A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
One kiss lasts a moment. But a thousand kisses can last a lifetime. One boy. One girl. A bond that is forged in an instant and cherished for a decade. A bond that neither time nor distance can break. A bond that will last forever. Or so they believe. When seventeen-year-old Rune Kristiansen returns from his native Norway to the sleepy town of Blossom Grove, Georgia, where he befriended Poppy Litchfield as a child, he has just one thing on his mind. Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation? Rune's heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent. When he discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come.
A stand-alone young adult tearjerker romance, recommended for ages fourteen and up.
MY OPINION: ****
My last book of July turned out to be a sad one. I did not expect this book to be as sad and tragic as it ended up being, and as someone who finished it at 4am in the morning, I was trying hard not to cry and wake my sister up.
The cover and title of this book does not at all betray the sad plotlines that this book dealt with. I didn't realize until the end of the first third that this book was not the fluffy, happy-go-lucky, summer romance novel that I was expecting. I had heard a lot of great things about it from social media but nobody told me what this book was truly about (for spoiler's sake, I will also not be going into it).
Poppy is a beautiful, optimistic, positive soul who has always taken each day one at a time and living in the moment. When she is five years old, she meets a Norwegian boy with beautiful, long, blond hair named Rune. At that moment, they vow to become best friends and by the age of eight, have confessed their feelings for each other. I am usually not a fan of the friendship-to-lovers trope; however, as Rune and Poppy are basically in love with each other at age eight when they can truly understand what love is, I enjoyed the relationship between them.
At age eight, Poppy's grandmother passes away; before she does, she leaves behind a jar full of empty paper hearts meant for Poppy to fill up with a thousand amazing kisses from the love of her life. I found this idea endearing and was expecting to read a cute, adorable story of two people slowly filling up that jar together. However, the relationship between Poppy and Rune is cut short when Rune's father's work suddenly forces them to move back to Norway for a long amount of time when they are fifteen. Rune lashes out against this and vows to hate his father forever but is unable to stop the inevitable.
Fast forward a couple years and Rune returns to Georgia. However, in the two years he had been gone, Poppy had mysteriously cut him off and stopped responding to his calls and texts without telling him why. Thus begins the uncovering of the truth and the eventual gravitation back to each other, despite the fact that Rune has completely changed from the happy, innocent boy he had been back then. Now, he is the epitome of a "bad boy," addicted to smoking and alcohol and carrying around a generally moody disposition everywhere he went.
I loved the relationship between Poppy and Rune and seeing how it changed as they faced new conflicts both together and apart. I loved seeing their innocent childhood love as they realized they were soulmates, I loved reading about the many kisses they shared that "made their heart almost burst," and I loved seeing them fall back in love after a break from their relationship. Both of them had huge dreams for their future and supported each other without any questions, something that I loved.
The writing in this book was absolutely beautiful. It felt very advanced and whimsical for a young adult romance novel, and phrased things in very unique and beautiful ways. I could definitely envision all of the characters, the setting, the jar of hearts.
I despised the epilogue and wished the book could have either ended at the last chapter before the epilogue or had been concluded better. The way that everything was tied up in the end was unsatisfying and unrealistic.
Overall, I was not expecting this book to be as powerful and heart-
wrenching as it was. It was very easy to read and it flew by. It dealt with very serious topics and handled them all very delicately and beautifully. I do think that some of the decisions both of the characters made were very immature and could have been handled better but I think that it truly captured the irrationality of many teenagers, especially in this day and age.
I would recommend this book to readers looking for a beautifully-written, haunting, tragic love story.
Main Character: Poppy, Rune
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Disease, misunderstandings, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book is all very real to life.
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