Title: Kiss Crush Collide
Author: Christina MeredithPublisher: Greenwillow BooksPublishing Date: December 27th 2011Length: 320 pagesKeywords: YA, contemporary romanceSource: Gift
Kiss
What Leah did—only she really shouldn’t have—one hot night at a country club party.
Crush
What Leah has—only she really shouldn’t have—on the guy with the green eyes, the guy who is not her perfect boyfriend, the guy who does not fit in her picture-perfect life, the guy her sisters will only mock and her mother will never approve of. Not in a million years.
Collide
What happens when everything you always thought you wanted—having cool friends, being class valedictorian and homecoming queen—runs smack into everything it turns out you really do want.
Kiss. Crush. Collide.
For Leah and Porter, summer is only the beginning.Summary by Goodreads
The major conflict in KISS CRUSH COLLIDE is about the perfect life of a sophisticated family which stands in conflict with the personal preferences and wishes of single individuals, like Leah their youngest daughter. In general exactly that conflict made me want to read the book in the first place. Leah falling for the poor boy. I hoped for a story like PERFECT CHEMISTRY which circles around an unwanted love between a girl who is supposed to be perfect and a boy out of her league, that overwhelms you with its awesomeness.
For my
taste the romance came way too short. Sometimes scenes between Leah and Porter
were totally irrelevant and not well-integrated into the whole story. I was
frankly disappointed by the love story. No chemistry, no insight into the
characters feelings for each other, only some inexplicable hook-ups from time
to time.
It’s not
only that we don’t really get an insight into Leah’s thinking, but the fact
that from the moment she starts seeing that new boy, Porter as she calls him,
she not once feels shame or guilt for betraying her boyfriend Shane with
another boy. That trait of character let her appear like such an unsympathetic
person to me that I couldn’t really enjoy the rest of the read.
A
friendship between Leah and two old friends and one girl she dislikes is
sketched, but I don’t believe in a very close relationship since Leah is such a
careless character. She is one of the few YA contemporary protagonists I didn’t
like. Sometimes a spark of sympathy tries to push its way through, but mostly I just didn’t
get her way of thinking. She blames other people for her misery first and
starts thinking about her own part in the story after only a while, if at all.
The whole
family of Leah, her sisters and mother are so shallow, it started to really
annoy me. I cannot tell you how bored I was every new time Leah mentioned her
oh so perfect boyfriend who bothered her, the colour trio her sisters and her
are always supposed to wear or her analysis of every single chest in that book!
It’s all about the looks and very few about the inner strengths of people. The
family has issues, but they are mostly ignored and are not discussed.
Christina
Meredith has a convenient writing style which is fitting for a contemporary
romance novel. Cover and writing are really nice, but the content couldn’t convince
me at all. I expected the romantic conflict between Leah and that boy at the
country club to be so engaging, some sneaking around and sizzling romantic
scenes between the two. The premise was so promising and I liked the general
constellation of characters and the setting, but their interaction didn't
convince.
1) of
experiencing a whole new way of living
2) of your
own four wheels
3) of
sneaky meetings
4) there’s
always a difference between doing the perfect and doing the right thing
5) of
sisterly triple power
2,5/5 **/* KISS CRUSH COLLIDE- Pretty cover, dull
content. They kissed, expectations were crushed and opinions collided.
This is the
story of a well-established (in this case: shallow) family trying to break out of their habits. Definitely no
PERFECT CHEMISTRY. If the premise draws you to the story like it did with me,
just pick up this book and just see if it works for you. I’m a fan of YA
contemporary romances, but this one unfortunately didn’t really work for
me.
* Read an
excerpt of KISS CRUSH COLLIDE here.
* Visit www.christinameredith.com for
fruther information about Christina Meredith and her books.
