Isla and The Happily Ever After

The final book from the Anna and The French Kiss has finally arrived!

I have to say I've loved this series for a long time. Back when I read the first one, Anna and the French Kiss, it made me want to go back to the time when I was an exchange student and I was pretty much like Anna during the first days of this adventure. Discovering this whole new world outside of your comfort zone and venturing out to a new world was pretty much how Stephanie Perkins described it in her book. When I found out there was another one from this same series coming out, I was ecstatic. Even more so when I discovered that it wasn't going to be the typical "sequel", but rather like a tie-in. Yes, I got to see more of Anna and Étienne, but I also got to fall in love with Lola and Cricket. And now, us fans, finally get to see how this all ends with Isla and Josh's love story.

So, in this third and final book, we meet (or rather get to see again and know more of) Isla, a senior at an American school in Paris. During the first pages we discover that for quite a while she has had a crush on Josh (whom we also met briefly during Anna), but she hadn't had the opportunity to act on it... until now, during the summer, in New York, where they both live, and with her being super high after a dentist's appointment.

That one summer night was magical for Isla, but she didn't see him again, at all, during their time off from school. Now she is back in Paris, and he seems more interested in her than ever before (I guess first impressions really do are important). They quickly fall in love... but sometimes, that isn't enough.

Sometimes, our own insecurities will destroy the one thing that is best for us, and if we don't have enough trust and confidence in ourselves, how can we believe it when someone else does? How can we believe someone who tell us of all the potential they see in us? This is what happens to Isla, and her journey of self discovery, for me, was quite eye opening.

I loved Isla and the Happily Ever After, but I also loved to rekindle my romance with Anna and Étienne, and Lola and Cricket. And now suddenly, I want to re-read them all over again...which I might do.