Tag: stephanie perkins

REVISITING PARIS: Anna and the French Kiss Series Reread

fangirlfury8 Comments

Although my TBR still quite scares me, I’ve been rereading books more and more over the past two years. As discussed in my 2019 rereading goals, I want to reread some of my favorite series this year, including Stephanie Perkins’ Anna and the French Kiss trilogy. I am so happy to say that I read all three books in April! During a particularly stressful month at school, this trilogy was such a fun way to de-stress, transporting me to Paris, San Francisco and NYC (with some cute boys in tow). While all these books are so atmospheric to their setting, I forgot how character and relationship driven these books are. While not necessarily a bad thing, I ended up changing what book in the series is my favorite.

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Anna and the French Kiss | Reread Rating: 4/5 Stars

Anna and the French Kiss was one of my favorite reads back in 2015. I’ve discussed this before, but Anna and the French Kiss had haunted me in my library’s YA section for a while. Its original cover kept me away. Upon discovering YouTube and the book’s gorgeous paperback cover redesign, I was called away to Paris with Anna and St. Clair. The settings and atmosphere throughout the series are perfection, but nevertheless, Anna and the French Kiss made me want to book a flight directly to a French bakery ASAP. My craving and need to try caramel eclairs and chocolate and raspberry gateaus are at all time highs. Aside from the food she gets to eat, I liked Anna for her interest in film (all the protagonists in each book have their own ‘special’ interest), making me want a more realistic trip (as compared to Paris) to my local movie theater.

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Review: There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

fangirlfury3 Comments

Summary: It’s been a year since Makani was forced to move from Hawaii to Nebraska to live with her grandma, but she can’t seem to escape from the past that she left behind there. And life isn’t peachy-keen in Nebraska, either. If there’s two things that are loved by small-town Osborne, it’s corn and football. What’s not so loved? The sudden murders of high school students, leaving everyone in town feeling on edge, even in their own homes.

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

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My Thoughts:

I decided to pick up There’s Someone Inside Your House during October for the sake of getting more invested into the Halloween-themed month. I’m not too big of a horror fan, but being a fan of Stephanie Perkins’s past work, I knew that I needed to read it. I had a feeling that There’s Someone Inside Your House was going to be a good one for me from the get-go because not only is it a Stephanie Perkins book, but the first character we meet is named HALEY! AND IT’S SPELT EXACTLY HOW I SPELL MY NAME! Yes, she’s dead by the end of the first chapter, but still!!

Be warned that There’s Someone Inside Your House is quite gory. The murder scenes often made me gasp and cringe from imagining such a bloody scene—the worst for me was the third murder scene, it made me want to forever protect my ears. There’s Someone Inside Your House really is a bloodier adaptation of Stephanie’s Anna and the French Kiss series, where serial killer terrorizes small town meets cute young-adult romance. I didn’t mind Makani as our main character and I think my favorite character was Grandma Young. I was in constant fear the puzzle-loving and heart-healthy Grandma Young wouldn’t make it. I also liked Ollie as Makani’s love-interest and seeing how his mysterious past would play out. I mean c’mon, how bad could the guy be? He has a dog named Squidward! I think my favorite line in the book was the following gem from Ollie’s brother Chris:

“Suddenly, a yell rang out, followed by a loud crash. Makani gasped and shrank as Ollie clung to her in horror. There was the indistinct sound of things settling to the floor.

“Squidward!” Chris said. “F***! You scared me.” ” (258).

I only had a few “disappointments” when it came to There’s Someone Inside Your House. I disliked how long it took for us to find out why Makani really came to Nebraska, and in my opinion, it really wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be. Frankly, it was more of the older girls’ fault than her own. I also felt that the identity of the serial killer was sort’ve thrown at us and we were expected to go along with it. Yes, the characters explain why it makes sense, but we really don’t get to see any of this reasoning play out beforehand.

Obviously, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion and every book can’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I don’t understand why There’s Someone Inside Your House is getting relatively low reviews on Goodreads. There’s a super-sweet romance, diversity (Makani is biracial, her friend Darby is trans), there’s horror and gore, and THERE’S A DOG NAMED SQUIDWARD!!!

Have you read There’s Someone Inside Your House? Share in the comments!