Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins I enjoyed reading this book, it's absolutely adorable and I kept getting the feeling that I would have loved it a whole lot more if it had been out when I was a teen. I think Perkins does a great job in getting inside the head of a confused teenage girl (confused because all teens are prone to confusion, it's part of the life cycle).I think one of the reasons I felt connected to this book is that I also studied abroad, I didn't go to a boarding school or anything but I feel the experience you get from living in another country really broadens horizons. I understood how Anna felt throughout the story and how sometimes you can have a love-hate relationship with a country only to realize its true value once you have to move on. what I loved most about this book is that Perkins populated her literary world with smart main characters and there is nothing more attractive to me in a book then that. I think I would have hated reading a book about teenage angst if Anna would have been dumb or head over heels over someone who didn't seem to be worth it. I didn't want to give it more stars because I think the story and the writing could have been better. Stephanie Perkins is a writer with great potential, her ideas are great but she needs a little work on delivering them. I felt sometimes that certain things were obvious but she had to clear them up and explain when there was no explanation needed. I also felt that as a reader I was ahead of the main character the whole way through (I didn't really mind with this story) and I think writers should work on making certain things less predictable or cliche. Still I really did love this book...it got me feeling and reminiscing about my teenage years which in a way is great, because I would never want to relive that time period again, but being able to feel with the intensity one feels as an adolescent is always a gift when you are older, usually because it's hard for it to happen again.