Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Isla and the Happily Ever After

Author: Stephanie Perkins

Release Date: 14 August 2014

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

Hopeless romantic Isla has had a crush on introspective cartoonist Josh since their first year at the School of America in Paris. And after a chance encounter in Manhattan over the summer, romance might be closer than Isla imagined. But as they begin their senior year back in France, Isla and Josh are forced to confront the challenges every young couple must face, including family drama, uncertainty about their college futures, and the very real possibility of being apart. 

Companion Novels:

Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door

In A Nutshell:

Well-worth the wait! Where can I get myself a Perkins boy?!

My Review:

Three years ago, I had a reading slump and Stephanie Perkins pulled me out of it with Lola and the Boy Next Door. So I was hopeful that her latest book, Isla and the Happily Ever After, would do the same thing for me this time around. It did.

I adored Isla. I was completely absorbed from the first page and read it all in one sitting, refusing to let the characters go, even for a minute.

There were so many swoony moments with Stephanie’s trademark “awwww” inducing scenes and just like with St. Clair and Cricket in her previous books, Josh is just as desirable. Stephanie knows how to write the gooey, romantic stuff that just makes you melt and wish you had your very own Perkins boy.

Isla lives in her own little world with her childhood best friend Kurt, while she dreams of Josh, who she’s had a crush on for three years. And before you make any assumptions, this isn’t a ‘love triangle’ thing. Kurt is practically her brother. Moving on, I’m sure most people can relate to being infatuated by someone from afar. Isla has little confidence in herself, partly stemming from being the shy, softer-spoken sister amongst her more outgoing siblings. But Isla also shuts herself away, sometimes enjoying her own company, but shutting others out to avoid the potential hurt that comes from letting someone into your life.

After a brief, chance meeting back home in New York over the summer, Isla and Josh have gone from zero interaction, to sharing small smiles across the halls at the School of America in Paris. And while this small amount of interaction means the world to Isla, she can see that Josh is no longer the outgoing guy she has watched the last few years. After an assumption is corrected, Josh and Isla begin spending more time together. But the reasons for Josh’s sadness and how he deals with it, and Isla’s own lack of self-worth, could potentially become their undoing.

My heart burst with love for the characters Stephanie has created and for the cities they spend their time in. Set amongst the magical streets of Paris and the bustling environment of New York and Barcelona, to me, Isla felt like a sort-of ‘love letter’ to those cities. It was so nice to once again get lost in their descriptions and be reminded of the wonderful times I have experienced there. Particularly Paris. I miss it so much and Isla just left me with a deeper yearning.

Just like in Lola and the Boy Next Door, Stephanie’s characters from Anna and the French Kiss, as well as Lola, show up in her latest offering. The cameo appearances of Anna, St. Clair, Cricket and Lola were like catching up with old friends and it was such a treat to gain insight into what their lives are like now, and how they are connected to the world of Josh and Isla.

Isla and the Happily Ever After has all the feelings of falling in love: the nervousness, the uncertainty, the butterflies, the racing heart, the blushing, the can’t-contain-the-excitement that bubbles out of you… it’s all there.

Isla and the Happily Ever After was well-worth the wait (for a number of reasons). I loved it and I hope you do too. Enjoy!

Die For Me by Amy Plum

Title: Die For Me
Series: Revenants Book 1
Author: Amy Plum

Release Date: 10th May 2011

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

Die For Me is the first of three books about Kate, a sixteen-year-old American who moves to Paris after the death of her parents. It introduces a new version of the undead with revenants, beings who are fated to sacrifice themselves over and over again to save others’ lives. Kate finds herself falling for Vincent, who she discovers is not the typical French teenager he appears: he is something else entirely.

My Review:
Words can not describe how much I love Die For Me.

As you can probably tell from the blurb, Vincent is a revenant, but that is all I will say on the matter. I didn't read the blurb properly before reading the book so what Vincent was, came as a surprise and I preferred it that way. What I will say is that revenants are original and as far as I know, they haven't been done in YA fiction before, especially since Amy Plum created much of the mythology herself.

Die For Me could not have been set in a more perfect city. Paris is romantic, magical and has that delicious feeling of something dangerous hiding amongst it's beauty. Amy Plum's writing swallows you up and I could feel myself being transported back to Paris (where I have been twice). You can actually have a look at the locations in Die For Me on Amy's website where she has marked all the places around Paris that Kate, Vincent and the rest of the characters visit, as well as providing her own photos of the locations. Check it out here.

Die For Me has such a wonderful selection of characters; Kate, Georgia, Vincent, Jules, Ambrose, Charlotte, Mamie, Papy, Jean-Baptiste, Gaspard. You can't help but love them. I really liked Kate. She's been through a lot and even though she is broken (and understandably so) she eventually manages to pull herself out of her misery and become a girl who is mentally strong and mature. She's not kick-ass, but she's not wimpy either. She loves books, museums and art and is the opposite of her care-free, extroverted sister Georgia.

"I wanted a heroine who wasn’t dependent on the man she loved. Self-sacrifice is admirable up to a point, but I wanted someone who was independent and smart – not just intellectually but emotionally."

From Amy Plum's website.

Kate isn't the kind of girl who needs a boy to make herself feel good or to be happy, and she doesn't need Vincent to swoop in and take care of her. But he is certainly blush-inducing with his old school charm and romance. Vincent, Jules and Ambrose all made me swoon, but not at the beginning. They all grew on me as Kate got to know them better and we saw more of who they really were rather than the front they put on. They reminded me of Edward, Emmett and Jasper from Twilight in the way they interacted with each other; joking around and being sarcastic, in a brotherly way.

This is an absolutely fantastic debut with a breath-taking cover. While this will be a series, there is no cliff-hanger and Die For Me could survive as a stand alone novel. I can't wait to read what Amy Plum writes next and to once again get lost in Kate and Vincent's world. I am so in love with this book right now. And did I mention there is sword fighting?!

Die For Me has earned it's place on my All-Time Favourite's list.

Thankyou to NetGalley for this review copy. I will certainly be buying my own hard copy once it has been released.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins

Release Date: 4th January 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

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. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Etienne 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?

My Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and read it all in one sitting.

Setting the story in Paris was such a brilliant idea. Paris is one of those cities that draws you in and just reading the pages made me feel like I was back in Paris (and made me remember all the things I love about that city; I am so going back again soon).

Anna's new friends are the kind of people you would want to hang out with. There were so many moments that made me want to smile, whether it was between Anna and St. Clair or others in their group. I loved their friendly, teasing banter but also the fact that the characters all have other things going on in their lives besides just worrying about if the person they are crushing on likes them back. I like that they make mistakes, that they have heart. There is a depth to Anna and the French Kiss that not alot of YA romance novels have.

Anna is an awesome protagonist who is very easy to relate to; she's very real. She's kind of neurotic, she's funny and she's always trying to do the right thing. St.Clair is absolutely crush-worthy but of course he's human and makes plenty of mistakes. He is charming and sensitive and has alot of his own issues to deal with. Both characters can be so frustrating when they are together, you can feel the romantic tension between them and the awkward moments when you just want them to hurry up and admit how much they like each other. God that tension! There are sweet moments, tear-jerking moments and times when you just wish you could trade places with Anna.

Simply put, you will fall in love with this book.

Thankyou to Penguin Books for this review copy.