The International Kissing Club by Ivy Adams
Genre: YA Contemporary
Blurb (on back of book):
Piper, Cassidy, Mei, and Izzy have been best friends their whole lives. And they've always agreed on one goal: to get out of tiny Paris, Texas, and see the world. The school's foreign exchange program seems like the perfect escape: Piper will go to the original Paris; Mei will go to China; Cassidy will go to Australia; and Izzy, unable to afford the program, will stay at home. To add spice to their semester away, and to stay connected to their best friends, the girls start The International Kissing Club, a Facebook page where they can anonymously update one another and brag about all the amazing guys they're meeting. After all, these girls are traveling abroad: amazing guys abound at every turn! But sometimes fun, flirty vacation flings turn into more serious romances, and sometimes you don't return from abroad the same person you were. Will the girls' relationships-and their friendships-be able to survive?
MY OPINION: *****
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
I haven't been reading for a while because I was preparing for a mini-vacation so... Sorry for that.
ANYWAYS!
Let's talk about the book.
So this book features four girls, Piper, Mei, Cassidy, and Izzy, who live in Paris, Texas. It's far from the real Paris and the four girls just want to get away. When their school announces an international exchange program, the girls jump at the chance.
To make it more fun, Piper has an idea to make the trips even more fun. THE INTERNATIONAL KISSING CLUB. It's a Facebook page that Piper and her friends create, using fake names, of course. For each guy that you kiss in the other countries, you get a point and GLORIOUS kisses get three points, so it was kind of a mini-competition.
Piper decides to go to the REAL Paris, Cassidy goes to Australia, Mei goes to China, and Izzy... she is forced to stay at home because her parents can't afford to send her. Honestly, Izzy's parents were ANNOYING. They only ever cared about their sons. The dad was only interested in Linc, their oldest son, and the mom was only interested in her youngest son, whose name I regretfully can't remember at the moment. And Izzy was just there.
The thing is, Piper, Cassidy, and Mei each meet one guy who they have a real relationship with. The saddest part was when they had to leave them!!
Piper has the most success, obviously.
Piper meets this guy named Sebastian. In the beginning, he was a jerk. And his personality was kind of weird. Let's use some examples.
"He sighed, a long, drawn-out exhale that somehow managed to sound both condescending and annoyed." -Page 164.
"Sebastian snorted, muttered something in French under his breath that she didn't quite catch. It must not have been flattering, though, because his mother sent him a warning look... Again Sebastian muttered under his breath, and though he wasn't loud, Piper definitely caught the French word for iiot, along with a couple of other uncomplimentary phrases." -Page 165-166
But then he changes and he really is the most romantic guy ever.
THEN HE RUINS EVERYTHING. SPOILER ALERT!!!
"'I kissed another guy...' 'It's fine. Really. No big deal...' 'I'm sorry if I hurt you.' 'I know that. And don't worry, Piper, you didn't.' 'Are you sure?' she asked doubtfully. 'Absolutely... It's not like we're really serious, right? I mean, we've had a lot of fun together these last few weeks, but we both knew it wasn't going to last. You're going back to America in a few days and—' Piper knew he said more... 'I love you, Sebastian.' Only he didn't say the words back, didn't say anything at all as he stared at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape... He didn't love her. He didn't want to be with her. He didn't want anything but to have fun." -Page 280-281
I MEAN WHAT????????!!!!!!!!!!?????
HE LEGIT LED HER ON, KISSING HER, DOING ALMOST EVERYTHING WITH HER AND HE SAID IT WASN'T REAL????????????????????????????
I cannot believe it.
Next, we have Cassidy. She meets this awesome guy named Lucas. He is incredible from the start!
Then he tells her he loves her and she runs away. It makes no sense.
Okay, legit, Lucas was INCREDIBLE.
He sends her flowers and he's excited to see her again in three months when he comes to America. WOWOWOWOWOWOW! He literally loved her.
Then there was Mei. She was definitely my favorite character. She was smart and logical (but that was kind of a stereotype cause she's Asian...) and she actually knew stuff. She meets a guy named Guiran (how to do you pronounce that???) and she legit falls in love with him. And he's incredible. He is her only friend in China and he even helps her to search for her real family. She was adopted from China and she wants to find her birth parents...
I hated how she never actually found them. Guiran helps her to be more active and she does stuff that logical her would never have done.
Guiran is incredible and
I love how she keeps in touch with him via the Internet after she leaves. I legit love that guy.
And Izzy. Where do we start with Izzy?
Izzy was definitely my least favorite of the girls. She whined too much, complained too much, argued too much, and yelled too much. I really did not like her. She made a mistake, so she should deal with it and STOP TAKING IT OUT ON PIPER AND THE REST OF THEM. It was her fault.
And who decides to sit with your BFF's MORTAL ENEMY after your BFF leaves??????? Germaine was a jerk and Izzy decides to sit with her? WHY??
Izzy and Tanner. No. I actually liked Tanner and I did not like Izzy, so I don't ship it. Besides, it was supposed to be Piper and Tanner, even with Sebastian.
Okay, okay, I'll stop now. That went on for far too long, but I HAD to talk about the love stories in this book. I would recommend this book to YA readers who like a TON of romance.
Main Character(s): Piper, Cassidy, Mei, Izzy
Sidekick(s): Tanner, Sebastian (kind of), Guiran, Lucas, Simone, etc
Villain(s): Germaine, Sebastian (kind of), etc
Contemporary Elements: This book was ALL beautiful contemporary writing.
Comments
Post a Comment