Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

4 stars

“Phones are distracting. The internet is distracting. The way he looked at you? He wasn't distracted. He was consumed.”  

Awh, I love this so much. I reread this in anticipation for the pending arrival of my copies of Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door. I've been waiting a good year or so for these babies so you have to understand my excitement at finally having ordered them. Anyway, I adore this.

It is so cute, I can't find anyway to be mad at it because it is so bloody cute. Also, hello? It's set in Paris which makes it the most romantic book I've ever read. I can't get over the literal sweetness, I am always down for a fluffy read like this. But then again, it kind of ripped my heart out for a while. Which was not cool.

I thought Isla was a pretty relatable character, to me at least. I like her, have an autistic friend and people give me a lot of shit for it but I don't understand why he can't have friends like everyone else. I liked that this was represented in the book. Kurt reminds me a lot of my friend and it kind of hurt a little to see him being treated like he was in the book but I love that Isla understands. Isla, also, has a tendency to run her mouth off and subconsciously ruin things. But, I get that, it made her more relatable to me because I've been in similar situations, not as severe yet but I understand it.

Josh is an absolute babe, even when he kind of screwed things up or said things so mushy that they made even me cringe. Artistic people just make me swoon always, never have I ever been in anyway artistic but it's characters like these that make me with I could draw more than a stick figure. I also find it incredibly attractive when he draws Isla, before I die a boy better draw me. Please form a single file line, fellas. He was just super sweet and concerned about Isla. He was just trying to do what he thought was best for her the whole time, it was lovely.

I am beyond thrilled to start reading the rest of the trilogy and it'll be interesting to compare books. I've heard Anna and Lola were even better than this but honestly, I don't know if I'm prepared for that amount of fluff. So, you'd better stay tuned for those reviews to come.