Review - "How To Keep A Boy From Kissing You"

How To Keep A Boy From Kissing You
by Tara Eglington
rating:☆☆☆ 1/2
published: 25th October 2016
spoilers? no

Goodreads

Galley provided by publisher

This book is almost the perfect realisation of one of my favourite tropes: rivals to lovers. I say almost, because there were a few things that I didn't like so much about this book, but overall it was pretty good.

At the beginning, this book didn't immediately grab me. I spent a few days only having read a couple of pages, but once I got past the setting-the-scene bit, I got hooked.

Firstly, it was a bit... different (?) to be reading about characters who are popular within their school. Normally, these kinds of books have their main characters be outside of the popular kids so they can comment (often nastily) on how shallow those popular kids are. So this was a nice change. Even if it didn't stop the (obligatory) you're not like other girls comment.

Sometimes Aurora did irritate me. There were points where I felt like she was overreacting (like the various times she thought Hayden was out to get her, when it easily could have been nothing) and other times, things like her insistence on waiting on the perfect "Prince" had me rolling my eyes, but overall she was a great character.

A couple of other things were a little odd too. The whole saga with Miss DeForest, and the NAD, and her picking on Aurora and basically turning her dad against her. It was kind of strange, to say the least. Especially her interpretive dance lessons...

Another annoying thing was when Jelena believed Alex over Aurora. Like, cool. Just believe the guy who's been flirting with every girl while you're around even though he's apparently your boyfriend over one of your best friends. And she convinced Lindsay to turn against her too. Frankly, if I were Aurora, I'd have ditched her after that, because knowing that she's fully capable of believing the worst of you with no proof? Yikes.

Anyway, it was a cute read and pretty funny, and I really enjoyed it, though I'm not sure if I'll read book two. I think this works best as a standalone.