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Feb 08, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

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 acr More...

37 comments like (80 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

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 a More...

27 comments like (38 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

Lora rated it:

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 h More...

40 comments like (31 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Ceridwen rated it:

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 " More...

12 comments like (34 people liked it)

May 11, 2011

Lamia rated it:

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 More...

9 comments like (43 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2010

Kat rated it:

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 bra More...

32 comments like (33 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2011

Mariel rated it:

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...

6 comments like (10 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Lisa O. rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2011

Erica (daydreamer) rated it:

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, More...

8 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2012

Stephanie rated it:

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 pi More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Kay rated it:

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 bun More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2011

Paige rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Jean rated it:

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 drive More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Lisa rated it:

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.

More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Heather rated it:

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 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Amanda rated it:

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...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Tanu rated it:

I have been accused of being crazy many times by my friends. No seriously, not kidding, I have been, for example that time in our Bio lab in last grade when I was super excited about dissecting insects and wasn’t say puking at the sight of dead cockroaches..everyone was like “Gosh you are crazy!!” and also that time when I made weird expressions while this Justin Beiber(I am not sure about the spelling) song was playing on the radio..I bet that if I had read this book in someone’s company, ev More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2010

Stephanie rated it:

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 More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 26, 2010

Carolynne rated it:

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 " More...

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2011

Thebookbutterfly rated it:

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...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Anya rated it:

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 w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 23, 2010

Rachel rated it:

(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 More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 31, 2010

Jacqueline rated it:

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.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2012

Lyn rated it:

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 w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

rameau rated it:

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 c More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Brodie rated it:

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...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2012

Sharon rated it:

Three dark, earthy, fantastical, amazing short stories. Unfortunately I was so totally enthralled with the first story that I turned the pages and leapt right into the second. That was a mistake as one should pause to savour the first before burning right along. So I made sure to let a few days go before starting Hatchling. That's a mistake I tend to make with short stories and the reason I don't often read them, I get so involved and they end too quickly for my liking.

Anyway, these More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2010

Agnes rated it:

I am going to get a serious beating for saying this - from a librarian, no less! - but I agree with Borders: this should be shelved in the young adult section, not in adult. I really wanted to like it, and I have to say, the third story was complex enough to be very engaging, but the first two were so simple and insipid that they were difficult not to skim. Since all three stories deal with the coming-of-age of rather dim-witted young ladies, I think they fit right in on the YA fantasy shelf. More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2011

Vi rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2010

R rated it:

Every story is better than the one before it!

1. Retelling/reimagining of The Goblins Market, by Christina Rosetti (sp? don't care enough to google. This was, I think, the sexiest of the three, the one that was most dependent on the kiss. It ended too early for me, which is why it's my least favorite. That doesn't mean it was bad, though, I really enjoyed it. (Some of the dialogue did irk me, but only in this story.)

2. Okay, I lied. This one was my favorite. It was all sho More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)