I am back with another book review, although this one might be a bit of a rant... anyways, it is for How To Keep A Boy From Kissing You by Tara Eglington. Thanks so much to Raincoast Books for sending me an e-copy of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Oh boy, where do I start?
Basically this book is about a teenage girl, Aurora, who is trying to find her Prince. She has a whole program thing, and she and her friends are constantly on the lookout for guys who are PPs (Potential Princes). Anyways, she's dated, but wants to save her first kiss for someone special, her prince. However, when she accidentally lands herself the female lead in the schools play, she finds out her first kiss is going to be live, on stage in front of 300 people, with her neighbour Hayden, who she can't stand.
Can you already tell where this is going? If not, hang on. It becomes so BLATANTLY OBVIOUS you will want to bang your head on the wall. No, just me, okay...
Anyways, through this whole event, Aurora gets a Valentine's Day (her favourite 'holiday') surprise from a secret admirer. At this point, my stapler would have been able to figure out who the admirer is. But not Aurora, love-guru extaordinare! No, she and her friends have no idea.
**WARNING: RANT AHEAD**
As you can probably tell, my biggest problem with this book is that none of the characters know what's going on. I kid you not, she was guessing right up until he announced himself 2 PAGES FROM THE END OF THE BOOK. AND EVERYONE KNOWS WHEN SOMETHING IS 'FOR/FROM A FRIEND' THE PERSON IS ASKING FOR THEMSELF.
This was such a minor thing, but it distracted me the whole book. All I kept thinking was, okay, now she's gonna figure it out. No, ok, this time. Nope. I'm not even sure I could tell you how many best friends Aurora had, because I was so focused on the fact that none of them knew what was going on.
Now, there's dramatic buildup, and then there's just a character without a brain.
There was a bit of humour in this book, which made it a bit more palatable, but I just thought that for the most part, Aurora was just being a little spoiled. She's constantly complaining about how chivalry is dead, guys are just pigs, etc. and tries to convince her friends to do what she wants. It was like she was trying to be pro-feminism, but at the same time, she still wants a relationship. I just felt like she was a little bit confused.
There were definitely some parts I really enjoyed in the story, which kept me going even though I just about rolled my eyes out of my head. This story is a fluffy contemporary, through and through. There is mention of some deeper issues, her mother leaving and then coming back, conflict with her dad and his new girlfriend, but they are just kind of fillers for her home life.
I also agree with what another reviewer mentioned about the great, grand gesture at the end. It was super sweet, but I was so ready for the book to be over. There was no anticipation for the reader because her Prince was so predictable.
There was so much drama going on at school that I almost feel like I went to a sub-par high school. Tensions were never this high. Rumours never this unbelievable.
And finally, to end my tirade, I will end this review talking about THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN ALL CONTEMPORARY BOOKS, ESPECIALLY ROMANCES.
Are you ready?
COMMUNICATION.
I don't know how many times things would have been so much different, so much BETTER because of communication. Not even within the romance itself, although that would have helped things tremendously. But just among friends. There's this big dramatic moment with Jelena and Aurora which could have easily been put away if they just talked to each other. I've never seen such dramatic characters. Even with her dad, Aurora bites her tongue. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND MEAN WHAT YOU SAY.
Ok, I'm going to end this here, because I'm exhausted mentally.
Overall, this was a fluffy romance with a blind narrator. Do with that what you will.