Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Nope didnt like this book at all. Was I supposed to read the first 2 books in the series? Because I was told it was a standalone.
I didnt like Isla and her obsession with Josh. Her whole life revolves around him! And surprise surprise, Isla had a crush on him for THREE years and of course he liked her back all along.
I'm honestly surprised this book has this such high ratings. Maybe I'm getting old and don't these cute YA Contemporary books anymore.
I didnt like Isla and her obsession with Josh. Her whole life revolves around him! And surprise surprise, Isla had a crush on him for THREE years and of course he liked her back all along.
I'm honestly surprised this book has this such high ratings. Maybe I'm getting old and don't these cute YA Contemporary books anymore.
Sigh. I just adore Stephanie Perkins young adult novels. This one has taken a long time to arrive, but it was well worth the wait. After taking an American detour in the second book of the series, we get to return to France for the finale of the series. This story is told through the first person narration of Isla. And yes, I know that her name is pronounced "eye-la" not "Iz-la," but I could never make my brain think the correct pronunciation. I struggled with that through the book. Either way ... Isla has been in love with Josh from afar since her freshman year. But Josh seemed to be way out of her league, at least in her mind. So through three years of high school Josh had his group of friends and a super steady girlfriend while Isla mostly hung out with her best friend forever, Kurt, a young man with high functioning autism who is squarely in the friend zone with her. She has her own boyfriend for awhile, and when he left the picture people still believed that Isla and Kurt were an item. So although Isla sported a major crush on Josh, the two lived in two separate spheres within their school.
All that changes right before Josh and Isla enter their senior year and they have a chance encounter in a New York cafe late at night. Suddenly these two have a connection to draw them together when they return to school, giving Isla a reason to push herself out of her shy awkwardness around Josh.
The romance of this story seems to steam ahead very quickly. Very quickly. Josh and Isla are already a couple before the book is even a third of the way through. They seem wonderful together. What could possibly go wrong with that much time left in the book? What often happens in YA books such as this is that the author creates a thousand melodramatic moments to drive the couple together then apart then together over and over again. However, Stephanie Perkins manages to just create simple, often sweet moments, in the life of Josh and Isla that show the growth of the relationship as well as the insecurities that will create strain within that relationship. Ultimately this is the story of a girl who doesn't really believe in herself. Isla is beautiful and talented and engaging. There are so many reasons for others to love her, but deep down she doesn't truly believe that about herself. That makes a relationship with Josh seem almost unrealistic to her. How could this talented, gorgeous, superstar son of a US senator really truly love her? In her mind it makes no sense, and as long as Isla harbors these feelings of inadequacy she will never truly be comfortable in a relationship with Josh.
What I really, really loved:
The relationship between Isla and Josh. I didn't love it because it was perfect. It was not. Not at all. These two rushed right into the relationship with both feet. They were all in, full of overwhelming passion and desire for each other. They couldn't concentrate on much besides each other. They were deeply, madly in love ... almost from the beginning. But as much as the relationship soared from the start, it was just as quick to find itself crashing, and when it crashed it crashed hard. So no ... this relationship was not perfect. But it really encapsulated what a high school romance is like in so many ways. As we first experience those amazing feelings of love for another it can be like a blazing fire, all consuming and maybe a little suffocating (but in a good way, if that makes sense). But as quick as those feelings burn, they can be doused almost as fast, and when they do it can be devastating. That is what Isla and Josh discover. They experience the highs of first love, but along with it comes jealousy and misunderstanding and hurt. If this relationship is to endure Isla has got to realize her own self worth, independent of anyone else. Josh is going to have to find a way to handle his conflicts in positive ways, taking responsibility for his actions and owning up to his true feelings about the direction of his life. Both Josh and Isla have to grow up, and Stephanie Perkins does an amazing job at walking readers through the ups and downs of this relationship. She keeps us engaged and involved with the characters without causing us to be horribly annoyed with some of their bad decisions. This was a sweet relationship to read. Even when it was obvious that they were way over the top at the beginning of their dating, I still rooted for them to work their way through things because it was obvious that the two of them were good together.
This was a wonderful finale to this series. I still think that Anna and the French Kiss is the best of the three books, but all three got five stars from me. We get to see all our favorite characters from the first two books in this one for a little bit. I haven't read the first two books in awhile, but this story made me want to go back and revisit the previous books because I love the characters Stephanie creates so much. They are definitely must read books for fans of YA romance literature. Five stars!
All that changes right before Josh and Isla enter their senior year and they have a chance encounter in a New York cafe late at night. Suddenly these two have a connection to draw them together when they return to school, giving Isla a reason to push herself out of her shy awkwardness around Josh.
The romance of this story seems to steam ahead very quickly. Very quickly. Josh and Isla are already a couple before the book is even a third of the way through. They seem wonderful together. What could possibly go wrong with that much time left in the book? What often happens in YA books such as this is that the author creates a thousand melodramatic moments to drive the couple together then apart then together over and over again. However, Stephanie Perkins manages to just create simple, often sweet moments, in the life of Josh and Isla that show the growth of the relationship as well as the insecurities that will create strain within that relationship. Ultimately this is the story of a girl who doesn't really believe in herself. Isla is beautiful and talented and engaging. There are so many reasons for others to love her, but deep down she doesn't truly believe that about herself. That makes a relationship with Josh seem almost unrealistic to her. How could this talented, gorgeous, superstar son of a US senator really truly love her? In her mind it makes no sense, and as long as Isla harbors these feelings of inadequacy she will never truly be comfortable in a relationship with Josh.
What I really, really loved:
The relationship between Isla and Josh. I didn't love it because it was perfect. It was not. Not at all. These two rushed right into the relationship with both feet. They were all in, full of overwhelming passion and desire for each other. They couldn't concentrate on much besides each other. They were deeply, madly in love ... almost from the beginning. But as much as the relationship soared from the start, it was just as quick to find itself crashing, and when it crashed it crashed hard. So no ... this relationship was not perfect. But it really encapsulated what a high school romance is like in so many ways. As we first experience those amazing feelings of love for another it can be like a blazing fire, all consuming and maybe a little suffocating (but in a good way, if that makes sense). But as quick as those feelings burn, they can be doused almost as fast, and when they do it can be devastating. That is what Isla and Josh discover. They experience the highs of first love, but along with it comes jealousy and misunderstanding and hurt. If this relationship is to endure Isla has got to realize her own self worth, independent of anyone else. Josh is going to have to find a way to handle his conflicts in positive ways, taking responsibility for his actions and owning up to his true feelings about the direction of his life. Both Josh and Isla have to grow up, and Stephanie Perkins does an amazing job at walking readers through the ups and downs of this relationship. She keeps us engaged and involved with the characters without causing us to be horribly annoyed with some of their bad decisions. This was a sweet relationship to read. Even when it was obvious that they were way over the top at the beginning of their dating, I still rooted for them to work their way through things because it was obvious that the two of them were good together.
This was a wonderful finale to this series. I still think that Anna and the French Kiss is the best of the three books, but all three got five stars from me. We get to see all our favorite characters from the first two books in this one for a little bit. I haven't read the first two books in awhile, but this story made me want to go back and revisit the previous books because I love the characters Stephanie creates so much. They are definitely must read books for fans of YA romance literature. Five stars!
4.5.
The first half was so (too much) cute! I liked the couple a lot, but definitely Anna is my favorite. AND THE SCENE WITH ALL THREE COUPLES!!! <3 <3 <3
The first half was so (too much) cute! I liked the couple a lot, but definitely Anna is my favorite. AND THE SCENE WITH ALL THREE COUPLES!!! <3 <3 <3
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good Book! Nice storyline,but it had to many bad words to make it five stars.
To say that Isla Martin likes Josh Wasserstein is a major understatement. Isla has been crushing on the gorgeous, quiet, and brooding artist for years, since freshman year at the School of America in Paris. Isla never stopped liking Josh, even when she had a boyfriend, and even when he was going out with Rashmi. Now they’re both incoming seniors, and Josh and Rashmi are no longer together, but still Isla can’t work up the courage to talk to him. She can very well graduate high school and leave Paris without Josh ever knowing how she truly feels about him!
But one night in New York City, during a particularly woozy and heady aftermath of a wisdom tooth extraction, Isla finally strikes up a conversation with Josh, whom she finds sitting by himself at a table inside her favorite café, Kismet. Propelled by painkillers and her pent-up longing for this awesome guy, Isla finally strikes up a nice albeit loopy conversation with him. She even agrees to have Josh draw her in his sketchbook. The next day, she wakes up in her bed with no recollection how the night ended, and how she even managed to get home.
Isla solicits the help of her long-time, platonic best friend Kurt to go back to the same café that night, hoping to see and talk to Josh again. But it seems like it’s a one-off thing, and the next time she’ll get to see him next is when she flies back to Paris for the start of the school year.
When Isla and Josh see each other again, it’s awkward and tentative, but they both know the attraction is there. When Josh asks her out on a date, Isla cannot believe that someone she likes so much actually likes her back. And then when Josh tells her he loves her, she is over the moon with happiness, but she's also waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Isla finds herself overwhelmed with college applications, and she realizes that she has no concrete plans for the future. For someone who is at the top of her class, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Throw in feelings of insecurity over her brand new relationship with Josh, their suddenly long distance relationship, the significant past he shared with his ex-girlfriend Rashmi, and his very close ties with his friends who are practically strangers to her, Isla retreats to her shell and puts up her walls. She makes the painful but hopefully right decision for the both of them. She breaks up with Josh before he realizes what a mistake falling in love with her was.
So here’s another ridiculously cute and charming novel from Stephanie Perkins, with another swoony boy and another cute, funny girl. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love Isla and how she’s so shy and hilarious and head over heels in love with just this one boy. I giggled and smiled as she shared her thoughts about her crippling, mind-numbing crush on him, and I shared in her happiness when she finally got the confirmation that he likes her back. It’s a little more mature compared to the previous two books, but I totally get it. It’s a love so young and so fierce that you’re just caught up in a whirlwind of passion and you’re too powerless to keep your clothes on. (Haha!) I do hope there is a fourth book. This group of friends are so lovable I want them to be in my life for a long, long time. Oh, this book will definitely make your heart very happy.
But one night in New York City, during a particularly woozy and heady aftermath of a wisdom tooth extraction, Isla finally strikes up a conversation with Josh, whom she finds sitting by himself at a table inside her favorite café, Kismet. Propelled by painkillers and her pent-up longing for this awesome guy, Isla finally strikes up a nice albeit loopy conversation with him. She even agrees to have Josh draw her in his sketchbook. The next day, she wakes up in her bed with no recollection how the night ended, and how she even managed to get home.
Isla solicits the help of her long-time, platonic best friend Kurt to go back to the same café that night, hoping to see and talk to Josh again. But it seems like it’s a one-off thing, and the next time she’ll get to see him next is when she flies back to Paris for the start of the school year.
When Isla and Josh see each other again, it’s awkward and tentative, but they both know the attraction is there. When Josh asks her out on a date, Isla cannot believe that someone she likes so much actually likes her back. And then when Josh tells her he loves her, she is over the moon with happiness, but she's also waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Isla finds herself overwhelmed with college applications, and she realizes that she has no concrete plans for the future. For someone who is at the top of her class, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Throw in feelings of insecurity over her brand new relationship with Josh, their suddenly long distance relationship, the significant past he shared with his ex-girlfriend Rashmi, and his very close ties with his friends who are practically strangers to her, Isla retreats to her shell and puts up her walls. She makes the painful but hopefully right decision for the both of them. She breaks up with Josh before he realizes what a mistake falling in love with her was.
So here’s another ridiculously cute and charming novel from Stephanie Perkins, with another swoony boy and another cute, funny girl. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love Isla and how she’s so shy and hilarious and head over heels in love with just this one boy. I giggled and smiled as she shared her thoughts about her crippling, mind-numbing crush on him, and I shared in her happiness when she finally got the confirmation that he likes her back. It’s a little more mature compared to the previous two books, but I totally get it. It’s a love so young and so fierce that you’re just caught up in a whirlwind of passion and you’re too powerless to keep your clothes on. (Haha!) I do hope there is a fourth book. This group of friends are so lovable I want them to be in my life for a long, long time. Oh, this book will definitely make your heart very happy.
It's nearly three in the morning and I've just finished this one and I'm texting my sister in all caps because the fluff. Oh, the fluff is glorious and makes my heart warm.
Holy crapola, that was beautiful.
Holy crapola, that was beautiful.
