To Kiss A Beautiful Boy

~Lips Touch: Three Times~
By Laini Taylor
Amazon ~ Powell's

Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit
In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses
A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.

Hatchling
Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?


Three short stories, some shorter than others, all centering around kisses. With so little time spent with the characters, I was a bit surprised that I came to care about them so much. But then, that's my typical reaction to Laini's writing.

I was surprised that the stories weren't nearly as cheerful as I had assumed short stories would be. I'd say only the second had what you could call a happy ending, with the others being more on the side of hopeful or downright ominous. Yeah, that first story? Not cool to end it there.

The illustrations were a bit confusing, especially in e-book form. There's nothing to suggest they're prequels to the story we're about to read - not until you're halfway into the story, anyway - and they're really hard to 'flip' back to in the e-book. Plus you only get one page at a time, even if it's a 2page spread. Really nice artwork, but without context, they weren't as enjoyable.

I would not be adverse to any of these stories being revisited or expanded upon. I don't see it happening, but I'd be open to reading it if it did. But, again, that's how I always feel with Laini's writing. Can't ever get enough.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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