Isla and The Happily Ever After (Anna and the French Kiss #3) by: Stephanie Perkins

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance 

Published: August 14, 2014 by: Dutton

Pages: 352

Rating: 3/5 stars
*highlight white text to reveal spoilers*

Isla and The Happily Ever After is the final instalment in Stephanie Perkin’s trio of love stories. This time, we follow Isla, a senior of the School of America in Paris, who is dealing with her crush on artist Josh. The two experience ups and downs, as Isla tries to get a grip on Josh’s glamorous world.

I’m not going to lie; it took me a while to get through this book. Once I got into it, I did enjoy it; however it started off really slow. I do think that it was a great final to the series though.

To the positives first, Isla was my favourite girl of the three books. She was a bit shy and quirky, and she had a great heart. She was also very smart and responsible. My issue with romance novels is that sometimes the girls can be too ditzy and dependent, but I did not find that with Isla. Josh was also my favourite guy of the books. He was so incredibly cute and such a gentlemen. Isla and Josh were by far, my favourite couple.

 I loved the little details in the book. Perkins brought back all of the other couples at the end of the book, and it was nice to see all of them back together again. In the middle of the book, she even referenced that Calliope Bell was now an Olympic skater, which I found to be so clever. Overall, I loved how she incorporated the other books into the story.

One thing that I did not like about this book is that it was a bit cliché. Not only with Josh and Isla, but with the other couples. St. Clair and Anna end up getting engaged, which I found to be more cheesy than cute. It was just so expected that he would propose once the gang was all together. With Isla and Josh, I found their story to be a bit predictable. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they have fallout, they get back together. While there were a few plot twists to keep things interesting, the main theme fell flat.

Like I said before, while the middle picked up in action, the beginning was quite slow. It almost turned me off of the book. I understand that it was supposed to be rising action, but it took a while for me to get into it.

Overall, this book was okay. Josh and Isla were my personal favourite couple, and I enjoyed reading about them; however I found things to be very cookie-cutter. This is an issue that I found with all three books. That is why Isla  got a 3/5 star rating.

Have you read this series? What did you think? 

Emily @ Paperback Princess