Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

Began reading: 6.7.2016
Completed reading: 13.7.2016
Overall rating: 4 stars

Here is everything I know about France: Amélie and Moulin Rouge. The Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe... And, I'm moving to Paris for a year. To boarding school. Alone.

Anna had everything figured out - she was about to start senior year with her best friend, she had a great weekend job, and her huge work crush looked as if it might finally be going somewhere... Until her dad decides to send her 4383 miles away to Paris. On her own.

But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna finds herself making new friends, including Étienne St. Clair, the smart, beautiful boy from the floor above. But he's taken - and Anna might be too. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for?

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is a contemporary young adult novel that contains romance. I purchased this book after the hype for the series, and I have been waiting for the right time to get into it. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think it was outstanding – so I didn’t really understand the excitement.

Perkins’ writing style was appealing and flawless. There were no errors, and was almost perfectly structured. The only issue I came across in terms of structure was that the plot went up and down a few too many times, which made the complications feel like they were snowballing. Aside from this, I thought Perkins did an ideal job of portraying a foreign student in Paris. There were some great quotes scattered throughout the novel, including:

I don’t want to feel this way around him. I want things to be normal. I want to be his friend, not another stupid girl holding out for something that will never happen (p. 77).

The dialogue is translated across the bottom of the screen in yellow. The theatre is silent, respectful, until the first gag. The Parisians and I laugh together. Two hours speed by, and then I’m blinking in a street lamp, lost in a comfortable daze, thinking about what I might see tomorrow (p. 131).

…we’ll talk about everything BUT our parents… or perhaps we won’t talk at all. We’ll just walk. And we’ll keep walking until the rest of the world ceases to exist (p. 263).

I’ve spent my entire senior year suffocating between lust and heartache, ecstasy and betrayal, and it’s only getting harder to see the truth. How many times can our emotions be tied to someone else’s – be pulled and stretched and twisted – before they snap? Before they can never be mended again? (p. 361).

‘I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul’ (p. 391).

For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It’s a person.

And we’re finally home (p. 401).

More quotes from the book can be found here.

I thought the plot was interesting – a girl attending a boarding school in a foreign city. I enjoyed being able to travel around Paris with the characters, visiting famous tourist attractions, as well as some not-so-famous locations. All of the settings in the novel were described in detail, which demonstrated the benefit of imagery in writing. I really liked the way the Pantheon was described, especially when Anna and Étienne were going down the stairs and they were holding up the rest of the line because of Étienne’s fear of falling.

There was a good amount of characters in the novel – not a lot that would cause confusion, but more than a few, eliminating boredom. Each of the characters had their own, unique personalities which made the plot more interesting. They each reacted to situations in different ways, making their friendships realistic. *WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER* The most obvious example was when Anna and Étienne were caught making out by Meredith. Meredith reacted in an upset, heartbroken way, while Anna felt embarrassed and betrayed by Étienne. Étienne felt guilty, while Rashmi and Josh did their best to support Anna.

In my opinion, I believed that the novel was a little fluffy for my liking, but I expected that. I didn’t mind most of the romance throughout the book, but I did cringe a couple of times. For example, when Anna emailed Étienne: some of the stuff they discussed seemed a bit unrealistic. Also, when Étienne contacted Anna via her home phone. When Anna asked him how he found this number, he said that he found it in the phone book – isn’t that just a little weird? Couldn’t he have just asked over email? *WARNING: SPOILER* Another example was when Anna realised that she was in love with him. I don’t know about you, but someone falls in love or realises they have feelings for someone, I’m pretty sure we don’t stumble around in a daze, knocking things over.

      

There was some humour in the book, too, which made me laugh. Mind you, it’s probably not meant to be as funny as I thought it was. I just have a bad sense of humour. It was pretty late at night when I was reading this section, but as soon as I read it, I laughed and shared it with my sister (who didn’t find it funny):

Étienne: ‘Would you rather be at the Lambert bash? I hear Dave Higgenbottom is bringing his beer bong’.

Anna: ‘Higgenbaum’.

Étienne: ‘That’s what I said. Higgenbum’ (p. 142).

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I didn’t really understand the hype surrounding this book or Étienne. To be honest, I had higher expectations, but I guess you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I was hoping it would focus on being at a boarding school in Paris; however, I found that it focused more on the relationship between Anna and Étienne. Speaking of, what is so great about this guy? He started off well, but as the plot progressed, he grew more secretive and clingy. How is that attractive? Not to mention that he led more than one girl on…

My favourite character was Rashmi, as she was relatable, studious, supportive, loyal and admirable. I found her relatable, as she has a pet rabbit and her sister has friends who have a negative influence on her. My sister was in a similar situation, where her friends took advantage of her interest in studies, made her feel stupid, and betrayed her. Anyway, Rashmi appeared to be a true friend, which is why she was my favourite character. I think we could really get along!

                    

I really wanted Anna to be my favourite character, but sadly that didn’t happen. She was sweet and naive, but turned into a massive hypocrite and contradicted herself. She was upset because her best friend betrayed her, yet betrayed another friend in the same way. What the heck? She began as the girl who didn’t want to become a sappy girl, longing for the guy who was too good for her, yet she did.

I have a list of characters that are on my hate list: Bridgette, Dave, Mike, Amanda, Nicole and Sanjita. They’re on my hate list, enough said.

                                   

Also, shout-out to Isla – she is so adorable and I can’t wait to read about her in the final book (is she in Lola and the Boy Next Door?)!

My favourite part of this novel was when Anna travelled around Paris, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone. I especially liked her visits to the various theatres, and reading about how much she enjoys the atmosphere in them. Her love for films makes me want to travel to Paris just to watch movies in different theatres!

Recommendation time! If you like Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik, the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series by Louise Rennison, and Looking For Alaska by John Green, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Wild Child, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, LOL, and What A Girl Wants.

I will also be reviewing the rest of the Anna and the French Kiss series, including Lola and the Boy Next Door and Isla and the Happily Ever After. Keep an eye out for those!

Happy reading!

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Low Red Moon - Ivy Devlin

Began reading: 29.6.2016
Completed reading: 4.7.2016
Overall rating: 3.5 stars

She knows what he is. But she can't be sure what he's done.

The only thing Avery Hood can recall about the night her parents died is that she saw silver - deadly silver, moving inhumanly fast. As much as she wants to remember who killed her parents, she can't, and there's nothing left to do but try to piece her life back together.

Then Avery meets the new boy at school. Ben is mysterious and beautiful, and Avery feels a connection with him like nothing she's ever experienced. Ben is also a werewolf, but Avery trusts him - at first. Then she sees that sometimes his eyes flash an inhuman silver. And she learns that she's not the only one who can't remember the night her parents died...

Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin is a young adult paranormal fantasy with a hint of romance. I found this book at a local discount shop for $2 and I couldn’t resist. The cover was gorgeous, and contained positive reviews from one of my favourite authors: Melissa de la Cruz, as well as Claudia Gray – whose Spellcaster series I have previously reviewed. I had high hopes for this book, especially after reading the blurb and author reviews; however, I was rather disappointed.

One thing that I wasn’t disappointed about was the amount of quotes that I considered to be impressive. These include:

…I’d tried to put what was left of them back together… all the blood on me came from me trying to make them whole when they were broken (p. 2).

Mom said that loving art was just as important as being able to create it (p. 12).

When I was little, I was scared of only one thing. I was scared I would be taken into the sky, that somehow I’d be pulled up there, that all the bright stars Dad and Mom showed me would want to take me away from home and the woods that held me tight.

Now I wished the stars would take me away. I wanted to be absorbed by them. To be pulled away by them, to see –

To see Mom and Dad again (p. 38).

I’d thought I understood longing. I’d read about it and even thought I’d felt it back when I wanted to have friends the first week or so I started at Woodlake High. I’d hoped for it, for friends, until I realized it wasn’t going to happen.

But now I realized I hadn’t understood longing at all. It wasn’t about hope. It was about want, pure and simple (p. 68).

I looked at the trees, so constant, forever standing tall, forever standing watch, and wished I had their strength (p. 124).

Sometimes you could get so turned around that even breathing became complicated (p. 161).

More quotes from the book can be found here.

Devlin used literary techniques, such as imagery, in a way that was beneficial for readers. I was able to imagine Avery in school, especially art class, or wandering among the trees in the forest. Similarly, I was able to picture Avery and Ben together in that dark alley next to Bessie’s, making out then getting caught by Renee. So, I must commend Devlin for doing a really good job of making the plot easier to imagine. It kept me interested in the story and the characters, which is always a good thing!

I think many readers who have read this book might agree with me when I say that this book had a really strong introduction, and quickly went downhill after Avery moved in with Renee. The plot begins with Avery discovering her parents’ bodies, covered in their blood and screaming: “I was covered in blood when the police found me” (p.1). This line could have been the introduction to a really awesome novel; however, it didn’t have much of an influence within the plot, so this was disappointing.

I cannot repeat this enough: the dialogue in this book was EXTREMELY frustrating! I couldn’t stand reading the dialogue because I wanted to scratch my eyes out. It was HORRIBLE! The characters were constantly interrupting each other, or breaking off their sentences without finishing. The conversations were broken, and this made me want to scream.

                        

Similarly, the plot and dialogue seemed to resemble Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. For example, this quote reminded me of Bella and Edward in Twilight, and made me cringe:

For some reason, I didn’t believe him. I don’t know why, but I knew he had felt my sadness out here in the woods and had come over. Come to see me (p. 44).

Like this quote, the insta-love thing felt cheesy and unrealistic. I’m sorry, but how can a girl who has just lost her parents in a gruesome manner fall in love with a strange boy who is a new arrival in town?

Some of the plot twists within this book were predictable, while others weren’t so foreseeable. Either way, I had a feeling that a plot twist was about to happen – it was just a matter of guessing whether it was predictable or not. The ultimate plot twist was unpredictable, but it was still a let-down.

                                 

I thought that the conclusion was a little rushed, which made it rather confusing. As I mentioned above, the conclusion held the ultimate plot twist but didn’t create that surprising climax that an ultimate plot twist should have. Following that twist, the whole hospital scene kind of felt rushed and strange. Avery, after experiencing an intense and life-threatening situation, acted like everything was normal. I’m pretty sure that 99.99% of people would be traumatised after experiencing what she went through. It just seemed unrealistic, which affected my overall rating.

I didn’t decide upon a favourite character, as they were all bland and seemed to speak in monotone in my head. But if I had to choose someone, I’d say Renee would be a notable figure. She was the sanest character, and held a secret past that I found rather mysterious and intriguing.

There were some characters that just seemed a bit pointless, including Kirsta and Steve. I don’t know why Devlin emphasised Avery’s desire for friendship when they never end up forming a bond, nor does Avery spend much time at school. It felt like Devlin wanted to do something with this friendship, only to give halfway through and forget to remove everything associated with Avery’s ‘friendship’ with Kirsta. Similarly, I understand why Devlin put Steve’s character in the novel, but he didn’t seem to have much of a role besides being a suspect. In the end, I just found characters like these two to be unnecessary distractions.

My favourite part of the book would have to be the introduction. As I mentioned previously, I thought it was a really strong start to the story, but it slowly deteriorated. I thought that it could have taken the plot in numerous directions, yet somehow the author weakened narrative, leaving me and many other readers disappointed.

                           

Recommendation time! If you like the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz, Skinned series by Judith Graves, The Wolf Within by Kristi Chestnutt, and The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Teen Wolf, Being Human, and Big Wolf on Campus.

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The Good Girls - Sara Shepard

Began reading: 22.6.2016

Completed reading: 28.6.2016

Overall rating: 3.9 stars

"This is our fault," she whispered. "We said those names. And now everyone's dying."

The Perfectionists are five senior high school girls who seemed to have it all. But then they were framed for murder.

They may have talked about getting revenge on their nemesis, Nolan, but they didn't mean to really hurt him. And just when they thought they'd figured out who did, the whole case has blown wide open again. Now it looks like someone's found their secret revenge list, and they're picking off the names on it one by one.

Who is really behind the killings? Can the girls trust anyone? And who will be the next to die?

The Good Girls by Sara Shepard is a contemporary young adult fiction novel that contains genres including mystery, thriller, romance and suspense. It is the second and final book from The Perfectionists series. As I mentioned in the previous review, I accidentally purchased this book first, then had to wait to find the previous book to be stocked. Anyway, after finishing this book, I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy it as much as its predecessor. It’s not to say that I disliked this book – it contained things that I didn’t really enjoy.

As I expected, the book was well-written, as it utilised literary techniques to better describe situations and characters. *WARNING: SPOILER* There weren’t that many notable quotes, but the ones that I enjoyed I’ll include here:

It was ironic – the girl she hated, the girl who hated her, might be the person who needed her the most right now (p. 137).

Julie was going to get rid of all the evidence – every drop, every fingerprint. Even the body.

That was what you did for best friends (p. 161).

Something else inside her, some deep dark part of her, had taken over when she’d done all those awful things.

How did she know that something wouldn’t take over again? (p. 201).

…they had all cried together, and it was like they had finally acknowledged that…thing… the shared pain that was there with them every moment of every day but was too great to even speak of. Just knowing that they were in it together made it hurt a tiny, microscopic bit less (p. 275).

More quotes from the book can be found here.

The book was well-structured, as it was clearly defined. There were some moments in the novel that didn’t really fit or seemed unnecessary; however, as I kept reading, everything fell into place. Because of this, I think that the plot flowed really well.  The only thing that didn’t really flow was the conclusion, but I’ll get to that later.

Similar to The Perfectionists, there were some intriguing plot twists. Some were predictable, while some weren’t. Unfortunately, I went on Goodreads and found some spoilers – I regret this, haha! The ultimate plot twist wasn’t one that I liked, and I’ll discuss this further later. But I’ll admit that all of these plot twists contributed to the overall mystery of the series, so whether or not I enjoyed it, I must commend Shepard on creating these unique twists.

As in the previous book, the protagonists and secondary characters all had diverse personalities, which was great. I especially loved the protagonists, as I was able to get an insight into how they think and feel in various situations. I was also glad to see that some of the secondary characters played a more central or key role in the plot. For example, Claire made more of an appearance and was significant in assisting the girls with identifying the murderer. I wished more authors did this with their characters – it would help with diversity and give readers an opportunity to like other characters besides the protagonists.

                        

I found the book to be juicy, but not as juicy as The Perfectionists. I felt that the plot was lacking some drama or suspense that the prior book had. I’m not too sure how to explain it, but it just felt like the novel was a little bland. The plot twists helped with keeping me interested, but I wasn’t as intrigued as I was in the first book. In the first book, the part where the girls raid Granger’s house was full of suspense and intensity, but there wasn’t really much of that in this novel.

I agree with many readers when they say that this book’s conclusion was anti-climactic. As I mentioned before, I foresaw the ultimate plot twist which affected my outlook on this book, but that wasn’t the only reason. *WARNING: SPOILER* I found the mental illness/split personality thing to be really confusing and disappointing. How could we go through just over one and a half books of interactions, situations, perceptions and relationships involving all five of these girls to find that one of them wasn’t even alive?! How does that work? How can we read about all five girls going into a house, working together to find evidence, only to find that only 4 girls existed?

                   

My favourite character remains as Ava Jalali – she’s still loyal, courageous, studious and intelligent. I’m so glad that all of her issues were resolved, especially with her dad and boyfriend. I just wished Alex played a bigger role in this novel.

I’m still really confused about Fielder – I mean, is he crazy? Did he know about Julie’s split personality? I’m just SO confused! Still, I’m glad that a lot of the girls’ issues were resolved and their tormentors learnt their lessons (can I really say that about those that died?).

                     

*WARNING: SPOILER* My favourite parts were anything that involved Ava – maybe her argument with Leslie in the café?, and the final party where Claire almost died. I enjoyed reading Leslie’s confrontation in the café because it was public and intense. I mean, why would someone do something like that? Would she get away with it? It also kick-started the suspicions on who the murderer was. I felt bad for Ava, but after reading this part, I hoped that she could tell her dad the truth about Leslie. I also enjoyed the final party because it was similar to the beginning of The Perfectionists – began with a party, ended with a party – and was full of mystery. It reached its climax, where all the girls realised who the murderer was and confronted them.

Recommendation time! If you like the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard, Pretty Girl by J. C. Burke, Fake by Beck Nichols, Follow Me Back by Nicci Cloke, Maestra by L. S. Hilton, They All Fall Down by Roxanne St. Claire, and Kiss of Broken Glass by Madeleine Kuderick, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, Scream Queens and How to Get Away with Murder.

My review for The Perfectionists can be found by clicking on the title.

Happy reading!

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