Isla and the Happily Ever After
After hearing a lot about Stephanie Perkin’s Anna and the French Kiss, I finally read it myself just this past spring. And after that followed the sequel, Lola and the Boy Next Door and after that, what felt like an entirety before I held the last book in the little series in my hand, Isla and the Happily Ever After. The waiting was long and agonizing at time, but, all the same, worth it. It was definitely worth it.
Returning to SOAP again, but this time not with Anna and Etienne as the centerpiece, we meet Isla and Josh. They head into their last year at the school after a surprise meeting between the two during the summer holidays back in New York. Isla, whom have had a crush on Josh for years, is both terrified and curious when he seems to return the affection. But even though things develop smoothly between the two, not everything is perfect. Josh, whose friends left the school last year, does not have any other friends and though Isla tries, she cannot erase Josh’s past differences with the school and quite soon he’s got a final notice before expulsion. Isla is afraid what that would do to them but she’s also afraid for what goes on inside Josh’s mind; not all of it seem cheerful and chipper. But after a disastrous moment of bad luck, the two of them stands at a crossroad and they have to make a choice. Whatever they decide, it will never be as it once was.
I loved Anna and the French Kiss, set in Paris at an American boarding school. To return again in Isla and the Happily Ever After was wonderful. There’s a whole new world to explore with Isla and the book moves swiftly and softly between Paris, Barcelona and New York. The change was fun, something that didn’t really exist, not to the same extent anyway, in neither Anna and the French Kiss nor Lola and the Boy Next Door. Perkins' writing is soft and wonderful, like sleeping on cotton. Her worlds are beautifully created and her characters are interesting and all have very strong personalities with gives great depth to her books. And it’s not just about the love stories. It’s about finding yourself, who you are and what you want. How you can get it. There’s a lot of character development throughout the books which Perkins handles wonderfully.
Like mentioned earlier, this is the last piece in the series, but I’m not sure if I should call it a trilogy per se. It all takes part in the same timeline and involves the same people. All three books are perfectly crafted so that Anna and Etienne, Lola and Cricket and Isla and Josh intertwine with each other. On some level, there’s always a story within the story, which is very fun to follow. But it’s not about the same thing throughout three straight books. It seems to be and to some extent I guess it is, because all three books are love stories. But it’s not the same love story, it’s actually as far away from one another that you can get. It’s the same but yet so completely different and I’ve never really read anything like this. It’s something new for me, but something that really worked; I loved it! Getting the chance to meet all three of Anna, Lola and Isla was very fun, because they’re all so very different and seeing the world through their eyes was interesting.
To compare the three books, I have to say that Isla and the Happily Ever After is the one that’s the most different from the rest. It’s sweet but not too sweet, it’s passionate but not too passionate but it’s also deep and heavy from time to time. Isla battles a lot herself, searching for who she is and what she wants out of life while trying to be there for Josh too. Their story is far from easy, at times really difficult, but the love is strong and it made me feel, and hope, that I one day will get the chance to experience something like this myself. I’m not sure if it actually exists or if Perkins writing is just that good, but I hope it does and I hope to one day find my Josh.
Since this was the last book in this little series, it also meant that at the end of the book it was time to say goodbye. That was harder than I thought it would be, but some kind of bittersweet moment as well. Slowly the pieces found their way back together again and after some magic from Perkins I really felt that there was no other way to end this book and this little series than how she did it. It really was the happily ever after I wanted.
Returning to SOAP again, but this time not with Anna and Etienne as the centerpiece, we meet Isla and Josh. They head into their last year at the school after a surprise meeting between the two during the summer holidays back in New York. Isla, whom have had a crush on Josh for years, is both terrified and curious when he seems to return the affection. But even though things develop smoothly between the two, not everything is perfect. Josh, whose friends left the school last year, does not have any other friends and though Isla tries, she cannot erase Josh’s past differences with the school and quite soon he’s got a final notice before expulsion. Isla is afraid what that would do to them but she’s also afraid for what goes on inside Josh’s mind; not all of it seem cheerful and chipper. But after a disastrous moment of bad luck, the two of them stands at a crossroad and they have to make a choice. Whatever they decide, it will never be as it once was.
I loved Anna and the French Kiss, set in Paris at an American boarding school. To return again in Isla and the Happily Ever After was wonderful. There’s a whole new world to explore with Isla and the book moves swiftly and softly between Paris, Barcelona and New York. The change was fun, something that didn’t really exist, not to the same extent anyway, in neither Anna and the French Kiss nor Lola and the Boy Next Door. Perkins' writing is soft and wonderful, like sleeping on cotton. Her worlds are beautifully created and her characters are interesting and all have very strong personalities with gives great depth to her books. And it’s not just about the love stories. It’s about finding yourself, who you are and what you want. How you can get it. There’s a lot of character development throughout the books which Perkins handles wonderfully.
Like mentioned earlier, this is the last piece in the series, but I’m not sure if I should call it a trilogy per se. It all takes part in the same timeline and involves the same people. All three books are perfectly crafted so that Anna and Etienne, Lola and Cricket and Isla and Josh intertwine with each other. On some level, there’s always a story within the story, which is very fun to follow. But it’s not about the same thing throughout three straight books. It seems to be and to some extent I guess it is, because all three books are love stories. But it’s not the same love story, it’s actually as far away from one another that you can get. It’s the same but yet so completely different and I’ve never really read anything like this. It’s something new for me, but something that really worked; I loved it! Getting the chance to meet all three of Anna, Lola and Isla was very fun, because they’re all so very different and seeing the world through their eyes was interesting.
To compare the three books, I have to say that Isla and the Happily Ever After is the one that’s the most different from the rest. It’s sweet but not too sweet, it’s passionate but not too passionate but it’s also deep and heavy from time to time. Isla battles a lot herself, searching for who she is and what she wants out of life while trying to be there for Josh too. Their story is far from easy, at times really difficult, but the love is strong and it made me feel, and hope, that I one day will get the chance to experience something like this myself. I’m not sure if it actually exists or if Perkins writing is just that good, but I hope it does and I hope to one day find my Josh.
Since this was the last book in this little series, it also meant that at the end of the book it was time to say goodbye. That was harder than I thought it would be, but some kind of bittersweet moment as well. Slowly the pieces found their way back together again and after some magic from Perkins I really felt that there was no other way to end this book and this little series than how she did it. It really was the happily ever after I wanted.