Bonjour et Bienvenue à Paris:
Hello and Welcome to Paris

The book, “Anna and the French Kiss” is about a teenage girl named Anna, who is enjoying her life in Atlanta, Georgia. However, before her senior year begins, her father decided to send her to the American School of Paris (SOAP), which according to her parents would give her a one in a life time experience that nobody else can experience unless they did it themselves. Anna is not excited for this so called “adventure” because that would mean that she would have no prom, which of course is every girl’s dream night. As she arrives into Paris, France at her dorm room at Rèsidence Lambert, it begins to hit her that she will be living in Paris and her parents would be flying back to Atlanta. Within her first few days at SOAP, she makes a group of friends there is Rashmi, Josh, St. Clair, and Meredith. However, as time passes Anna realizes that she is growing feelings towards St. Clair. Her actions for having such strong feelings for St. Clair could have negative effects on one of her closet friend that she has made at SOAP. “His lips taste like honey. His face has the slightest bit of stubble and it rubs my skin but I don’t care, I don’t care at all. He feels wonderful. His hands are everywhere, and it doesn’t matter that his mouth is already on top of mine, I want him closer closer closer. And then he stops. Instinct. His body is rigid. “How could you?” a girl cries.” (Perkins, 312). Within that passage how one action that can feel great for a moment can again bring guilt afterwards for consequences. The one memory she always seems to recall is the memory of St. Clair taking her to the cathedral, and making a wish at Point Zéro and hope that your wish comes true. The conflict in this story would be Anna and her feelings towards everything that is happening to her in this foreign (no pun intended) environment, and that her friend could be hiding a dirty little secret back at home in Atlanta.

After reading this novel, I would conclude that the message of this novel would be that you cannot help you who fall in love with, and sometimes that certain individual could possibly be your best friend. That when you move away from your family and friends to study abroad and have a once in a lifetime experience, that your new friends that you make in that new location while at home your best friends could be less loyal to you. Although, the main message that I got out of this novel would have to be that the term “home” does not have to be a place, but it can be a person. “I have a new city to learn next year, but I’m not scared. Because I was right. For the two of us, home isn’t a place. It’s a person. And we’re finally home” (Perkins,372) That quote basically states that, to feel like you are at home, does not have to actually be a foundation built around you that is warm and cozy. Home could just as easily be somebody who you are so comfortable around that you feel at peace when you are with that specific person, and then that can be considered home.