Pages & Prose

You can read this and my other reviews at Pages & Prose

The Kiss Off was a quick, fun read and, while I had issues with some of the decisions the MC made, it had a good message.

I knew from the first sentence that this would be a quick read. The first chapter was a bit all over the place; the main character, Poppy, brought in a multitude of new characters within the first few pages. I had no idea who any of these people were and it took a bit to figure it out. [spoilers removed] Poppy was also a bit of an airhead with typical YA background parents, but I felt that she grew quite a bit in the story and learned a lesson. At first she annoyed me, but eventually, I kind of enjoyed her antics.

While parts of the writing were somewhat convoluted (see above paragraph), I think Ms. Billington has a flair for writing. She definitely had a tween/teens voice down pat. Good job!

There were many, many alcoholic and sexual references [spoilers removed] and I really found the lack of parental units/lack of discipline crazy. Maybe I'm behind the times?

Overall, I liked the book. I had issues with a few things, but it was as intended; a fun, fluffy read. I like the intended message and think the author did a great job writing a book that younger teens/tweens could relate to while giving them information on serious subjects. I applaud Ms. Billington for that.