Anna and the French Kiss

Anna's father has made a name for himself as a writer of tear-jerker novels, which have gained a substantial popularity. As a result of his bolstered ego, he now wants his daughter to spend a year studying abroad, at a school in Paris. Anna doesn't want to go, but she finds herself alone in a dormitory in Paris a couple days before the school year begins. She has left her best friend, her younger brother, her mother, and a hopeful boyfriend. Her world seems entirely disrupted. When her next door neighbor invites her over on her first night alone to comfort her, Anna becomes a member of a small circle of close friends who have been attending the school for several years together, most notably Etienne St. Clair, who no one can deny is attractive, from his perfect hair to his perfect teeth to his British accent, to his tidy habits and good manners. Anna finds herself getting swept up in his friendliness towards she and his friends, but especially towards her...or is that her imagination?

As Anna spends time with these friends, she embarks on a journey of growth. Learning French, learning her way around the streets of Paris, and building new friendships with the group of friends she makes in this expensive boarding school. She discovers that there are many small movie theaters all along the streets of Paris, which she hadn't known, but as she loves film and wants to be a film critic, this delights her. She slowly comes to find herself loving Paris and her new friends as the others grow harder to keep in touch with and more distant. St. Clair struggles with his family just as Anna struggles against her father, but where Anna was able to adapt to being sent to boarding school in Paris, it is less clear whether St. Clair be able to come to terms with his own father, who won't let him return to California to live near his mother. Anna finds herself drawn to him, while trying to remember that she is attracted to the boy from back home, a boy she hasn't seen and has only infrequently heard from over the year.

Solche Romane sollte es mehr geben auf der Welt! Ja, es ist eine klischeegeladene, kitschige Liebesgeschichte - die auch noch in Paris spielt - aber wen stört es? Mir hat die Geschichte gut gefallen, von Seite zu Seite hab ich sie mehr gemocht, bis ich das Buch nicht mehr aus der Hand legen konnte. Wer dieses Buch beginnt, sollte viel Zeit haben. Hier herrscht große Suchtgefahr. Das Buch hat mehr zu bieten, als man auf den ersten Blick denken mag.

Es beginnt recht moderat und unscheinbar, Annas Sehnsucht nach ihren USA-Freunden ist nachvollziehbar, aber nicht weiter fesselnd. Doch dann lernt sie Étienne kennen. Er ist der gutaussehende Schulschwarm. Er ist ein Charmeuer und alle lieben ihn. Ebenso Anna. Aber liebt sie ihn wirklich, oder ist es nur starke Freundschaft? Annas Gedankenspiele sind super unterhaltsam und bringen zum Kichern. Ihr Humor und die Erzählart ist klasse.

Anna und Étienne's Ende kann man sich von Anfang an denken und doch gibt es so viele Überraschungen. Stephanie Perkins hat ein Händchen für süße und romantische Szenen, die so real wirken. Sie spielt mit den Gefühlen des Lesers, zieht ihn direkt in Annas Bann. Man findet hier und da typische Szenen, aber die unkonventionellen und so viel überzeugendere Szenen überwiegen und bringen jedes Herz zum Schmelzen.

Andere Personen gibt es auch und Nebenhandlungen. Aber diese bleiben tatsächlich ziemlich im Hintergrund. Der Fokus liegt ganz auf Anna und Étienne - was wunderbar ist. Manchmal bedarf es keine "großen" Storys. Die großen Gefühle überzeugen.
Das Ende ist süß. Ein breites Lächeln breitet sich auf dem Gesicht eines jeden Lesers aus, da bin ich sicher. Allerdings ist meine Lieblingsszene schon etwas früher. Und zwar die Szene des ersten Kusses. Hach! Eigentlich gruselig, umgeben von so vielen Menschen - und doch sooo schön! Ich war hin und weg. Wieder und wieder lesen!

Und nicht nur die Liebe zwischen Anna und Étienne bringt Stephanie Perkins super herüber, auch die Liebe zu Paris und ganz Frankreich. Man möchte sofort ein Ticket nach Paris kaufen und die Kulisse diesen Romans erkunden.

Das Cover finde ich recht nett. Und es ist tausend Mal schöner ist als das deutsche Cover: Croissants zieren es. Bitte. Wer kauft denn ein Buch, wenn solch ein Bild der "Eyecatcher" sein soll? Dann doch lieber Fanart. Die Titelwahl finde ich gut - Englisch und Deutsch.


Fazit:
Ein zuckersüßer Roman für Jugendliche, der ohne Fantasy-Elemente auskommt und mit der Magie der Realität verzaubert. Unbedingt lesen!

Full review on Reader's Dialogue: readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2011/02/anna-and-french-kiss.html

Fun and flirty, sweet and sensitive, insightful and thoughtful - Anna and the French Kiss has all of it! I love how the tone of the story changes with Anna's changed perceptions, and with the events taking place that effect these changes. The beginning of the book is light and funny, just the way new friends in a foreign country would be, and it segues so smoothly into the heavier themes and sadder events of the middle and last parts of the story. I found myself laughing out loud at many points through the middle of the book, and I felt achingly overwhelmed by tears at many points in the latter half of the book. The way Stephanie balances the two is absolutely brilliant and makes for such a rich, fulfilling emotional experience.

The themes of the story are really subtly woven into the story, but they come across quite clearly and strongly when you think about the story. The intricacy of relationships, of who's dating whom and who's available at what point in time, becomes so alive as all the characters, even the peripheral characters, juggle all the relationships in their lives. Many times, especially in YA novels, characters focus on one relationship that defines the story. I love how Anna deals with her father, her mother, her brother, her best friend back home, her ex-boyfriend and maybe-boyfriend in Atlanta, her new friends in Paris, Etienne, and the "other" groups in school. Every character is like that - dealing with myriad relationships - because isn't that the way it is in real life? Stephanie manages somehow to glide from one to the next and make it all come together and bloom with a life of its own.

And I absolutely love the way Anna and Etienne both have to learn lessons of self-knowledge and self-realization. This, again, is incorporated so well into the actual story but is so clear, when they examine their reactions, have huge fights, and have excruciatingly honest conversations. These are some of the parts that made me almost cry, as the two of them deal with betrayal, conflicting feelings, confusing messages, and so much other baggage.

So what started out a light, fun read turned into something so much more substantial, and it is a story that will stay with me for a long long while!