Reviewer: Rowena The Kiss Off (The Kiss off #1) by Sarah Billington
Series: The Kiss Off #1
Publication Date: March 1st 2012
Genres: Young Adult
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Series Rating:
When sixteen-year-old Poppy Douglas writes a song about her ex-boyfriend Cam and ex-friend Nikki, she has no idea that her heartbreak is about to go global. A local band picks up her song from Youtube and soon she’s along for the ride with her own fanbase as they blow up on the local club scene and hit the international charts. Though it turns out leaving Cam behind isn’t as easy as she had hoped.Tangled in a web of unfinished homework, ill-considered sexting and a new lead-singer boyfriend, Poppy has a choice to make between the ex that inspired it all and the rock God whose poster lines the inside of half the lockers at school. But as she struggles to keep her emotional dirty laundry private, she learns that the truth can be hard to find when your life is in the headlines.
After reading the blurb for this book, I thought it would be a light and fluffy read. One that didn’t really take itself too seriously and while it wasn’t a deep read, it had some depth to the story and I really enjoyed it.
This book is about a young girl named Poppy Douglas. Poppy’s boyfriend cheats on her with her friend and Poppy gets mad, writes a song about them and then posts it on YouTube. The song really takes off when it catches the attention of a local band, who record the song and make the song into a smash hit. Poppy’s life changes when she starts dating Ty, the lead singer of Academy of Lies. Ty becomes an A List celebrity and he goes on tour and dating him becomes a lot more complicated than Poppy imagined. To make things even complicated, Cam (the cheating ex) turns out to not be an asshole who might want to get back with Poppy and I really liked that there wasn’t a clear choice for Poppy. Both Cam and Ty were good guys and I liked them both. I liked one more but I thought the other one was a good guy too.
This book was too cute for words. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters and even though there were times when I wanted to smack the crap out of Poppy, I really liked her in the end. Poppy was your typical teenage girl who felt strongly and reacted heatedly and passionately. She really cared about Cam and was really hurt by him and she handled it the only way that she knew how to, by expressing her feelings through song. That song became a national hit and it changed her life. It brought Ty into her life and it brought the band into her life and helped her get over Cam. I liked seeing her come to terms with who she was and who she wanted to be but also who she wanted to be with. She grew a lot over the course of the book and I really enjoyed reading about her journey. I am not at all shy to say that I loved the choice that she made. He was totally the guy that I would have chosen and not just because of, well…read the book and you’ll understand. I really liked him more than the other guy. He was too freaking cute.
I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend this book to lovers of contemporary YA books as well as fans of books by Sarah Dessen, Morgan Matson and Elizabeth Eulberg. This was an enjoyable read and I can’t wait to read more by this author.
…and that’s your scoop!
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