“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” — Francis Bacon
Rating: 10/10"It's a good look for her. She should utilize the corners of her mouth more." "It's the point from which all other distances in France are measures... It's the beginning of everything." "I have such a way with words. I should write epic poetry or jingles for cat food commercials." "Any girl faced with daily attention from a gorgeous boy with a cute accent and perfect hair would be hard-pressed not to develop a big, stinking, painful, all-the-time, all-consuming crush." "I whip out my hand sanitizer and squeeze a glob into my hands." "It's not right. It hasn't been right since I met you." "You know how I feel about messes. They're ripe with such possibility." "'You're beautiful.' I trip and fall down on the sidewalk." "My hair looks like an owl pellet." "'Does it get easier?' His first reply is 'no,' and then 'yes,' and then 'it gets easier.'" | Why didn't I read this book sooner?! It is perfection! Everything about it made me swoon, and I even set a new "stay-up-late-reading" record with 4 a.m. with a 7:22 a.m. wake-up call. Probably not my best idea but also worth it. Let's start general and then get specific. At first I didn't think I would enjoy the Paris setting as much. But boy was I wrong! There's something about the classiness that french words and history brings to the story. And man did it ignite a severe case of wanderlust. I need to travel right now. Next, the boarding school theme. Here's a secret. I've always wished I could experience boarding school or study abroad or something even remotely similar to living in a foreign country for an extended period and meeting people and falling in love. Then I get sad that I'm now out of college and that dream of mine seems set to remain just a dream. This fondness for adventure of mine is also why I think I fell for Étienne St. Clair so hard (that and he's just so romantic and perfect). Like I've said before, I love love love when best friends fall in love, and to see the pair become best friends first then fall in love was more than I could have asked for. Atlanta. It's home to me, so being able to relate to Anna in that way made me connect with the story and her as a character so much more because I knew what she was talking about at times. Especially when she said that most people in Atlanta don't have an accent. THANK YOU! Because that is so true, and people always hear I'm from Atlanta and assume I'm some hick! Anyway, even the little nuances of the story were gold. Like when Anna realizes she's in love with St. Clair she calls him Étienne and when she's mad or forced to fall back to best-friend-status, she reverts to the nickname. And can I say just the fact that St. Clair has some French, British and American about him is basically the icing on the cake? Can he be any more perfect? And a more important question, does someone like this exist in real life?! There's so many more things I want to say about this story, but I know if I did, this post would be longer than the book itself! I guess you'll just have to check out how great it is for yourself! Because a little independence never hurt anyone. Sidenote: That time in the story when she's home in the U.S. and McDonald's isn't serving lunch yet. I laughed out loud. Please. You can get a Big Mac at all hours of the day in the U. S. of A. "For the two of us, home isn't a place. It's a person. And we're finally home." |