Review: Anna and the French Kiss

#6 exhausted, yet excited

Okay, so maaaaaybe it wasn't the best idea to try starting a book blog the week before my final exams begin. But I have loved every minute of it so far!

The last couple of days have been crazy, as I had a huge exam in my worst subject on Tuesday. The thing is, with so much riding on this exam, I pulled an all-nighter. Gross, right? Well, then I crashed. Hard. So it is now two-ish days later, but I am BACK!

So let's get to it.

Now, yes, I had an exam on Tuesday. But while I was sitting through the most insufferable of classes on Monday, I turned to my dear ol' iPod to help me stay awake. My iPod led me to Stanza, the BEST ebook-reading app out there, in my humble opinion. Stanza let me to Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins.

Since I got my nook (the reason why I link all of these books back to Barnes & Noble), my iPod book library is much smaller to save room. But Anna and the French Kiss is one of those books that I will always NEED to have with me.

So I started re-reading AatFK at 1:30pm, and then by 3:30 in the morning, I had completely finished it. It didn't matter that I knew what was going to happen. It didn't matter that I had an exam in 4.5 hours. I was once again completely sucked into this story. If you haven't read it yet, I hope that this review is enough to convince you to finally give it a chance!

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins

Anna and the French Kiss:

-pages: 375

-rating: 5/5

[Goodreads info]

For this review, I'm just going to give you the Goodreads lowdown, aka summary. I just want to react.

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 Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

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Okay. Almost everything about this book gives me one of those silly grins from ear-to-ear. Stephanie Perkins gives us characters who are not only funny, who are very well-developed, who have great chemistry, but who are most importantly real.

By the time I'm finished with this book (both times, haha), I feel like I am Anna's best friend. I want to share her experiences and chat with her all about them. I want to pick the book up all over again and read it for a third time. I want the book to pick up where it left off and just KEEP GOING.

Anna Oliphant is hysterical, a 17-year-old girl whose rapier wit is utterly enviable. I idolize her, and I'm at least 5 years her senior.

True, some of the decisions Anna makes / the actions Anna takes are questionable--because some of the consequences are cringeworthy--but she exhibits great intelligence when it counts and somehow always knows the right things to say to someone when they need to hear it the most.

Etienne St. Clair is one of the most swoon-worthy boys in YA literature. He might not be the tallest bloke around, but ladies and gentlemen--I'm short and that is the least of my issues. Almost immediately I began to fall in love with St. Clair. He and Anna just click and quickly develop one of the best rapports that I have ever read.

I honestly can't say enough about this book. Everything about it is perfect. Give it a try if you haven't already. Trust me.

And, if you HAVE read this book, and LOVE IT like I do,

are you ready for Stephanie Perkins' next novel?

Lola and the Boy Next Door, by Stephanie Perkins

Lola and the Boy Next Door:

-pages: 338

-rating: TBA

[Goodreads info]

Here's the summary:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

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I honestly CAN'T. WAIT. for this book to be released. I know a few people who were lucky enough to get an ARC of Lola, and I am insanely jealous of them. I have such high expectations, haha.

So who out there is as eager for Lola as I am? What other books are you desperately waiting for?

Have a good night!

Review: Divergent, by Veronica Roth

#3 It's Friday, I'm in love

The book I'm reviewing right now is one of my favorite books of the year all time.

Last month my twitter was abuzz with mentions of some book that was apparently "like The Hunger Games, but better!"

Now, I'm a huge fan of The Hunger Games books (and I will likely review them after I have read them again), so I had to track it down. This book was Divergent, by Veronica Roth.

Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Divergent:

- pages: 487

- rating: 5/5

[Goodreads info]

Set in dystopian Chicago, this book reveals little of the Chicago as I currently know it. The city is no longer a playground, home to millions of the most interesting of people, places, and events. Instead it is a strict system of factions, each separate and contributing to society in different ways. There are five such factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite.

I'm sure you can guess which characteristics each faction values above all others. Abnegation are a selfless people. Amity are kind, Candor value truth in all things, Erudite are scholars. Dauntless are the fearless, the guardians of this society.

During the year following each member of society's 16th birthday, each young male and female takes an exam of sorts which identifies for which Chicago faction his or her personality is most suited. Each individual mulls over what his or her exam revealed, and then at a special ceremony he or she must choose in which faction he or she will belong. It all boils down to this: will you remain with everything you've ever known or will you follow your destiny?

Such is the choice for Beatrice Prior. She knows that as a member of Abnegation, she should put all others' needs and well-being above her own. Yet there are parts of her that struggle with this way of life. Her entire family is in Abnegation, and to choose an alternate faction is to leave everything she knows and loves behind. If she abandons the way of the Abnegates then she abandons her family.

Beatrice's decision will not be easy. The results of her exam are "inconclusive," for reasons which I will not divulge. ;) This makes everything all the more difficult for her as she struggles to figure out what type of person she is, and where in society she is destined to be.

The ceremony arrives, and Beatrice, having thought over the strange information resulting from her exam, makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. She is whisked away to deal with the consequences and we follow her through every single trial and tribulation that comes as a result of her decision. The going is rough, with more challenges than most people can deal with.

As I followed Beatrice Prior on this journey, I fell in love. With everything. Beatrice, later known as Tris, is one of the most well-developed, likable female teens that I have ever had the good fortune of encountering in fiction. She wasn't annoying, I never wanted to yell at her. Tris's personality and voice resonated in me--she is such a strong, intelligently developed character that it was only with reluctance that I moved onto another book; to a new set of characters.

Tris wasn't the only great thing about this book. Roth created a plethora of multi-dimensional characters that each contributed in varying, yet integral ways to the relation of this story. From Tris's family to the friends she makes in her "Faction class" (for lack of a better descriptor), each person contributes to the type of person Tris is turning out to be.

I can't say too much more without giving too much away. So I will only elaborate on a few more things.

1) Roth gives us Four. You have to read to figure out what I mean by that, but let me just say this. Four is another reason why I never wanted to stop reading. *sigh* Four.

2) Chicago. As a resident of this great city, it was fascinating for me to see the future state of this area. Dilapidated buildings, rusted over monuments and landmarks--my imagination went wild the entire time. If you've ever been to Chicago, you'll know exactly what I mean.

3) It's a trilogy. Book number 2, Insurgent is currently being written by Roth. It is the sweetest form of torture, knowing that there is going to be two more books in this series, but also having to stand idly by while Roth tweets notices like "2.5k words today" and similar notices like that. I want it nowww.

4) I has me inspired. I mess around with the GIMP and photoshop CS5 a LOT, but during school I don't really create anything huge/notice-worthy because I'm too busy and don't have the hours to allot to experimentation. For Divergent, however, I was willing to throw away a bit of my "free" time.

For Veronica Roth,

I'm wrapping this up. It's long and babbling.