Gr 9 Up-When Isla, loopy on medication after a dentist appointment, finds herself in the same Manhattan caf&3; as her crush object, Josh, she's able to do something she's never managed in the three years they've attended the same boarding school in Paris: talk to him. Lo and behold, it turns out that he likes her too, and once they're back in France, a relationship blossoms. Alas, the course of true love never did run smooth, and pressures both internal (Isla's self-doubt) and external (Josh's father's Senate reelection campaign) force them apart. Is their love strong enough to bring them back together? Fans will relish appearances by characters from Perkins's Anna and the French Kiss (2011) and Lola and the Boy Next Door (2013, both Dutton) in this sweet, charming series third that will make readers feel like they're in Paris too. Realistic characters, spot-on dialogue, and a truly delightful romance make for a novel that will delight the author's fans and win her legions of new ones.— Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

The thematic trilogy begun with Anna and the French Kiss (2010) and continued with Lola and the Boy Next Door (2011) comes to a crowd-pleasing end with the love story of blushing redhead Isla and budding comics artist Josh. Though Isla has crushed on Josh for three years, it takes a postdentist delirium for her to approach him in a Manhattan coffee shop. It works, though nths later, back at their Paris boarding school, they reconnect, fall hard, and flirt for a good two-thirds of the book before the narrative hurdle arises: a split that puts a literal and figurative ocean between them. The general lack of conflict won't bother most readers; Perkins' chief concern is Isla's second-by-second internal monologue of self-encouragement and recrimination, with Josh's reaction to her every word and action feeling like the biggest moment ever. These choppy waters of neurosis will snag the soaring hearts of readers who have been there (and who hasn't?), and they'll ache upon Isla and Josh's rite-of-passage first doubts about their relationship. Fans of literary heart flutters will love it.

In this companion to Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door, set at the School of America in Paris, post-wisdom-teeth painkillers give Isla the courage to talk to Josh, and they fall in love in fast-and-furious fashion. Readers will sympathize with Isla through the delicious moments and heartbreaking insecurities of this tender new relationship.