Anna is spending the year at school in Paris. She didn’t ask for this – her father thought it would be good for her. Now Anna is leaving her mum, her little brother and her best friend behind in Atlanta, Georgia and she’s going to Paris, France. Anna has never been so alone but she soon finds new friends and new drama as Étienne St. Clair walks into her life. Could he be her new best friend or could he end up being more?

Anna and the French Kiss could be renamed “Miscommunication: A Novel.” There’s so many time when characters just don’t talk to each other! Whether it’s Anna and Étienne, Bridgette Anna’s best friend from home keeping secrets from her or Étienne not talking to his girlfriend Ellie – no one talks about how they’re feeling because it’s “just too hard” and they don’t want to upset people or cause drama. Well half the time because they didn’t communicate people end up getting hurt and confused anyway and if they’d just talked to each other there would have been a lot less heartache.

While miscommunication is what often drives romance novels, there can be too much of a good thing. It often made the characters seem stupid because they weren’t picking up on social cues but at the same time it’s kind of believable because these are teenagers in love who are scared to put their feelings out there. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating though. (more…)