Author Crush: Stephanie Perkins

If sweet, fluffy romances are your kind of book, Stephanie Perkins is an absolute queen! Her characters are adorable and likeable, not to mention her books have the all too relatable school drama and beautifully rendered, romantic settings. Her books are the best to lay in bed and read on a lazy Saturday morning (or afternoon, if that’s more your thing) with a cup of coffee and lots of blankets and pillows. They’re not too heavy or intense and focus more upon the settings and characters than an over-complicated plotline. Her first book, Anna and the French Kiss, which mainly takes place at the School of America in Paris (AKA: SOAP), has two companion novels featuring characters from the first book: Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Isla and the Happily Ever After.

Anna’s story follows her journey through thick and thin: moving from America to Paris for school, learning to deal with being without family or friends in an unfamiliar place, and then to top it off, the boy she has a crush on, Etienne St. Clair, already has a girlfriend. Of course. But with the mixed signals he’s giving her, she has no idea what to do! After all if he’s returning her interest, she can’t just be ‘the other girl’ in good conscience, so what’s a girl to do?

Lola’s story is loosely tied in to Anna’s with a cameo appearance of two fan favourite characters, but is a standalone book of its own that drops us off in San Francisco. Lola is a budding costume designer, lives with her two dads, and is dating Max, who is a bit of a rock star in his own right. Everything seems absolutely perfect until the Bell twins come back home to the house next door, making her come to terms with the fight with her ex-friend and the feelings she had for Cricket, the boy next door.

In the third companion novel, which can also be read as a standalone, Isla never expected to see Josh again after their time at SOAP, throughout which she had a crush on him, but when she encounters him in her post-dentist haze in Manhattan over the summer, they reconnect quickly. Neither of them knows where this reconnection will go, but once they make it official that they want to be together, they have to learn how to be in a relationship with each other.

Stephanie Perkins has also contributed to a couple of short story collections with some other popular authors, such as Veronica Roth, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell to name a few. My True Love Gave to Me and Summer Days and Summer Nights each feature one short story by Stephanie Perkins with wintery and summery themes. I can’t get over how adorably flirty her books are and how perfect they are for relaxing with during the back to school rush! Not to mention, the seasonal themed short stories are wonderful for beach reading or cozying up with on a snow day.

You can find Stephanie on her website, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram; you can also find some extras on her website like bonus short stories or playlists for her books!