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| The prettiest simplistic contemporary covers ever - aka everything about this trilogy is beautiful. |
Title: Isla
and the Happily Ever After
Author: Stephanie
Perkins
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: August
14th, 2014
Length: 339
pages (in Hardcover)
Genre: YA
Contemporary Romance
Format and Source: eBook
from the iBook store
Summary from Goodreads: [This
will be spoiler free, but the actual review below will not]. 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.
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.
Review: [Reminder:
Spoilers]. I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume not all of
you have previously witnessed the greatness that is Stephanie Perkins’ work, so
just to catch you up, here’s a quick rundown of Anna and the French Kiss (which
you should go read right now if you haven’t already);
“St. Clair gets a crush on Anna. He’s torn between her and Ellie,
and he spends too much time running between them that he hardly has time left
for Josh. And the more time that Josh spends alone, the more he realizes how
alone he actually is. All of his friends will be gone the next year. Josh grows
increasingly antagonistic towards school, which makes Rashmi increasingly antagonistic
towards him, which makes him increasingly antagonistic towards her. And she’s
upset because Ellie dropped her as a friend, and Meredith is upset because now
St. Clair likes two girls who aren’t
her, and Anna is upset because St. Clair is leading her on, and then St. Clair’s mom gets cancer.
It’s a freaking soap opera.”
So I was basically cackling at
this part but don’t let the ‘soap opera’ aspect turn you away. Stephanie
Perkins is one of my favourite contemporary authors and I know I can rely on
her to pick me up whenever I feel down. So this is officially the end of the
spoiler-free section, and I would suggest reading the trilogy if you think
you’ll like it.
I’ll start off by being
completely truthful; I haven’t reread Anna or Lola since I first read them last
year, so my memory is a bit hazy. I do know that I enjoyed Anna and the French
Kiss more than Lola and the Boy Next Door, but both were so adorable, it was
hard not to love them. I know for a fact that Isla isn’t as good as Anna in my
eyes, but I don’t know where I would place it in comparison to Lola, so don’t expect
any comparisons at all in this review – it’s all based on how I felt about
Isla.
The thing about Isla is that it
was a bit instalove. Anna and Lola had time
to fall in love with St. Clair and Cricket, but that just wasn’t present in
IATHEA. Maybe it’s because Isla and Josh harboured crushes on each other for,
like, three years, but the first few chapters seemed a bit rushed. The first
half of the book was just as fluffy and cute as I would expect from Stephanie,
but things quickly turned downhill.
Isla and Josh went on a little
escapade to Barcelona and got caught. Josh gets expelled. Josh goes back home
for his parents’ political campaign. Isla starts to think Josh is more in love
with the idea of love than with her. Isla breaks up with Josh.
It was quick, it was explosive,
and I was left absolutely heartbroken.
I found myself dying inside for Isla when she waited for Josh on New Years and
he didn’t show up, and all of my friends could probably vouch for how annoying
I was when I read that part. I just could not accept that after all the love
Josh had for Isla, he would just give up
on her. I was shaking with anger because how
dare he hurt her. In hindsight it was kind of her fault too, but I was
rooting for Isla from the start so I couldn’t find it in me to blame her.
Imagine my excitement when THE
WHOLE CREW reassembled at the end of the book for the Olympics, and St. Clair proposed to Anna! I was just
so happy with the closure and everything wrapped up so beautifully. IATHEA was
a perfect ending to an amazing trilogy which holds fond memories for me in my
heart. I’m a fluff-addict, and the trilogy is just so feel-good and it cheers
me up whenever I’m down.
Before I end this review, I just
want to commend Stephanie for the section near the end of the book when Isla
started treating her little sister, Hattie, like a friend rather than mothering
her. That scene resounded with me deeply since I have two little sisters of my
own and it just really got to me. It’s hard to put it into words but I felt
like that one scene made Isla 1000 times more relatable, which is what every
good character should be.
Final Rating: A-.
With the exception of the whole instalove thing, this book was one of the best
endings to a trilogy ever. I have a special place in my heart for well-written
contemporary romances and it’s fair to say that the Anna and the French Kiss
trilogy takes the cake. Stephanie Perkins is an extremely talented author and I’m
so glad Isla met my (extremely high) expectations.
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