Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

Summary

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 Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?


Thoughts

It's rare that I'll begin a book and have a ton of red flags raised in the beginning...and then end up loving loving the book.  In the beginning I was beginning to think that the blogging world had gone mad!  I mean you've got your stereotypical mean girl (which admittedly, was still one one of my least favourite bits), there's a set up that's guaranteed to pit friends against each other - even worse all over a boy, all the friendships all seem focused on said boy...needless to say I was pretty skeptical. And then I got to page 69 (I swear it's just chance it's that number!). And it all changed for me.

This is...kind of spoilerish?  Maybe? Light spoilers, in any case.  Throughout the book Anna proves that's she's really interested in Etienne for who he is as a person and as a friend, and she is really doing her best to not fall in love with him, because she doesn't want to be interested .  It's not like in a lot of books where the character just says it over and over - Anna shows it. And by page 69 I was completely convinced with their relationship.  And their love story evolves so slowly, with a solid foundation in friendship, which is everything I could ever want in a book centered around a love story.  It's totally swoon-worthy, but it's also slow burning and messy and imperfect.  And despite being centered around a love story, that's not all there is to this book.  It's also about finding yourself, navigating foreign waters both literally and emotionally, messy relationships - family, friends, and romantic.  It's basically just a story about life, and it's pretty much beautiful.  Was it perfect? No.  I wanted more show and less tell in her female friendships, and particularly just more Bridget in general.  But otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it and as a debut novel it means everything is going to get even better in her other books.


TL;DR

If you're like me and were skeptical with the premise, and the opening of the book is totally not your thing...trust me. Just trust me and keep reading.  Contemporary lovers should read this for sure, anyone who's a sucker for romance, and if it influences you at all, this was on my top ten books I've read this year!

Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice

Synopsis                                   

Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.

(Not really many plot synopses on this out there - but if you somehow DON'T know what it's about, wikipedia has a very detailed synopsis - lots of spoilers though)

Thoughts

I just found this...disturbing.  And boring.  I had a flight where all I had with me was this and The Virgin Suicides - needless to say it was a very, very long flight.  I can count the number of books I haven't finished on one hand - this is one of them.  The other is The Silmarillion (which I WILL finish someday! I refuse to let it beat me!).  So take this review with a grain of salt - perhaps things spiced up after I gave up on the book.  The story is very slow paced.  I usually appreciate detailed descriptions, but man, listening to Louis narrate is like listening to an angsty teenage boy...for 400. Whole. Pages.  I had a hard time reading some of the more graphic violent scenes - something that surprised me as I wholeheartedly approve of scary vampires, but I suppose I don't like vampires enough to stomach it.  Most disturbing to me was the really weird relationship between Claudia, Lestat, and especially Louis.  I get that she became a woman trapped in a child's body but...it was a little too...sketch for me.  Between the long winded prose, an unlikeable character, an icky child-woman/man relationship, and a general disinterest in vampires (I know, I know I was reading a book that is almost 400 pages about vampires), there was nothing to interest me, and I'd already been through the torture of The Virgin Suicides.  Needless to say, clearly this book wasn't for me.  This is not to say it isn't for everyone - I did appreciate that Rice didn't flinch from a more gothic view of vampires, and the history is interesting.  And if you like vampires, you should really read the book that inspired the more modern view of vampires.

Recommended

I mean, if you totally dig vampires, this series is a classic.  Again, this is another book to read to see what all the hype was about.  Read it if you've seen the movie and want to know about the book...but if you are interested in seeing what Anne Rice is like, I really don't think this novel displays her strongest writing style.

The Shoe Queen - Anna Davis

Rated: 9 stars

Synopsis

1920s Paris. The ‘Crazy Years’. English society beauty Genevieve Shelby King parties till dawn with the artists and writers of bohemian Montparnasse. She has a rich husband, a glamorous apartment and an enormous shoe collection. But there is something hollow at the centre of Genevieve’s charmed life.

When she spots a pair of unique and exquisite shoes on the feet of her arch rival one night, her whole collection – indeed, everything she has – seems suddenly worthless. The exclusive designer Paolo Zachari, renowned for his fabulous shoes and his secretive life, hand-picks his clients according to whim. And Zachari has determined to say no to Genevieve.

As her desire for the pair of unobtainable shoes develops into an obsession with their elusive creator, Genevieve’s elaborately designed life comes under threat, and she is forced to confront the emptiness at its heart.

Thoughts

I first read Anna Davis in her novel Cheet, a novel about a woman who carries a different cell phone for each boy she's with. I was shocked when I found out The Shoe Queen is by the same woman! This is a complete change in genre, yet she doesn't fall short. This novel is filled with mystery - yet nothing that would not be found in any other woman's life in this time period. It's about the love versus duty. It is not - as the title implies some shopping crazed woman - Genevieve has great character depth. She's a real woman - which I love. Its hard to describe, but too often characters become mostly flawed, or mostly good. Genevieve does not have "flaws" or "good attributes" - she just is. I think Davis's approach to characters is my favourite thing about this novel. Everyone is real - its not separated into good or bad.

I also think she did a decent job depicting the bohemian life - although I can't say I have done much research in that area. All of the situations were plausible - in fact most of them were based on real events during that time.

Overall

A good read. Great character and plot development. A well researched book that feels very real - the way life really happens - no happy endings nor life shattering tragic endings.

Recommended

Chick lit and historical fiction readers. Any one who understands the beauty of shoes.