"Anna and the French Kiss"

by Stephanie Perkins, YA, 2010, 372p, rating=4

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.  (Goodreads)

The characters made this story work.  The setting in Paris France didn't hurt either.  After all, it's the capitol city of romance, right?  Well, finding romance in Anna's new SOAP (School of America in Paris) was far from her mind.  She had Toph at home in Atlanta that was ripe for a sure thing ... they kissed after all.

Anna's assimilation to a different culture was understandably frustrating.  New language, new classmates, new everything.  Then slowly she meets Meredith, Rashmi, Josh, and St. Clair aka Etienne.  Anna discovers that Meredith has a crush on St. Clair, Rashmi and Josh are together, and St. Clair has a girlfriend, the effervescent Ellie.  Of course, Anna livens up the group and becomes best friends with St. Clair.  No harm, no foul ... St. Clair was spoken for and so was Anna ..almost, remember Toph? 

Again it was the characters that made this book great.  They were portrayed so true to life.  Many of my emotions was exercised.  I wanted to smack so and so, I adored so and so, so and so got my dander up, I aww-ed so and so because aww, how romantic! , I cheered for so and so, and so on.  The believable characters made for a flowing read.  I was involved.

In summary:  in the beginning, there was a lot of pain and hurt, in the middle there was a lot of drama, and in the end there was a lot of friendship.  Awesome recipe for a lovely romance novel!