Kiss Collector by Wendy Higgins

The Quick Cut: A seventeen year old girl decides to quit trusting guys and get even by collecting kisses instead of dating them after getting her heart broken by all the men in her life. Drama ensues when feelings get hurt in her girl squad and the family drama turns out to be far more than expected.

A Real Review:

Thank you to HarperCollins for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Full disclosure: I'm in a permanent love affair with Wendy Higgins as an author. The Sweet Evil series still makes me swoon every time I think about it fondly and its oh so adorable lead couple, Anna and Kaidan. So when I saw that Wendy was taking a trip away from Fantasy lane to publish a contemporary romance book - I knew I had to get my hands on it. AND BOY DID IT NOT DISAPPOINT. With girl squads, boy issues, family drama, and a future so unplanned that it looks like a desert wasteland, how could you not get excited?

Wendy's quick wit and startling ability to weave a complicated tale well continues on in this new sub-genre with Zae Monroe. Our story starts out with her world being completely shattered her boyfriend Wylie cheats on her, her parents split up (in which she finds out that her dad is moving in with his girlfriend), and she's moving out of the only home she's ever known.

The only guy who hasn't let her down at this point is her younger brother, Zeb. It's at this point when she's out with her group of three girl friends from the cheer team that Zae gets the best idea: instead of dating boys who use and abuse them - why don't they turn the tables on the guys and use them for kisses? All four girls them agree to spend their spring break collecting kisses from guys, with the girl having the most kissed guys winning.

If only life were that simple, right? It barely takes a heartbeat before those kisses turn into boyfriends for some of the girls. In one case, it turns into Zae getting her heart hurt by thinking one guy had feelings for her when he really was trying to get to another girl in the group. It doesn't take long before the unstoppable group of friends gets split up by what started as a harmless way for them to take back their girl power. On top of all that, Zae continues to receive these poems in various ways from a guy who clearly likes her, but won't state who he is.

As for that family drama, it turns out that's also not what it seems when Zae pushes back on seeing her father. All that anger towards her family's situation that she focuses towards him eventually leads her towards learning the whole truth to her parents breakup, including why they are in their current predicament. While all of these emotions are flying and trauma is occurring, her school guidance counselor keeps insisting that Zae figure out a plan for the future... to which her only response is "what future?!?!".

Zae's life starts out a perfect picture and turns into a total mess... rightfully so. The thing I loved about this book is that it felt so genuine and real what our heroine goes through. None of it is made to feel like this image of utopia or that everything will be right going forward. Life is hard, you have to work hard to fix your mistakes and choose to stay with the people you love. The challenge here feels tough and Zae struggles hard with it - and blunders her way through it multiple times. Her mistakes along the way are big and the consequences are real, to which she admits she screws up and deals with it. There are a few "perfection" situations that I doubt would happen in the real world, but in the book world that's to be expected.

With a heartfelt story, a heroine who struggles with her feelings and choices, and more plot twists than you can throw a monkey wrench at - Wendy Higgins continues to weave another unmissable tale that will keep you hooked from start to finish.

My rating: 5 out of 5