A cool, sexy romance novel written by seventeen-year-old British sensation Beth Reekles.
Meet Rochelle “Elle” Evans: pretty, popular—and never been kissed. Meet Noah Flynn: badass, volatile—and a total player.
When Elle decides to run a kissing booth at her school’s Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down. Her head says to keep away, but her heart wants to draw closer. This romance seems far from a fairy tale.
Is Elle headed for heartbreak or will she get her happily ever after?
In case you missed the segment on “Today,” Beth Reekles is 17-year-old Welsh teen who wrote a crazy popular novel on the self-publishing site Wattpad. The story was so popular it garnered over 40,000 comments and millions of reads. Random House’s UK division discovered Reekles and offered her a much-coveted three-book deal. Here in the States, Random House has offered us two copies of the paperback to give to lucky readers.
“The Kissing Booth” is a high-school romance about a girl named Elle whose very best friend in the world is Lee, a guy she’s known forever and feels comfortable enough with to change clothes in front of him. They are NOT the stereotypical “friends to more” trope, as much as I love that trajectory. No, Elle has the hots for Elle’s older bad-boy brother, Noah (“Flynn” to everyone else). Noah’s a womanizing scholar athlete with a reputation for threatening any guy who so much looks at Elle the wrong way, but somehow Elle can’t imagine that Noah would really have feelings for her. Then comes the school carnival, in which Elle must sit at the Kissing Booth she and Lee came up with — right as Noah approaches. Their kiss — her first — changes everything.
Reekles’ writing wasn’t as mature as Kody Keplinger’s (who was also a teen when she wrote “The DUFF” in 2010), and I had a few issues with the British-isms that hadn’t been edited out of the book yet (instead of continuing to set the story in the U.K. for American readers, the story is supposed to be in California, but there were a lot of instances in which little things got lost in translation. For example, American teens wouldn’t order a “half-fat latte,” call a football player a “footballer” or use some of the other words in the book. I think those who adore high-school love stories will see past some of these issues and enjoy Elle and Noah’s rocky road to romance.
My favorite part of the book was Elle and Lee’s friendship, which is incredibly close but strictly platonic — they tell each other about their hook ups and dates without the baggage of wondering if the other is secretly in love. I’m trying to think of other contemporary boy-girl best friends who are as intimate without the sexual tension, and I can’t think of any! That’s the clever thing about Reekles’ story; she didn’t give into the trend to write about best friends who really want to tear each other’s clothes off; sometimes best friends of the opposite sex really are that — best friends who can’t imagine being with each other that way.
If you want to read “The Kissing Booth” yourself; here’s your chance! Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below!
I’m a sucker for a high school romance. Great review!
Sounds good! Is it the stereotypical good-girl-wants-bad-guy though?
Hi there — he’s not quite “bad” enough to be a stereotypical bad guy. It’s more of the stereotypical “I can’t believe I’m the one that he wants” book plus with the whole “my best friend is your brother and he’ll kill both of us if this doesn’t work out” mixed in 😉
Sounds great! I can’t wait to read this as I’ve heard so much about it!
I’ll keep my fingers crossed you win one of the available paperbacks then! I think if you like cute high school books, it will be right up your alley.
Sounds cute!
Yup, cute is the right word for it. I look forward to seeing how she develops as a contemporary YA romance writer.
I’m adding it to my TBR list right now. Thanks for the review!
Sabre, you read so fast that you could definitely read it in one sitting 🙂
Sounds like a cute read 🙂
Cute is the right word for it. It’s not a life-changing book that you’ll long to read again and again, but it’s cute and how amazing that a 17-year-old wrote something cohesive enough to get published 🙂
I agree that this sounds like a cute read. However, I wanted to add that Hermione and Harry were best friends who never thought about each other in the “tear each other’s clothes off” way.
Yeah, definitely true. I was thinking of more contemporary books, since that’s the genre of The Kissing Booth, but you’re totally right!
As a reading teacher of teens, I’m curious to read a book for teens by a teen!
I wouldn’t say she’s a wunderkind, but it’s good for teens to see that it’s possible to get published at a young age!
I have to read this. I love kissing books!
I know how much you like a good snog 😉
I’ve heard great things about this novel
I’ve read great things about Beth and would love to read the novel
Love the story line
Sounds like a lovely novel
I read the first four chapters on wattpad and it seemed super good.