My Book Boyfriend: Etienne St. Clair

My Book Boyfriend is an awesome meme highlighting the many fictional boys who make us swoon. It's hosted by the lovely Missie over at The Unread Reader. It'll come as no surprise to those who know I read Anna and the French Kiss this week that I'm currently in the middle of a full-on, daydream-inducing, life-crippling obsession with Étienne St. Clair.

How do I love him? Let me count the ways...

• He's sexy, with messy-but-beautiful brown hair and expressive, dark eyes. He also dresses well.
• He has a hot English accent and can also speak French fluently.
• He's genuinely nice, has a good sense of humour and is fun to be around.
• He loves his mum (and not in a creepy way).
• He is ridiculously sweet and adorable, and gives amazing, thoughtful gifts - like LOVE POETRY, complete with STARRED verses that he later QUOTES. Sigh. This is nowhere near as wanky as it sounds.
• He's intelligent and loves history. History! I love history. I love him.

Swoon-worthy Quotes (Spoiler Alert!)

"St Clair coughs and shifts again. His leg brushes against mine. It stays there. I’m paralyzed. I should move it; it feels too unnatural. How can he not notice his leg touching my leg? From the corner of my eye, I see the profile of his chin and nose—oh, dear God—the curve oh his lips. There. He glanced at me. I know he did... I risk a glance, and St Clair stares back. Deeply. He has not looked at me like this before. I turn away first, then feel him turn a few beats later. I know he is smiling, and my heart races.”

"Étienne follows my body with his eyes. He finds the rhythm, and we move together. The room spins around us. His hair is sweaty. My hair is sweaty. I grab him closer, and he doesn’t protest. I writhe down his body to the beat. When I come up, his eyes are closed, his mouth slightly parted. We match each other thrust to thrust." [Taken out of context, would you guess these two were dancing?!]

“I’ll only be a twenty-minute train ride from your school, and I’ll make the commute to see you every night. I’d take a commute ten times that just to be with you every night."

"Our lips brush lightly. 'If you ask me to kiss you, I will,' he says. His fingers stroke the inside of my wrists, and I burst into flames. 'Kiss me,' I say. He does."

"'Did you just have a foodgasm?' he asks, wiping ricotta from his lips."

Updated: The below clip is especially for Nic and Andra. With love.

Review: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

I am in love with this book.
 

Majorly, totally, butt-crazy in love. I love the story, I love the writing, and I love the setting. I love the secondary characters, I love Anna and I love, love, love, love, LOVE Étienne St. Clair.

There are two things I don't love about it, though: the name and the cover. Unfortunately, those two things made me dismiss it for months. Sure, I had it in my TBR pile, because I was vaguely attracted to the description on the back - about a girl sent to boarding school in France, where she meets a totally swoon-worthy (and totally unavailable) boy. But, I'm ashamed to say, I judged it by the cover. That cover is cheesy. And the name? Also kinda cheesy. So I assumed the book would be cheesy, too. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. I enjoy a bit of cheesiness. Like I said, I still picked the book up. But I dismissed it as a back-up read, something to have on hand in case I was bored or in need of a quick fix of fluff.

Then I came across countless reviews that said it was oh-so-amazing. I began to think maybe I'd judged it too harshly. So, curious to see what all the fuss was about, I picked it up on Sunday, at around 5pm. By 1am I was more than half way through and deliriously tired, but still had to force myself to put it down. Because I was already in love. The story was charming, the characters real, the chemistry sizzling, and woven together it was all so refreshingly normal. But that doesn't mean it was ordinary. Far from it. Yep, I admit it: I was really wrong about this book. Which is my hard luck, because it means I spent months with this awesomeness right under my nose and didn't know it. Sure Anna and the French Kiss is fun and it's fluffy, but it's so not cheesy - and it's most definitely not a back-up read. It's a must-read. Like, now!

Rating: 5/5

Eye Candy
I pictured Georgia Jagger and Tom Sturridge (pre his bearded hobo phase) as Anna and Étienne, respectively. I know she's supposed to have dark hair and he's supposed to have dark eyes, but I couldn't get Georgia and Tom out of my head. Hey, it worked for me - I think they're both gorgeous.

Fine Print
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2011
Get It: Fishpond


Images via Fuck Yeah Georgia Jagger and Tom Sturridge Online