Review: How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You by Tara Eglington

How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You

By: Tara Eglington

Release Date: October 25, 2016

Series: Aurora Skye #1

Description:

Executor of the Find a Prince Program™ and future author, sixteen-year-old Aurora Skye is dedicated to helping others navigate the minefield that is teenage dating. Counsellor-in-residence at home, where her post-divorce ad-agency father has transformed into a NAD (New Age Dad) intent on stripping his life bare of ‘the illusionary’ (i.e. the removal of home furnishings to the point where all after-hours work must be done in lotus position on a hemp cushion) Aurora literally lives and breathes Self-Help.

When the beginning of the school year heralds the arrival of two Potential Princes™ who seem perfect for her best friends Cassie (lighthouse beacon for emotionally fragile boys suffering from traumatic breakups) and Jelena (eye-catching, elegant and intent on implementing systems of serfdom at their school) it seems as if Aurora’s fast on her way to becoming the next Dr Phil.

As Aurora discovers, however, Self-Help is far from simple. Aurora’s mother arrives home from her extended ‘holiday’ (four years solo in Spain following the infamous ‘Answering Machine Incident’) throwing the NAD into further existential crisis. With Valentine’s Day drawing closer and the new Potential Princes not stepping up to the mark, Aurora is literally forced to take to the stage to throw two couples together. However, being cast opposite Hayden Paris (boy next door and bane-of-Aurora’s life) in the school production of Much Ado about Nothing brings challenges of its own. Not only does Hayden doubt that Cupid is understaffed and thus in dire need of Aurora’s help, but playing Beatrice to his Benedict throws her carefully preserved first kiss for a Prince into jeopardy. As Aurora races to save love’s first kiss and put a stop to the NAD’s increasingly intimate relationship with her Interpretive dance teacher (guilty of putting Aurora on detention for a ‘black aura’) she is left wondering who can a self help guru turn to for help? Can she practice what she preaches? And can long-assumed frogs become Potential Princes?

Review:

I have always thoroughly enjoyed Shakespeare inspired movies and books and this book was right along the same path, with the main theme focused on Much Ado About Nothing, which is a great story.  I think it’s all the constant arguing with one another, it’s the utmost best form of passion between two people because they so obviously feel so strongly about everything.  It was cute and I am really interested in seeing how this series continues.

We meet Aurora and her neighbor who is the bane of her existence, the chemistry between the two of them is so obvious from the very start, well except to Aurora herself.  The antics they go through, the arguments they have and the way they are always thrown together just adds to the fire and it’s igniting.  All their friends are always involved in everything too, there is definitely some I didn’t like but there is always someone you just don’t like and they are there to serve a purpose really. 

Aurora and Hayden have been chosen to play Beatrice and Benedick in the play Much Ado About Nothing, which is perfect because they didn’t even really audition this was them naturally.  They fit in so perfectly with the play and even their outside lives was a great representation of the play.  There was a lot of drama between Aurora, her friends and all the guys in the book and it was fun to read, very childish of them but isn’t that what high school is all about, being that childish person who maybe you are a little self-centered but really aren’t we all at times. 

Overall this was a really cute book and I’m intrigued to see what happens next with this group of friends.  And of course with Hayden and Aurora because you can just see how much he really appreciates her and liked being with her.  I didn’t care for Jelena though she was just that friend who was always jealous when something good happened to someone else and she didn’t get anything out of it, I know you all know the type of person I’m talking about.  The type that believes they are the prettiest and the world revolves around them.  But other than her and her brief significant other the other characters were all very enjoyable.

The cover is interesting, I don’t know why but it makes me feel like it’s sort of a foreign type of book but still catchy cover that would make me look twice at it.  Can’t wait to see what happens next.  Oh also that poem about Aurora that her “secret admirer” wrote, swoon-worthy. If you love Shakespeare and all adaptations then this is definitely a book to read!

Disclaimer:

I received this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, so that I may give my honest opinion and a review. Whether it is good or not please do not let it discourage you from purchasing/reading the book yourself and forming your own opinion. What might be good for me may not be good for you and vice versa. With that said, Happy Reading Everyone!!!