This was such a fun book to read! It only took me a few hours to get through it. (It helped that I had most of the day to myself to read and the distractions were at a minimum, well, except for the pesky bees but that's another story.) This is a coming of age story that's full of fun, humor, romance and hot boys with accents...with ACCENTS! Doesn't get much hotter than that?!
Anna Oliphant is our main character and she gets sent to Paris for her senior year of high school by her dad. Dad is a novelist whose books (which have been made into movies) make women swoon and who left Anna and her brother Sean when he was a baby. She and Dad don't have the best relationship but the one thing they do share is their OCD for cleanliness. Besides her OCD, Anna is a HUGE movie buff and an aspiring movie critic, writing reviews on her blog. Anna is not too happy about having to leave behind her best friend, Bridgette and a budding relationship with hot boy #1, Topher. Topher works with Anna at the local cinema and she's had a major crush on him forever and just when he starts to show interest, Dad springs the Paris thing on her. Way to go Dad!
Topher is a rocker boy (rocker = automatic hotboyness) and is in his own band. He has that bad boy attitude too which makes him all the more appealing to Anna but he's in America and she's in Paris. Kinda gives new meaning to "long distance relationship", huh? He e-mails and calls her reassures her that he can't wait to see her at Christmas.
Bridgette is Anna's BFF! She's bold, brassy and an awesome drummer and she's also taken over as babysitter for Anna's 7yr old brother Seany while she's in Paris. She makes some interesting choices that affect their friendship in a way neither ever expected.
When Anna lands in Pairs at her new school, the first person she meets is Meredith, another senior. They meet when Meredith hears Anna sobbing after her parents leave her and head back home to Atlanta. Meredith is kind and selfless, putting others first. She's big into sports and spending time with her small group of friends which she readily introduces Anna too.
Upon leaving Meredith's room that first night, Anna runs into, like literally runs into, Etienne...hot boy #2 (w/accent!) Beautiful, British, brown eyed, perfect haired, Etienne St. Clair...sigh. He's funny, charming, beautiful, kind, has a girlfriend, is fluent in French and, you caught that, didn't you? Yeah, I thought so...he has a girlfriend - boo! Even so, he and Anna become fast friends, he helping her find her way around Paris and she with his family stuff. They quickly realize that they have a lot in common and they also have feelings for each other that go beyond friendship. They ARE in the city of love, but there's Topher and Ellie (Etienne's gf) to consider.
Anna also meets Rashmi and Josh who all part of the her new circle of friends and a couple too. (I enjoyed these two even if I don't agree with what they're up to all the time) Josh (hot boy #3) is an artist and Etienne's BFF. He has a great sense of humor but is also a tortured soul (criteria for hotness). Rashmi appears to be cold and only interested in playing tonsil hockey with Josh all the time but once we get to know her, we see that she puts up a wall to protect herself.
During her jet setting journey through her senior year, Anna learns some hard lessons about love, friendship, trust and betrayal, forcing her to take a good look at herself and the hot boys. It wouldn't be high school without the teenage angst, secret crushes, unrequited love, nasty rumor mills, budding romances, break-ups and make-ups and talks of sex. There's also the occasional bad word yelled out of frustration or anger and they're in Paris where the legal drinking age is under 21 so some of the characters have an unpleasant experience with alcohol. Been there. Done that. Blech!
There was a sweetness to this story which is what I enjoyed the most. That and all the details of Paris which really make me want to go!
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