Stephanie Perkins has always worked with books—first as a bookseller, then as a librarian, and now as a novelist. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews praised her debut novel, Anna and the French Kiss, declaring, "Smart dialogue, fresh characters and plenty of tingly interactions . . . Sarah Dessen fans with welcome another author who gracefully combines love and realism." Stephanie lives in the mountains of North Carolina live with her husband. You can connect with Stephanie at www.stephanieperkins.com or @naturallysteph.
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 future, and the very real possibility of being apart.
I want to start out this review by saying that when I first read Isla and the Happily Ever After in high school, I absolutely adored it. This book (and indeed all of Stephanie Perkins's contemporary young adult romances) were some of my favorites. Her writing is so warm, so full of heart that it's so easy to find yourself lost in the worlds of Paris, LA, and New York City. I reread Isla and the Happily Ever After recently because I wanted to see how Perkins crafted that feel-good feeling, and why this book and her other contemporary romances have lived on so long and as powerfully as they have (the new special edition of Anna and the French Kiss—while I don't have it—is absolutely gorgeous). Part of Stephanie Perkins's charm is that she nails the anxieties and triumphs of being a teenager. Another part is that she has the power to craft magical scenes that exist within the ordinary. I so enjoyed coming back to this novel, and hope that it will entertain young adult readers for the years to come.
That being said, I think readers will be surprised to find that this is a very character-driven novel. Lots of Goodreads reviewers have groaned at the lack of a plot. I believe that there isn't an externally-driven plot; rather, the plot is driven by Isla's desires and her insecurities, rather than anything that's going on around her. A plot that is character based and character-driven, though, is not a bad thing at all. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but this choice allows Perkins to explore Isla's relationship with herself and with her unknowns (college and her future), while also balancing how that affects her relationship with Josh and the others around her (Kurt, her sisters). Personally, I found that this meant Perkins could focus a lot more on what the teenage female experience is like. When you're a teenager, a good portion of the drama (and thus a plot) comes from being friends with other people. It's refreshing to actually not have to have a "catty girl" drama plotline—instead, Perkins can truly develop Isla's insecurities and give a voice in young adult literature to things so often dismissed for entertainment value.
Isla as a character herself is extremely well-developed. I was impressed throughout the course of the novel—an author who does a good job at character development will make it seem like there is no author at all forcing the plot one way or another. I understood all of Isla's inner monologues, her thoughts and desires and insecurities. She is a character of a lot of power—she asks Josh out, and she maintains confidence with the right encouragement—and it's great to see a young woman in a position of such power in a young relationship. She's also a character of privilege, and it was important to me that Perkins never tried to ignore that, at least not fully. Isla recognizes her privileges (she admits that she forgets how beautiful it is to live in Paris, even though that's something so many young girls would trade anything for), and there are a lot of smaller ways privilege is written into her character. Yet, she's not a bad person, and Perkins explores those implications when comparing Isla's character to the characters of her classmates. This is not to say that privileged characters should be the order of the day, but to me it shows that Perkins's character development is very thorough. The last thing I want to note as far as character development is that Isla is afraid to be who she is and afraid to feel what she does—at the beginning, we wonder why she feels this way, and the text answers the question near the end: it's because she doesn't feel worthy of being herself or worthy of feeling the way she does. A big part of her character arc is realizing that she is, in fact, worthy of those things, and going out to get them. This arc is a very fulfilling one, and I'm grateful the text answered that question on Isla's character!
The one thing that changed my rating of this book from a five star to a four star is some of the underdeveloped portions of the text. It is hard to feel like these points were fully developed, because part-way through the novel, the romance overtakes the entirety of Isla's mind, and thus the book. While that is reflective of Isla's character, the author still did have some power here to rein back in some of these interesting points. The first is that Kurt, Isla's best friend, is introduced as having high functioning autism. It is clear that Isla and Kurt are very close—yet after some complications with her relationship with Josh, Kurt is almost all but forgotten. I would have loved to see some more of Kurt, especially at the end. While we see that he's made more friends (which the earlier parts of the text explained as something difficult for him), I would have loved to see a bit more of how Kurt's and Isla's friendship evolved because of Kurt's character development. Secondly, because Josh is such a dedicated artist, he's experienced tendinitis—yet, after that pretty big reveal, we never know if he decides to take any medication to help with the pain. This may seem like a small detail, but we get very invested in Josh's art throughout the novel, and I hate to feel like we left him in a painful spot. Honestly, both of these details could seem small, not something that should make or break a five star review. However, at this point, it's hard to feel like we got to really explore disability in the text—without "resolutions" or tied-up ends to both of these points, I feel like there's something left unexplored in the text.
Stephanie Perkins has other amazing titles under her name, including the one that started it all, Anna and the French Kiss, and her upcoming thriller/horror novel, The Woods are Always Watching. You can find more of Stephanie at www.stephanieperkins.com or @naturallysteph.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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