Isla and the Happily Ever After - Stephanie Perkins

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
Series: Anna and the French Kiss #3
Published by Dutton on August 14, 2014
Pages: 352
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

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From the glittering streets of Manhattan to the moonlit rooftops of Paris, falling in love is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year in France, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to confront the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren't always forever.

Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

Oh boy, I didn't know what to expect when going in for this book - I don't share the extreme love everyone has for Anna but I enjoyed Lola immensely, despite being the general least favorite - so I was going in without knowing for what side this one would fall, now I can say that this was one the winner side, Lola is still my absolutely favorite but this one is a close second. For me the biggest difference from this book and the others of this series is the writing, this definitely the best work of Perkins so far, the other books were nicely written but on this there was a lot of quotes that I just had to underline on my Kobo, there was some lines that were just so beautiful and full of feels. But what was with that expressions written together like "ohmygod"? I don't remember if this happened on the others books so it sounded really weird.

Isla was incredible easy to like and definitely the heroine of this series (of sorts) that I most had things in comum, she had so much of me on her. Her only having one close friend, of not opening up for other people, her insecurities, her way of self defense with her insecurities, her love for her family, being divided between two nations and not knowing where she belonged and what she wanted to do with life when everyone around her had plans, yeah I got her. So it was incredible easy to feel into her mind and understand what she was feeling, even when she made stupid decisions I couldn't be angry at her because I knew what was motivating her to act like that, I liked that she does evolve on a lot of her insecurities by the end of the book even if I do think it was rushed - like her college decision, which okay the right answer was building inside of her, but it only needs a talk with some ex-friend and boom, decision totally made no other doubts about it. I think this, and other things, like her insecurities could have been better build along the book.

YES ISLA YOU'RE UNIQUE AND SPECIAL AND DESERVES THE WORLD

Josh was kind of a difficult character for me, because at times he seemed a lot of bullshit for me but at other times I would see myself crying over something he passed through. The bullshit part comes because of his privileged life and how he wants to blow everything up, it just... I get it, but I can't sympathize with him at the same time, he doesn't have a good enough reason for being so artsy-messed-up kind of character. But I also understand his feelings of loneliness, that first reaction after seeing that he did a wrong choice is fuck everything and turns thing even harder for him, so yeah it was a hard character for me because what I liked is what I didn't liked about him, at the same time #it'scomplicated.

On the romance of these two, well it was a hell of a instalove but one that I totally approve, basically because they started as one of those sugar-extra-sweet sorta of couple with an incredible chemistry and all their interactions were so sweet and it was so obvious that both of them had fallen hard for each other since their first real conversation and them in the middle SHIT HITS THE FAN jk, kinda of. *Things* happen and they start to have trouble in paradise - despite I liking their development as a couple, this was also my least favorite part of the book, basically it was hard to not be pissed with them because these *things* could have been 100% avoided and all the drama that it brought to the book wasn't my favorite - so it was nice to see they work through it and find their happily ever after <3. And especially work on themselves to get together, both Isla and Josh have things to figure out on their on lives, so it was nice to see their growth as separate individuals but also how they helped and complemented each other. Oh, also this had a very positive sex message which I highly appreciated.

and I liked Isla and Josh that way too

Other aspects like the friendship between Isla and Kurt I think it was really... Unnecessary, it just Isla has only one friend but he is only on the story when she isn't with Josh, I'm glad a character with autism was represented and how Isla defended him when needed and that Kurt did grow throughout the book too, but still he barely was here. On the other hand I really liked the presence of Isla sisters and parents on the story, actually the presence of everyone parents was nice (we see Josh's parents and Kurt's) but especially the sisters participations. Oh, the cameos are also very adorable and I smiled a lot when it happened.

Recommended to every fans of a good romance or a contemporary book highly focused on the romance but that still has others elements to the plot, also readers on the need of a brain candy (but seriously if you're a YA fan and haven't read Stephanie Perkins don't wait anymore, just jump on this bandwagon already!).