Anna K: A Love Story (Anna K Series #1)

by Jenny Lee

Overview

A dazzling reimagining of Tolstoy's timeless love story, Anna Karenina, set in the glittering world of Manhattan's elite.

Meet Anna K: At seventeen, she's at the top of Manhattan and Greenwich society, even if she prefers the company of her horses and dogs. She has the perfect (if perfectly boring) boyfriend, Alexander W., and has always made her Korean-American father proud, even if he can be a little controlling. Meanwhile, Anna's brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Lolly, are weathering a sexting scandal; Lolly's sister, Kimmie, is struggling to recalibrate to normal life after an injury derails her ice dancing career; and Steven's best friend, Dustin, is madly (and one-sidedly) in love with Kimmie.

As her friends struggle with the pitfalls of ordinary teenage life, Anna always seems to sail gracefully above it all. That is…until she meets notorious playboy Alexia "Count" Vronsky at Grand Central. Everything changes as an irresistible attraction pulls them together. Anna must decide how much of her life she's willing to let go for the chance to be with him. And when a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, she questions if she has ever known herself at all.

Opulent, riveting, and brilliantly reimagined, Anna K: A Love Story is above all a novel about the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250236425
Publisher:	Flatiron Books
Publication date:	03/03/2020
Series:	Anna K Series , #1
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jenny Lee is a television writer and producer who has worked on BET’s Boomerang, IFC’s Brockmire, Freeform’s Young&Hungry, and the Disney Channel's number-one-rated kids' show, Shake It Up. Jenny has previously published humor essay collections and middle-grade novels, and Anna K. is her debut YA novel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and 135-pound Newfoundland, Gemma (and yes, it's a toss-up on who's walking who every day).
Jenny Lee is a television writer and producer who has worked on STARZ's Run the World, BET’s Boomerang, IFC’s Brockmire, Freeform’s Young&Hungry, and the Disney Channel’s number-one-rated kids’ show, Shake It Up. Anna K was her debut YA novel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two Newfoundlands.

Editorial Reviews

Named a must-read book of 2020 by Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Elle, HelloGiggles, BuzzFeed, PopSugar, Bustle, BookPage, and more!

National bestseller

NPR Best Book of the Year

Marie Claire Book Club selection and Best Book of the Year

Book of the Month Club selection

A SkimmReads Pick

“A timeless tale of how much we’re willing to sacrifice for love.” —Teen Vogue

“A modern take on Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Anna K is a Gossip Girl meets Big Little Lies tale of wealth, privilege, love, and loss with lots of designer labels.” —GoodMorningAmerica.com

“This is a soapy YA book that reads, well, like a Russian novel. Jenny Lee remixes and updates Anna Karenina, this time with a Korean American teenage socialite anchoring the story.Tolstoy fans and novices alike will find Anna K to be a satisfying read.” —NPR

“Something no one tells you about postcollege reading is the fact that you have to relearn how to read for fun—Anna K is the ideal book for the job. The novel scratches the same itch binge-watching comfort TV does and stands as a good reminder that an ‘important’ read can be a fun one.” —Vanity Fair (Best Book of the Year So Far)

“This innovative retelling illustrates the push and pull of first love.” —Time

“Lee’s version of Anna Karenina, tweaked and updated for today’s teens, makes for addictive reading.” —BookPage, starred review

“You'll be hard-pressed to find a YA that captures the Gossip Girl vibe as well as this debut, and you know B would approve of the fact that it takes its inspiration from classic literature!” —BuzzFeed

“A fresh and wickedly smart take on a classic story. Anna is even more scandalously fun now, in the age of stilettos and social media, than she was in 19th century Russia. I couldn’t put this one down!” —Katharine McGee, author of American Royals

From the Publisher

2019-12-08
A slow-burn epic tale of love in modern-day Manhattan high society.

Anna K, a 17-year-old from a wealthy family, falls for the handsome Alexia "Count" Vronsky and strives to stay loyal to her Greenwich, Connecticut, OG boyfriend of three years. Her partying brother, Steven, rebels against their father's strict, traditional views while his friend Dustin excels in school but is new to affairs of the heart. Kimmie, Steven's girlfriend's sister, tries to be a regular teen after training as an Olympic ice dancing hopeful and also struggles with inexperience in love. These are just the major characters in a cast filled with convoluted relationships. Taking place over the course of a school year, the characters move from party to nightclub, heart-to-heart to Coachella, with their ever changing relationships as the central focus. The distant writing style and pervasive dropping of brand names slow the narrative and weaken its analyses of love, racism, social standing and wealth, sexism, addiction, and mental health. Despite getting off to a slow start, this is a gripping story with sympathetic characters struggling through the mire of modern relationships. The ending, while slightly predictable, comes to a satisfying conclusion. Anna and Steven are Korean and white; Dustin is black, adopted into a white Jewish family; other main characters are white. References to Anna's "exotic" beauty are not contextualized.

Stick with this modernization of Anna Karenina; it pays out in the end. (cast of characters, author's note) (Fiction. 15-18)

Kirkus Reviews