OH MY GOODNESS! How could it have possibly taken me this long to find this book?? I'm so glad that I've got amazing bookish friends that wouldn't stop recommending it to me. 
 One of my favorite things about this book is that it was not a rags to riches, ugly duckling turned beautiful swan, stereotypical type of teen angst story. Anna was a smart, funny, well adjusted, fun teenager just trying to make it through normal teenage problems (granted, at a boarding school in PARIS. Jealous much? Yes.) It made the book so much more appealing to me, because I find that as I get a little older some of the teen angsty books start to get a little **yawn**. 
 Anna & Etienne?? LOVE. 
 Like, a lot. I love the beginnings of their friendship, it felt so real and accessible. I didn't start having good friends that were girls until I was in my 20s. When I was younger, I had pretty much just guy friends - so reading about their friendship made me think about some of my favorite relationships from my teens. I also love the beginnings of their relationship turning into something more - they could not have been more freaking adorable! 
 Another really good thing about this book? It deals with some heavy topics (view spoiler)[Etienne's mother's cancer, his father's emotional abuse (hide spoiler)], but it does not sweep them under the rug as though they were written just to add some emotional punch and then leave it at that. The author shows some emotional blowback in the actions of Etienne and Anna, and offers some resolution to some of these problems. (I will say that I hope his father gets his, though - UGGGHHH I could not stand him!) I also liked that they did not try to make Anna's "problems" overshadow Etienne's, and that Anna herself is always telling him that he is going through so much more, and that Anna admits that her situation isn't nearly as bad as she can sometime make it seem. With all the real emotional problems out there, let's not turn your father sending you to freaking Paris (!!) for good press something that it's not. (Yet another reason I like Anna. She seemed very emotionally mature (view spoiler)[outside of not realizing she was doing the exact same thing to Mer that Bridge had done to her....how did she miss that one?? (hide spoiler)]). 
 I really enjoyed pretty much everything about this book and Stephanie Perkins' writing. I know I'll absolutely be picking up her others! 
 Oh, and also? This is me trying to figure out what Nicholas Sparks ever did to Stephanie Perkins. Hahaha.