Review: Isla and the Happily Ever After

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic fiction

Rating: 4.3

Goodreads summary: click here

My thoughts:
I really liked and related to Isla on so many different levels. The first, well she's had a crush on a boy for like three years and even Googled his address. I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but totally me right there. She also likes to read and she really has no idea what she's going to do with her life and she constantly struggled with that throughout the book. I think that's the real reason I liked her.
Also, something weird that I liked about Isla was she cried. A lot of the times, characters "blink away their tears" because they don't want to look weak, but I noticed that Isla didn't really do that.
Some people say that they were frustrated with Isla because she kind of sabotaged  her own relationship with Josh. I wasn't though, because I most likely would have done the same thing.

I glance around the room, but the other girls appear to be at ease. Why doesn't he have the same effect on them that he has on me? Don’t they [see] him?

It was cool to read about Josh from a different perspective. In Anna, we're swooning and crushing on Etienne because we're seeing him the way Anna sees him and we don't really notice or care about Josh, but when reading Isla, we saw Josh through her eyes and were suddenly swooning over Josh. We also read about how Josh felt in Anna and it made me feel really bad for Josh because I had no idea what he was going through.

I think that Isla and Josh dived into their relationship pretty early in the book. I wish they would have started off as friends and then gotten into a relationship. I feel like whenever they were together all they were doing were having some hot make-out sessions. There were some weird scenes and now I'll never look at rabbits the same. That's the one thing that really bothered me about this book. I just wanted more funny and awkward conversations from them-more dialogue! Also, I wish we could have seen more of Josh and Kurt become friends.

I  did love all the setting in this book and I liked how this story brought us back to Paris because I know I sure missed it.

I LOVED when  Anna, Etienne, Lola, and Cricket appear at the end and have a little reunion along with Josh and Meredith. It was one of my favorite scenes and it made me cry. Actually, whenever I think about it I start to tear up. Like literally right now as I'm typing.

My other favorite scene happened after the little reunion, but I don't want to spoil anything, but if you read it you'll know what I'm talking about :)

When I finished, I was happy because the ending was beautiful, but sad because I didn't want it to be over. I saw a video by a booktuber that said that reading Stephanie Perkins books is like being on this high that you never want to come off of. Book heroine I think is what she called it. And oh boy is that true! I wasn't prepared for the feeling to go away yet so after I finished Isla, I re-read Anna and the French Kiss. :) 

I think the ending was done perfectly and it was so cute. Out of all three of the books, Anna and the French Kiss is still my favorite {I still can't stop myself from gushing over Anna and Etienne}!

Stephanie Perkins has easily become one of my favorite authors and I can always count on her books to help me when I'm feeling sad or to get me out of a reading slump. :)

Favorite Quote:

     

   …take a risk.