Fragments: January 2011

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Times & Places - Paris

Times & Places is a new feature, where I explore the settings and the eras of books I loved! I'm working on a logo and everything but I'm not very good at Photoshop.
This first edition is about Paris, the setting of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.
Who has never dreamed with Paris? Walking down Champs Élysées, climbing the Eiffel Tower, visiting Louvre,...
I visited Paris a few years ago and I loved it. I hope to return there very soon.
Please join me for a tour around a few sites of Anna and the French Kiss:

A city view at your left your left!

Point zero, where Anna and Étienne made wishes. We will stop for a few minutes. Fell free to make a wish here.

Everyone has made his wish? Great!
Anna and Étienne visited Notre Dame the first time she leaves the school and actually visits Paris.

latin-quarter-paris

In front of you is The Latin Quarter where the School of America's is. Anna and Étienne attended to this school.

This is Cinema Le Champo where Anna and her friends watched movies every other night!

The library where Étienne bought Anna a book by Pablo Neruda.

And this is the end of tour through a few Parisian places mentioned in ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS!

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Anna and the French Kiss

Title: Anna and the French Kiss
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Release Date: 2nd Decembre 2010

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. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. and painfull waiting for this book I finally got to read it. There aren't words to say how much I liked it.
Anna is sent to France after, in my opinion, her snobbish father (after a quick rise to fame), decides that studying in France will be a "good learning experience". In the beginning of her senior year abroad, she's annoyed and sad because she's far away from her friends, her mother and her brother but then.... she meets Étienne and her feelings change. And I'm not going to say much more about it, because I don't want to spoil the book for you.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

(details above from Goodreads)

Review: After a long and painfull waiting for this one, I finally got to read it and I loved it.
Étienne is probably one of my favorite male characters of all time. He's gorgeous, he's funny, he's British (accent, duh?) he's French, he's sweet, he's kind, he loves his family and he likes art and history. But he also has flaws (which is great, because I hate when the guy is too perfect): he is short, he likes normality too much and he can't express some of his feelings.
Anna is a great character as well: she is funny, ironic and strong but at the same time vulnerable. She's kind ,smart and a movie addicted!
The other characters are very interesting to read about. They are all very different from each other: some love the arts, other sports, others parties,...The setting is amazing of course. I really enjoyed revisiting Paris trough the pages of Anna and the French Kiss.
One of the best books of 2010.
10/10

Sunday 2 January 2011

Debut Alert - January

I'm participationg in the Debut Author Challenge this year, hosted at The Story Siren, so I decided to create this monthly feauture that willahow the US and UK debuts (YA and MG) that are going to be realeased every month.
Last year, two of my 3 favorite books were debuts so I can't wait to read some of them in 2011.
Let the list begin... (insert music here)
US DEBUTS