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Lips Touch: Three Times

by Laini Taylor (Goodreads Author), Jim Di Bartolo (Illustrator)

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 4,680 ratings · 1,050 reviews

Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit
In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses
A demon and the ambassador to Hell...more

Hardcover, 266 pages

Published October 1st 2009 by Arthur A. Levine Books

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Jul 09, 2011 Tatiana rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who love fairy tales and gorgeous writing

Recommended to Tatiana by: ALA's 10 Best for 2010

Shelves: 2010, short-stories, fairy-tales, ya, ala-ya-2010, favorites, national-book-award, 2011

As seen on The Readventurer

I am familiar with YA literature enough to know how horribly, horribly wrong a collection of short stories about kissing can go (see, for example, The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire and Kisses from Hell). Let me tell you, "Lips Touch" is not that kind of book. This book is simply magical.

Laini Taylor grabs your attention with the first lines:

There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave. You could walk across a high school campus and point them...more

101 likes · like · see review

Jan 29, 2011 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: teen-faves, why-yes-i-ya, hey-shorty

i was not expecting to five-star this. i must confess - i hate the title and i hate the cover art (although i love the internal illustrations)

aren't those much better?? something about the color palette on the cover is upsetting, the covergirl looks vapid and whorish, and the title makes it seem like some teen heartthrob novel, which is it not. what it is is a sequence of three fairy tale-ish stories.

the first one is my favorite, and this one is a first-love story, so what? a frustrated girl fr...more

75 likes · like · see review

Oct 15, 2010 Kat Kennedy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone with the capacity for beauty and romance, pain and loss.

Shelves: kat-s-book-reviews, leaves-awesomeness-behind, favorites

To those of you who haven't read this book, what are you doing right now? If your answer is anything other than "Purchasing this book and getting ready to read it" then I'm afraid that you and I might just have to come to some kind of disagreement.

There is something enchantingly, alluringly fantastic about this book. From it's beautifully written stories to the amazing drawings and the characters within. This book is like a beautiful, wild romani woman with her ankle bracelets, bare feet and twi...more

48 likes · like · see review

Jul 31, 2011 Sparrow rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Linda

Recommended to Sparrow by: Thomas Tomato

Shelves: girls-rule, classic-young-adult, romantic, young-adult, reviewed, pacific-northwest-glory, chosen-girls, monsters

When you want to take a story that someone else has told and make it your own, do it like this. If you want to write a story, recognize your own magic, your own style, and add it to the story you want to steal. If you want to write a story, do what Laini Taylor did, and absorb the story, wait until it has seeped into the interstitial places of your writing, and give it back to your reader. Make it beautiful and true. And the only way you can do that is by figuring out what to you is beauty and t...more When you want to take a story that someone else has told and make it your own, do it like this. If you want to write a story, recognize your own magic, your own style, and add it to the story you want to steal. If you want to write a story, do what Laini Taylor did, and absorb the story, wait until it has seeped into the interstitial places of your writing, and give it back to your reader. Make it beautiful and true. And the only way you can do that is by figuring out what to you is beauty and truth. So many writers try to figure out what made something beautiful to someone else. They try to say, what made the Trojan war beautiful to Homer? What made Harry Potter beautiful to J.K. Rowling? And they try to imitate that. They don’t say, "What makes this story beautiful to me?" Well, Laini Taylor told us what makes these stories beautiful to her.

So, I’m a little expansive tonight. I’m a little drunk. I’m not usually one of those drunks who goes around telling everyone she loves them. In fact, I’ve been told I can recite a pretty good story while drunk, even if I don’t remember it a few months later. I usually don’t remember who I told stories to anyway, drunk or not drunk, no offense. Anyway, I just want to give this book a hug and tell it I love it. I love you, book. Like, in the full, Wayne’s World sense of the word. I love you, book. Damn, every time I write “book,” I spell it “bood.” Sorry.

I love this book in a drunk, college-high-school kind of way. I love this book like, “Wait a second, what have we all be doing, standing around fighting over whether vampires are sparkly or not?” So, it turns out there are people out there writing real love stories and fairy tales. There are people reading great writing like Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, getting inspired by them, and then writing these wonderful tributes to them.

I think, when anyone writes anything great, their ultimate hope has to be in some kind of legacy. They have to hope that their great writing will inspire something beautiful in the future, some kind of strength and inspiration. I think it is a tribute to the traditions that Rossetti, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism created that Taylor could create something as beautiful as this book. And then, hopefully her writings will inspire someone else, and the stories of goblins, hell, and eternal life will continue. It is like how Shakespeare reminded us that 13-year-olds falling in love doesn’t always end for the best. And, look, that story has continued in tradition because of him. Hopefully we will all, likewise, remember not to eat goblin fruit because of Taylor, not to doubt our own curses or our own mortality.

I had intended to talk about how some authors are natural with language, and how some authors know how to integrate a magical, traditional feeling with really modern writing. I don’t really feel like talking about that now that I am writing this. Maybe I will have more to say about that in the morning. Anyway, it’s not like Taylor tried to add a bunch of ‘ye’s to her writing, or like she tried to end everything with “e” like, unfortunately, some authors do, to give a sense of ye olde timmes. Taylor shows everything beautifully, and in doing so she shows how “modern times” are not removed from tradition and magick(e).

I like how this book is not about kisses, is not about love. When I first picked it up I thought it would be an emo version of Gossip Girl, but it is not that. It is about evil kisses, lips shutting in silence, and kisses that are sense memory. I like how this book is about loyalty and strength. I like how it is about curses. This book is beautiful, and in true, drunken or non-drunken spirit, I love it.
(less)

41 likes · like · see review

Aug 30, 2011 Lora rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lib-read

Three stories. Three girls. One thing in common: each lady has not been kissed. And their first taste of that special time when lips touch won't come without a price . . .

The wife and husband team of Laini Taylor and Jim Di Bartolo sure do make for a sumptuous collection of stories. I'd be hard-pressed to choose which is more beautiful: Taylor's writing or Di Bartolo's illustrations.

Let me give you samples of each:

"With a deep, visceral ache, she wished her true form might prove to be a sleek an...more

32 likes · like · see review

Aug 02, 2011 Ceridwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Tommy, karen, other folk

Shelves: america-and-environs, baying-at-the-moon, books-about-books, capital-r-romantic, faeries, fantasy, gothic, grrrrl-power

Do this:

1. Order this book from your library or go down to the bookstore or do whatever you need to do to get it into your hands.

2. Get out a brown paper bag, or some vellum, or tape together laser-printer paper from your printer tray, or something, and fold and cut it so it will cover the book, like you used to do with text books.

3. Print out this image.

PRB image of two girls in an embrace

or this one:

Rankin illustration of a girl gripped by goblins

Or, just do a google image search for "Goblin Market" and just pick whichever one you love more, because there is an image-hoard...more

51 likes · like · see review

Mar 28, 2011 Lamia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: stand-alone, favorites, 2011, paranormal, kindle, own-hardcopy, want-to-hump-the-writing

This can also be seen at The Book Eater

I truly feel like anything I say couldn't do this book justice.
So, in my endeavor to describe my *cough* "feelings", I made a pie chart (I love pie charts).

This book was was amazing. Well-written. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing. Touching characters. I just... I loved it. Every story was better than the last. Enchanting, horrifying, beautiful and captivating. The way Taylor writes... Again, I don't know what to say. She pulls you into the universe she created l...more

44 likes · like · see review

Mar 30, 2012 Emily May rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Those who miss the days when authors wanted to be artists, not millionaires

Recommended to Emily May by: Tatiana

Shelves: ya-na, 2011, short-stories, fairy-tales, fave-ya

Beautiful words, beautiful stories, beautiful characters... you know, this is just one damn beautiful book. I am in awe of it. Can you fall in love with a book? If so, I'm guilty. I don't mean to sound condescending to young adult readers (I am one) but this book simply does not deserve the readership that thought Twilight was the best book ever written.

Everything about the marketing and presentation of this book does not convey how truly wonderful it is. Firstly, though the cover illustration...more

27 likes · like · see review

May 01, 2012 Jillian -always aspiring- rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Readers who enjoy fairy tales, pretty prose, and exquisite storytelling

Shelves: best-characters, writing-to-which-i-aspire, fab-writing, couldn-t-stop-reading-it, amazing-storytelling, wowed-me, ultimate-favorites, forewent-sleep-to-read-it, exceeded-my-expectations, glad-i-gave-it-a-chance, out-of-the-box-ideas, covers-i-love, i-am-not-worthy, wish-i-could-write-a-book-like-this, 2010-reads, prose-envy, writer-crush, 2012-reads, reviewed

Rarely do I finish reading a book with a smile upon my face -- but, alas, Lips Touch: Three Times wheedled a satisfied yet slightly wistful smile from my face. I loved the format and premise behind this book, but the wistfulness came about from the desire that it had been longer. Laini Taylor's style is so lush that she captures her readers like a flame drawing moths. (If I could compare her to fantasy writers I have read in the past -- I would say that she is almost like a mixture of Tanith Lee...more

23 likes · like · see review

Sep 14, 2011 Mariel rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: I don't want to live like this

Recommended to Mariel by: Jareth in his tights said it would be fun

I read the horoscope. It said that you would meet a tall and handsome stranger. Avoid all yellow fruits and scarves are for nooses to hang in an ever after. Lips should be colored artificially. Don't get red lips from kissing lots of the wrong boys and blue lips from the cold. It's l-o-v-e red. Maybelline makes it. She's born with it, of course. Don't look in the mirror. You might not be drop dead gorgeous and have to go on living. No invitations to the ballet in the mail this week... I'm a libr...more I read the horoscope. It said that you would meet a tall and handsome stranger. Avoid all yellow fruits and scarves are for nooses to hang in an ever after. Lips should be colored artificially. Don't get red lips from kissing lots of the wrong boys and blue lips from the cold. It's l-o-v-e red. Maybelline makes it. She's born with it, of course. Don't look in the mirror. You might not be drop dead gorgeous and have to go on living. No invitations to the ballet in the mail this week... I'm a libra and all other libras should do the same thing. We like dancing. There's a pretty little fabric pattern for all those born under the same moon and stars of moon and stars (stay under where you were born). Don't think for yourself. Fairy tale logic and curses and there are heroes and heroines and bad guys. It's all pretty simple. People are the same. Everyone dies and there are only two ways to go: Happy or dead. Ever after.

Did you play Barbies and want to be a beautiful princess? Lips Touch: Three Times would resonate with the little girl that just knows she's going to grow up to be beautiful. The "geek" (Saved by the Bell version. Smoking hot in glasses that come off) that is going to go to a great college in six weeks and leave behind insecurity for evermore. Wasn't there a crack of loneliness, of doubt, for those who are not untouchable in their pristine beauty? She'll go to the ballet and can be a gorgeous singer without any practice at all. Not to mention the surpassing violin skills (that was too much!). My feet hurt. (And my eyes are still lodged in the back of my head after they rolled over Esme's instant prodigy skills as soon as she picked up the instrument.) It's not that easy. Dreams... My horoscope said it was possible. It says for tomorrow to beware of tall and dark strangers. Can I get a name instead of the dreamy vagueness? Maybe get to know them first? No? I don't see anything wrapped up... Maybe there's an ending in there after happily ever after of being pretty and perfect?

Laini Taylor isn't a bad writer. She's just not enough of a story teller. I didn't move closer in front of the fire and hold my breath until everything worked out. Short stories aren't a lot of time for character development. But... I wanted character development. I wanted to know someone, anyone at all, in these stories more than the briefest contact at a six year old girl's Barbie doll play time wishes. Sultriness, wearing scarves in many different ways, artists drawing them because they were so uniquely beautiful (ahem unique? Really?), beauty and lots more beauty, perfect hair, perfect violin skills (come on! I HATE this about fantasy. They don't know when to stop piling on the perfectness).

Did I lose the fairy tale dream? What was it, again? I thought it was the feeling to make you want to hold your breath and hope it worked out okay. Not that there were beautiful girls with perfect hair and the beautiful boys who loved them (they also have perfect hair). The second story was almost interesting. I liked it when the love interest James made his girl Anamique feel normal, that she might be able to cast off the big talk of curses and speak for herself. I liked it when he let her down by fearing its truth. But it was true! They fell in love at first sight. Pleeaaase. Not this again. I don't do first sight. You gotta write a real person for me to care about. I don't think that's too much to ask. I'm not six. What did it feel like to be silent for so long? Maybe what came out could have been than more than beauty. It could have been alive, rather than death. That would have been more interesting. Isn't that harder to not have the final ending? That would have been more difficult than a just because curse. Not knowing what was going to come next. You know, the pain of knowing what you want to say and not being able to say it? Saying the wrong thing? Because there isn't a fairy tale map that tells you what that right thing is.

I liked the story of Mab (in 'Hatchling') and her life as a pet in the inhuman world of the Druj. Her neglect and cold days were more real to me than any of the cutesy shit about ballet every night, dancing like a fairy and diamonds in salt shakers. The violin playing skills! Come fucking on! Wasn't it enough that daughter Esme was inhabited by the druj queen all along? Wasn't there a point she was her own soul and had to WORK for something? Instant love with the boy in the flower shop... What about Mab? She had nightmares of being taken over by these druj who couldn't know what it was to steal the feelings of another. Isn't that something you'd feel something about? When did she get her own life? They were all pets because of the cuteness of their cutesy fairytale prettiness and greatness. I didn't like that. The Druj weren't human and didn't know what it was like to feel... Shouldn't that have been counteracted with something real? Something less... fairy tale? How about something hard and something won. That made it all a bit too hollow for me. I would have cared about feelings versus non feelings if there had been any. Since I don't fall at the feet of perfect beauty... Take my soul! Take mine! Nope.

A kiss... Is a kiss just a kiss or does it lead to more? I don't care about the moment unless there's contact. There's no contact if there's no person!

My horrorscope says there are no real characters. It's all a big fairy tale of the same old stories being told over and over again. No one steps off the path and says, "Hey, I'm going to think for myself. If you want to use your own voice don't worry that I can't handle it." Beauty is skin deep. Ideals matter more than the life the spark of an idea can have, and working to see it to fruition. People don't retell these old stories because there's something the same to connect to in others more than there is in what you want to be. I'm depressed. (It's just a book, Mariel. You've seen Disney films.)

P.s. And what was that stuff about the kid souls from the earthquake in India getting saved in exchange for the voice of Anamique? Fairy tale stuff about the value of life and death like it was that easy? And then it was the old lady Estella's time to be up and what a relief it was? Why not try not messing with it in the first place and everyone lives and speak for themselves? (Am I living a fairy tale?) I'm still depressed in this p.s.

P.s.s. And Kizzy didn't know anything on her own. It was all stuff her "weird" old world family told her. (Big deal if she knows songs in Basque. So what if Basque is too hard for me. I've got Basque relatives too, though. You don't hear me wailing about it.) She was the least real of the three girls. "I wanna be beautiful!" Cliche. Guess it was supposed to be relate able. There can be universal shit of a cute boy and teen romance. But maybe there could have been more to it than that? Kizzy could have known something on her own! Anything. Please. Real characters. Please! I don't care if they will get invited to dinner parties in adulthood! That's not growing up! Cries. I kinda hated this sometimes. Why did she feel so ashamed of her family and was so rude to her family and wanted to be kissed by beautiful people? Why couldn't she feel empty when she got what she wanted? Instead of being dead? Why couldn't she have wanted something for herself than a lusty dream? Why not? What was the point of retelling the story if it wasn't about why people want fairy tales? They want them like how sex looks good to the horny. Then the fairy tale should end and there should be something left alive in its wake. Lips Touch didn't have that. It's kinda empty. And I'm going to go read something else because I want something else.(less)

14 likes · like · see review

Jul 17, 2011 Lisa O. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-lit, fantasy

I've been eager to read Laini Taylor for a while now, after reading more than gushing reviews about her books here on GoodReads.
Now that I'm done I have to confess that while on the one hand she did not disappoint, on the other I didn't fall in love with this book.

I knew next to nothing about this book before starting it, only that it was a collection of three short stories and that the leit motif is kissing.
What I didn't know is that the author, in this collection, has taken various elements o...more

12 likes · like · see review

Jul 06, 2011 Erica (daydreamer) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthology, release-in-2009, i-own, 2011-reads, could-have-been-better

Lips Touch: Three Times tells three short tales of three girls who find a certain magic through a kiss. These stories possess a fairytale esque feeling, with stories that are original, strange, a little dark, but with hope and beauty strung in between. Laini Taylor has quite an ability to grab the reader and pull them into her writing. I wasn’t riveted the whole time, I sometimes felt the flow or enchantment lacking a little, but I still enjoyed the stories.

The writing was done well, and was at...more

8 likes · like · see review

Dec 15, 2011 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, paranormal-romance-urban-fantasy, fantasy, short-stories

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

Lips Touch: Three Times, Laini Taylor's debut into the young adult market, is simply magical. I picked up this collection of short stories with some trepidation. I do not usually enjoy short stories, even from authors I love, but my curiosity was piqued after seeing that the book was rated highly by most of my friends. Despite my fear of ending up the one dissenter in the sea of positive reviews, I decided to take a chance. And boy am I glad I did.

The strongest aspect of...more Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

Lips Touch: Three Times, Laini Taylor's debut into the young adult market, is simply magical. I picked up this collection of short stories with some trepidation. I do not usually enjoy short stories, even from authors I love, but my curiosity was piqued after seeing that the book was rated highly by most of my friends. Despite my fear of ending up the one dissenter in the sea of positive reviews, I decided to take a chance. And boy am I glad I did.

The strongest aspect of this collection is the writing, an unusual occurrence in the YA genre. Laini Taylor can craft truly beautiful sentences without falling into the trap of purple prose. She is a master of show-not-tell. Her words paint a vivid picture in the readers' mind of both characters and setting. None of the description is superfluous. Even the small details she offers serve a purpose. Taylor's vocabulary is vast and impressive. This collection is one that will challenge readers, particularly younger ones, to expand their own lexicon.

The stories themselves have a fairytale quality to them that is haunting and beautiful. Even while reading the two stories that took place in modern times, I felt as though I were being taken to another world. Taylor has drawn from a variety of mythological, religious, and literary sources to creat her mythologies. She is able to successfully weave together ideas from different cultures into three uniquely brilliant mythologies. It is clear that Taylor has done her research. In the third story, "Hatchling," Taylor even creates her own language by adapting a dead Iranian language.

The reason I rated this 4.5 stars rather than five is simply a consequence of it being a short story collection. I wanted more from each of the stories. "Goblin Fruit" left me wanting more of a plot. While I found the characters to be complex and engaging for the most part, the story ends too abruptly. In both "Spicy Little Curses Such As These" and "Hatchling" I wished that the characters had been more fleshed out.

Overall, a fantastic read. This collection has definitely wet my appetite for Laini Taylor's most recent work, Daughter of Smoke and Bone.(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Sep 16, 2011 Steph Sinclair rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads, made-me-think, original-and-creative, short-and-sweet, i-didn-t-see-that-coming, i-liked-it, strange, things-that-go-bump-in-the-night, young-adult

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I've been hearing lots of awesome things about Lips Touch: Three Times. And while it did not overly blow me away, it did not disappoint me either. There is something magical about the way Laini Taylor weaves her words into these three short stories. No doubt about that. Lips Touch: Three Times can best be described as a 3 course meal. Goblin Fruit can be likened to an appetizer: small and simple. It's not enough to calm your hunger, but enough to pique your interest for t...more

12 likes · like · see review

Nov 20, 2011 Jean rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish, youngadult-fiction

I only read the first of the 3 supernatural tales in this book--"Goblin Fruit." (And I apologize to those who enjoyed it!)

The mood is heavy with superstition, slaughter and blood and flesh and titillation. In case grandma's trusty knife isn't enough, the element of danger is further highlighted by several appearances of the word rape, unsubtly used, for example, when peacocks in the farmyard don't screech or caw--they scream "rape."

The story is driven by the theme of lust despite (or heightene...more

7 likes · like · see review

Nov 11, 2011 Kay rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: dark fairy tale lovers

Shelves: better-than-i-thought, fantasy, myths-and-tales, physically-gorgeous, quite-the-romantic, teens-tweens-and-ya

Everything, from the illustrations that preceded the stories to the physical texture of the paper, worked so well in this magical bundle of a book. The stories and the writing are lyrical and haunting. Ms. Laini Taylor practices the coveted art of "showing, not telling" with unassuming grace.

The book is comprised of three stories, all very different in style and content but still work together.

Goblin Fruit
This story was the most "YA" of the bunch, and the weakest. As one reviewer mentioned, th...more

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 07, 2011 Ashleigh Paige rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-great-shelf-of-awesome

Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker.

Lips Touch: Three Times is made up of three short stories. In the first, Kizzy comes from an odd family that believes in all sorts of strange things and she desperately wants to be more than just the plain girl from the strange family. Her want is so strong that it attracts evil to her and it just might be the death of her. In the second, Anamique was cursed with a beautiful voice at birth, but anyone that hears it will die. After finding love with a soldi...more Also appears on The Screaming Nitpicker.

Lips Touch: Three Times is made up of three short stories. In the first, Kizzy comes from an odd family that believes in all sorts of strange things and she desperately wants to be more than just the plain girl from the strange family. Her want is so strong that it attracts evil to her and it just might be the death of her. In the second, Anamique was cursed with a beautiful voice at birth, but anyone that hears it will die. After finding love with a soldier who knows the real her and that believes her corse is a load of bull, she debates whether or not to take the risk and see if her voice can kill. In the third, Esme and her mother are forced to go on the run when the beings they've been on the run from for much of their lives catch up to them. But is that all there is to it?

This is of little importance and you can skip this whole paragraph if you want to, but I've looking for a copy of this book everywhere for months now. The local big bookstore never had one and I was about to give up and order it online. (Don't ask me why I didn't do that in the first place because I have no clue.) Then I went to a used bookstore with my best friend and finally found a copy. The way I screamed "Jackpot!" and basically spazzed about it was truly a sight. The effort and stressing was worth it. Taylor's stories are amazing.

Di Bartolo's illustrations are beautiful, muted in their coloring except for shades of one specific color. They're unclear at first, but readers will understand them and what's going on in them once they've finished the related story. Maybe it would be better to show you some of these illustrations instead of trying to tell you about them:

(Sorry for the blur, but my camera and I don't get along.)

Each of the stories, as different as they are from one another in subject, all have in common how the explore strong want or desire. Kizzy desperate desire to be extraordinary and more than the average girl from the freaky family (and she is the character I related most to; it's funny how I can relate more to Kizzy in fifty pages that I can to heroines in books upward of three-hundred pages), Anamique's wish to speak to her loved ones and tempt her curse, and... I can't even begin to approach the third story and talk about that. It's complicated.

The writing is beautiful in almost every way it's possible to be. The closest comparison I can make is to a fairy tale, though these stories are a bit more twisted than most fairy tales. I could flip the book open to a random page and find a poetic turn of phrase. Actually, let's do that so you can see what I mean:

"Drinking in his first close sight of her, James already knew her better than any of those others did. He knew from her diary that if she was biting her lip, it meant she was having one of her bad days.

"He had imagined himself, fancifully, to be half in love with the writer of the mysterious diary, but now, seeing her, that vague fancy was swept away by the exhilaration of actually falling in love with her, not by halves, but fully and profoundly. His heartbeat pulsed in his hands with the desire to reach out and touch her ( "Spicy Little Curses Such as These," Lips Touch: Three Times p. 89)."

The stories fly by quickly and before I knew it, the book was over. I won't be forgetting them anytime soon because there was something about all three that made them memorable: "Goblin Fruit" has Kizzy as a character that I greatly connected to, "Spicy Little Curses Such as These" had its mythology and Anamique's strength, and "Hatchling" had its nightmare fuel factor. Not kidding. "Hatchling" was terrifying for so many reasons, especially the Druj and what Mab was forced to go through. You know those stories that are the kind of scary that make you want to wrap up in your childhood/favorite blanket because you hope it will make it less scary? That's what it was for me.

Taylor has a young adult novel called Daughter of Smoke and Bone coming out September 27 and all the pre-publication reviews I've seen for it so far from those who received ARCs (jealousy levels: off the charts) say it's absolutely fantastic (and ARC excerpts promise the same beautiful writing). Lips Touch only made me want the book more because it shows me she has true talent as an author. I beg you to give this book a try.(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2010 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ala-s-best-books, ya, 2010, national-book-award

A special Thank you goes out to my matey T for recommending this book to me, great choice mon amie. :) No review I’m capable of writing will do this book justice, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Lips Touch is stunning and reminiscent of my childhood favorite, Robin McKinley, and it is because of books like Lips Touch, that I fell in love with the YA fantasy genre so many years ago. Filled with inventive lore, gorgeously flowing language, and unique illustrations, Lips Touch is nothing short of...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 01, 2012 fяσzєη rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: covergasm, owned-physical-copies, all-time-faves, demons, faves, creatively-original, amazing-authors, books-i-want-to-marry, deserves-the-hype

I give this a 4.5. Only because the third story, I couldn't really get into.

Let me first start off by saying: holy crap, Laini Taylor! Your writing is fantastic! <3

I loved this book. The writing, the artwork, the characters... Gah!

The first and second story were my most favorites, but for the third one, I just...couldn't really get into it. I liked the first half of it, but then there were just way too many things that I didn't understand. I ended up skimming through the last parts.

I dare say...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal, romance, twas-good, young-adult

Disregard how I feel about each short story and the book as a whole, this much is clear: Laini Taylor is indeed a gifted writer. She has a way with words that makes the pages jump out at you, grab you by the collar and suck you into its world of goblins and demons and Druj. She's crafted a tasteful balance of showing and telling, and colours her tales with a mixture of characters, each with a considerable voice of its own, seeing the relative difficulty of having to flesh them out in approximate...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

January 18, 2010

Alas, no Printz. That went to something else. BUT Lips Touch was a National Book Award finalist and will be a Best Book for Young Adults. At least someone appreciates it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three amazingly well-written and intriguing stories.

And I would just like to add--if this book does not get the Printz, and it goes to some tragically traumatic realistic fiction novel instead, it will be a great injustice to the fantasy genre in...more

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May 25, 2010 Carolynne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

I didn't buy this book for the Curriculum Library when I first heard of it--I thought it was probably more of the same for the Twilight and House of Night fans--and besides, we have enough YA books for our pre-service English teachers. I decided to purchase it when it was an entrant in the Battle of the Kids' Books over at SLJ this March. Even then I was put off by the creepy cover. But I am so glad I finally gave it a chance. The first of the three novellas is based on the haunting poem "Goblin...more I didn't buy this book for the Curriculum Library when I first heard of it--I thought it was probably more of the same for the Twilight and House of Night fans--and besides, we have enough YA books for our pre-service English teachers. I decided to purchase it when it was an entrant in the Battle of the Kids' Books over at SLJ this March. Even then I was put off by the creepy cover. But I am so glad I finally gave it a chance. The first of the three novellas is based on the haunting poem "Goblin Market," the second "Spicy Little Curses Such as These" touches on religious concepts in Hinduism, and the third, "Hatchling" has some connections with Zoroastrianism. All three themes were intriguing to me. "Goblin Fruit" is possibly my favorite, in part because it is based on a Christina Rosetti poem, and also because the writing drew me in and kept me there until the finish. Here's how it begins: "There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave. You could walk across a high school campus and point them out: not her, not her, _her_. The pert, lovely ones with butterfly tattoos in secret places, sitting on their boyfriends' laps? No, not them. The girls _watching_ the lovely ones sitting on their boyfriends' laps.
Yes.
Them.

"Spicy Little Curses" was also special to me because of its connection to Hinduism, but also because of the perfection of the drawings by Jim di Bartolo which precede the novella and hint at its story. And third, because the exquisitely suspenseful but painful shadow of the deadly curse under which Anamique lives, much like _Sleeping Beauty._

In the third story "Hatchling," Esme suddenly wakes up with one eye blue, and the reason why unfolds slowly and excruciatingly over the entire story. One of the Druj, the soulless demons who live forever, discovers the path to regain at least part of their souls. And Esme is ineluctably involved without understanding. The language is breathtaking and the reader is compelled from the start to find out the answers to the mysteries that unfold over the course of the novella. Some of the answers are only hinted at, still shrouded in mist. Some of the scenes I find harrowing, (the frantic beasts, the hapless kittens, the brutal way the humans are taken over by the Druj) and I would recommend this book only for older teens (and older!). But for them it is worth it. The Lexile number is 990.(less)

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Jun 07, 2011 Thebookbutterfly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: breaks-my-heart, favorites, library, swoonworthy-writing, fantasy, art-stuff, multi-pov, reviewed

There's this shelf of books in a room of my house, all of them made of that tough hardcover material--none of that sleek, slippery hardcover that they have today--and the titles are fading gold, etched into the front and the binding so they look mysterious and handsome displayed from the side (obviously the point of the awesome engraving). The font is old, authentic typewriter font that marches across the yellowing, creased pages in fancy lines. There's little (sometimes horrifying) illustration...more There's this shelf of books in a room of my house, all of them made of that tough hardcover material--none of that sleek, slippery hardcover that they have today--and the titles are fading gold, etched into the front and the binding so they look mysterious and handsome displayed from the side (obviously the point of the awesome engraving). The font is old, authentic typewriter font that marches across the yellowing, creased pages in fancy lines. There's little (sometimes horrifying) illustrations and the covers are absolutely frayed at the edges. They reek of old days when people actually cracked them open and paged through their stories, not just put them out to gather dust. They reek of mystery and magic.

Reading Laini Taylor's fantastical, masterpiece of a novel reminded me of the first time I ran my finger down the table of contents of those ancient books, the first time I was ever introduced to Grimms and other odd fairytales that made shivers sneak up my spine but were heavenly and dangerous all the same.

This book is so heavy influenced by Indian and Persian culture that you can almost taste the humid air and the spices and the soft, silky fabrics.

Kizzy's story was the first and my ultimate favorite. Anna's story was beautiful not only because of the intriguing concept of hell or the love interest (James. Swoon <3) but because of the added quirks about India that I never learned of even through historical fiction that I have read about the country. Esme's story was a rich, multi-layered fantasy with the kind of star-crossed lovers that most YA authors can only dream of. All of these have one thing in common that all teenagers and adults too can relate to: the craving for life, and love, and adventure.

I read this particular passage:

"Kizzy wanted to be a woman who would dive off the prow of a sailboat into the sea, who would fall back in a tangle of sheets, laughing, and who could dance a tango, lazily stroke a leopard with her bare foot, freeze an enemy's blood with her eyes, make promises she couldn't possibly keep, and then shift the world to keep them. She wanted to write memoirs and autograph them at a tiny bookshop in Rome, with a line of admirers snaking down a pink-lit alley. She wanted to make love on a balcony, ruin someone, trade in esoteric knowledge, watch strangers as coolly as a cat. She wanted to be inscrutable, have a drink named after her, a love song written for her, and a handsome adventurer's small airplane, champagne-christened Kizzy, which would vanish one day in a windstorm in Arabia so that she would have to mount a rescue operation involving camels, and wear an indigo veil against the stinging sand, just like the nomads.
Kizzy wanted."

And read it overoverover again. It's beautiful and true, the honesty and realistic dealing of things like love and self-discovery that teenagers grapple with every day is the power behind all these fairytales. Also, Laini Taylor takes the Happily Ever After formula and dumps it on its head in the kind of way that makes me smile but has my heart breaking all the same. Very much like Grimms.

These short stories are EXACTLY how short stories should be. Not too dragging but not too short that we don't properly get a taste of the characters and their worlds. In fact, the characters and the worlds they were set in were both so exotic and multi-layered with beautiful details and filled to the brim with emotion. It was rich I think that's the best way to describe it.

I highly recommend this to just anyone, anywhere, that's craving tales of not just first love, but first adventure. It's beautiful and you won't regret picking it up :)(less)

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May 27, 2011 Lavanya (Anya) Nara rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Recommended to Lavanya (Anya) by: Lamia

Shelves: favorites, personal

This book was amazing. it's actually three stories, two short ones and then a mid length third. The two shorter stories were my favorites; I couldn't believe the language-- her prose is beautiful. I especially like the second story with its entwining of Indian mythos, which I knew quite well. While I didn't understand why she set the story in India but didn't make the characters Indian, it was really well told and quite enthralling..

And the first story--there was literally a moment where I had t...more

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Aug 23, 2010 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

(edited review)

These stories were strange, interesting, and almost hypnotic. At times I wished I could put it down, but I felt drawn in somehow. Although it's not fully illustrated like a graphic novel, each of the three stories begins with several pages of illustrations, and ends with one "closing" illustration--a perfect touch. The stories were intriguing in and of themselves, but the illustrations added something much more--as if it made the stories magical (that sounds cheesy, I know). They...more (edited review)

These stories were strange, interesting, and almost hypnotic. At times I wished I could put it down, but I felt drawn in somehow. Although it's not fully illustrated like a graphic novel, each of the three stories begins with several pages of illustrations, and ends with one "closing" illustration--a perfect touch. The stories were intriguing in and of themselves, but the illustrations added something much more--as if it made the stories magical (that sounds cheesy, I know). They had a fairy tale feel to them, and the stories wouldn't have felt the same without them.

#1--Goblin Fruit. This story felt like a folk tale, and the strange culture of Kizzy's family started to feel real and natural as the story unfolded. I liked the dialogue the best. I was really surprised that the subtle luring of the writing made me almost hope that Kizzy would make the wrong choice.

#2--Spicy Little Curses...I enjoyed the change of pace and setting from the first story. I thought it was interesting that the author made no judgement about Estella, even though the characters in the story thought she was horrid. We can see her role as an important one, and I almost felt sorry for the loneliness of the role she serves in life. I was satisfied by the conclusion.

#3--Hatchling. I don't even know what to say about this one. The story is mysterious, and it reveals its secrets over the whole span of the story. Sometimes this gets annoying in a novel, but here it didn't feel tedious, and I think it's because you're always learning something new, so you can be patient about getting to the end. Well, kind of patient. I couldn't believe how complete this type of world was. The author really created her own mythology. It was impressive. I guess I could say that it kind of creeped me out, because I wanted to take breaks from it but couldn't--I felt almost tied to it in an uncomfortable way. It's hard to explain.

I kind of feel like rating this book wouldn't be appropriate since it's more of an experience rather than entertainment, but because of the quality of the story-telling, I say 5 stars.

(edited to say that my husband persuaded me out of thinking that the 3rd story felt like sci fi)(less)

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Dec 03, 2009 Wendy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Melody, Lizz, Kathleen

Recommended to Wendy by: Laurie

Shelves: 2009-award-possibilities

A lovely, lovely book, evocative of Robin McKinley and probably a dozen others if I put my mind to it, but not in a derivative kind of way. The writing, imagery, characters--all are splendid.

And considering how it's stayed with me over the last few days, I'm upping my stars.

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May 31, 2010 Jacqueline rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, collections-anthologies, favorites, read-in-2009, young-adult-fantasy, young-adult-paranormal, young-adult-romantic-fantasy

I'm not big on short story collections (that aren't anthologies by authors that I'm familiar with). That said, I may have to revise my opinion. Taylor's writing is beautiful and captivating. Nothing I can say would do this justice, so go pick it up.

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Feb 19, 2012 Lyn (The Heartless) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fantasy, teen-lit, demons

Today's current art media: Book covers. I will be the first to admit that I am a sucker for a lovely dust jacket. Today, the bookstores display rows and rows of lovely and passionate art at the front of a well-defined novel. I, sad to admit, dodged The Hunger Games because of the front cover. I always remind myself to never judge a book by its cover.

However, with this beauty, you get your outstanding artwork and a wonderful collection of short stories by a promising new author. I will not lie an...more

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Jun 21, 2011 rameau rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: fantasy, romance, ya, recommending, read-in-2011

I've been agonising over the rating for a day now and I still can't decide. I loved this book, I really did, and still I can't bring myself to give it the fifth star.

It threw me a bit to realise this book was combined of three kissing stories of variable lengths, but the writing more than made up the fact. The first story was so short and poignant that to me, it became more about the pretty words and clever descriptions than the story itself. The second was more about the story and character gro...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Brodie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: older, favorites

There was no doubt in my mind that I would enjoy reading this after the highly intimate love affair I shared with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Laini Taylor has been blessed with an otherworldly mind. It's her breathtaking ability to make writing an art - she's not just telling a story, she's creating a masterpiece. She can turn the most mundane of words into something rare and precious. It's not just her prose that I have come to adore, but also her imagination. I don't think I've quite read anyt...more There was no doubt in my mind that I would enjoy reading this after the highly intimate love affair I shared with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Laini Taylor has been blessed with an otherworldly mind. It's her breathtaking ability to make writing an art - she's not just telling a story, she's creating a masterpiece. She can turn the most mundane of words into something rare and precious. It's not just her prose that I have come to adore, but also her imagination. I don't think I've quite read anything like the mythology she weaves into her stories. From Smoke and Bone to the awe-inspiring Hatchling, I am blown away by the depth and sheer creativity

Three stories. Three different meanings behind three kinds of kisses. Three times your heart will fall in love, despair and conflict.

Goblin Fruit: Kizzy has spent her entire life watching from the sidelines, yearning for something more to fill her. It's the power of wanting so bad that the consequences don't matter anymore. Would you give into the temptation of something you have ached for your entire life, just for that one moment of utter joy and happiness, even if meant your death? This was the shortest of all, but perhaps the one with the most humour, as each story grows progressively more darker. Oh, don't despair. There is plenty of dark here among the soul-snatching goblins and the lure of forbidden fruit, but the interactions between Kizzy and her friends had me laughing many times!

Spicy Little Curses Such as These: Oh, how I would have loved to see this turned into a novel-length story. Laini executed it perfectly, but I wanted more. I was so taken by Estella's story and the weighted decisions she must make on a daily basis - all while sipping tea with a sadistic demon in the pits of Hell. She was forced to place a curse on Anamique when she was just a baby. If the girl murmurs a sound, it will kill anyone in the near vicinity. But while her voice may curse those around her, the silence has cursed her own life as she's grown into womanhood. Forcing her to withdraw into herself, hide in the shadows while those around her mock and jeer the 'dumb mute'. Until. A young soldier finds her diary and discovers the beautiful, intelligent girl hiding within and so begins a romance that will capture your heart in it's honesty, it's sweetness. And it's tragedy. This is a story of first loves and the lengths you'll go to save those loves. And it's a story of consequence. For every action, there is a reaction, a give and a take.

Hatchling: This one stole my breath away. This is the longest and by far, the most richly explored and darkest of all three stories. The mythology is nothing short of amazing. The world of the Druj and what poor, helplessly human Mab endured as a small child at the hands of the Queen were shocking and brutal. Your heart has no choice but to reach out to the victims of this cruel and downright creepy world. We witness Mab's heartbreaking story and how she escaped their clutches with a baby in tow. We journey along with her daughter, Esme, who's changing in terrifying ways and may be snatched back to the horrific world her mother has so longed for her to never witness. And we delve into the fascinating and scary history of the Druj, where Laini decides to twist everything you thought you felt and craft such an emotionally complicated story. She makes you feel an understanding for the 'villains' and - perhaps - a twinge of sympathy for their own plight. Just... WOW. Nothing is ever as it seems when it comes to this author, she keeps adding layer upon layer and then digs 20ft underground to find more hidden layers to shock you with.

Running through each story is a fragile thread of hope. Hope of being someone else, having something more. Hope of emerging from the shadows and showing your true potential to the world. Hope of protecting those you love from the horrors you faced yourself. Hope of finding your humanity.

Laini Taylor and Jim Bartolo. Author and Illustrator. Wife and husband. The ultimate dream team. The accompanying art by Jim for each story is absolutely beautiful. The art doesn't spoil the story, rather tempts and captivates your mind and doesn't fully make sense until you've finished reading. Her words, his art - they make for a truly magical use of ink and paper that demands a special place in your bookshelf.

Lips Touch transports you to a magical world where live goblins and temptation, love and curses, demons and stolen children and the scary power of longing for something you're not fully aware of. (less)

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About Laini Taylor

Hi there! I'm a writer of fantasy books for young people, but my books can be enjoyed by adults as well. My 'Dreamdark' books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries -- not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. My first young adult book, Lips Touch, is a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award! It's creepy, sensual supernatural romance. . . abo...more

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Books by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)

Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3)

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Quotes from Lips Touch: Three Times

“Kizzy wanted to be a woman who would dive off the prow of a sailboat into the sea, who would fall back in a tangle of sheets, laughing, and who could dance a tango, lazily stroke a leopard with her bare foot, freeze an enemy's blood with her eyes, make promises she couldn't possibly keep, and then shift the world to keep them. She wanted to write memoirs and autograph them at a tiny bookshop in Rome, with a line of admirers snaking down a pink-lit alley. She wanted to make love on a balcony, ruin someone, trade in esoteric knowledge, watch strangers as coolly as a cat. She wanted to be inscrutable, have a drink named after her, a love song written for her, and a handsome adventurer's small airplane, champagne-christened Kizzy, which would vanish one day in a windstorm in Arabia so that she would have to mount a rescue operation involving camels, and wear an indigo veil against the stinging sand, just like the nomads.
Kizzy wanted.” — 87 people liked it

“There are other ways of showing someone you love them, such as fetching them out of Hell.” — 68 people liked it

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