Fantastic! (Or should I say “fantastique”?) It’s hard to believe that Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Isla and the Happily Ever After are Perkins’s first three books. They are terrific. Though not a series, they are connected by characters and the boarding school in France. In this one the boy love interest (Josh) was the best friend of the boy love interest in the first book (St. Clair), so there are references to what St. Clair is up to now and how his and Anna’s romance worked out. Once again we are in Paris with teenagers such as I’ve never known. This time it is acknowledged (I feel like it wasn’t before) that everyone there is very rich and privileged. Isla has a French mother and two sisters who also attend/ed the school. She’s been in love with Josh for a long time and can’t believe when they are finally getting together. Obstacles include Josh’s apparent desire to get himself kicked out of school and worries about what it might do to Isla’s best friend, a boy with Asperger’s. A delightful romance and also a wonderful conclusion to the three books as we get to find out what happened to the characters from the other stories.
Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
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