have a few stipulations with this book as I do with any book that didn't quick make that 4 star rating;
- The sexual tension between Etienne and Anna was a little bit too overdone, at some points I was just about screaming for him to kiss her already, I feel like at the end they didn't get enough time being a true couple and it just got them together and then the book ended.
- Some characters just faded into the blue or showed up randomly. I felt like some of the characters we were really introduced to in the beginning seemed to drop off the radar like her parents. I also felt like some character lines weren't really explained and I got confused as to their importance when we knew nothing about them; like Etienne's girlfriend.
Overall, it was a really sweet and entertaining read that made me grin and smile. I feel like this book really wholly involves the ups and down of classic first love and it also had a lot of mature ideals that had me thinking it could appeal to a wide range of YA readers from about 14-19.
Hayley xx