Kiss and Break Up- Ella Fields

About this book:

Dashiell Thane wasn’t a nice guy.
He was an abrasive, demanding, conniving, intolerable brat.
Yet somehow, we’d been best friends our whole lives.
Until our senior year when I finally decided to dip my toes into the dating pool.

All it took was one kiss for jealousy, lies, and betrayal to sweep in and propel us heart first into dizzying, hostile depths.

You’re not supposed to kiss your best friend.
You’re definitely not supposed to kiss your best friend while you’re dating someone else.
And the absolute worst thing you could do is fall for your best friend.
Unless, of course, you want to ruin everything.

Release Date: 8th March, 2018.

What I think?

WARNING: Super long rant post ahead.

Ya know, I have three favorite tropes/genres that I am down for anytime—

♥ dark romance
♥ friends to lovers
♥ enemies to lovers

And I’ve been wanting to read Ella Fields for a long time now too. So when I read the blurb of Kiss and Break Up, it was a given that me and this book were spending an entire day intimately on the bed. And so I chose to dedicate my Sunday to this book, because dedication.

I have to tell you guys that that cover has done things to me. I swear, all that funky font and messy chic design is making my shallow heart flutter. Crazily.

And is it just me, or is that blurb amazing or what? The synopsis is really appealing to some hidden romantic part of me, that just wants a gal to fall in love with her best-friend, and for it to turn out perfect, because I pathetically botched mine. I swear, friends to lovers is like a secret arsenal against me. I read that in the genres/themes, and TBR the book blindly. So yeah, even before I started this book, the idea of this book really excited me.

I guess that’s where the excitement ends for me.

Everything I love about this book, is everything that is superficial. I mean, I love the cover, the trope, the thought of reading this author; but the one thing that I should love is the one thing I just don’t—

the book itself.

And I’m probably in the minority when say this, but this book wasn’t anything great. No, I’m definitely not saying it was bad, but from all the reviews that I’ve read so far by the other ARC readers, my hopes were sky high; and this book barely crossed the two-storey mark compared to that.

See, I’m 21, and I’ve never dated a guy before, because relationships require a lot of effort, and if I need romance in my life I can just read a book. So, I guess, I could kind of relate to where this book was coming from.. but I also totally can’t.

And therein the root of the problem lies.

Let me start from the beginning, so that you and I are on the same page—

Six ways from Sunday, you’ve fucked me, and I’ve yet to find anything satisfying about it.

Peggy, an about-turn-18 year, has reached a point in life where she is finally ready to be like a normal girl, and live the teenage dream- with parties and a doting boyfriend. Only foil to this near perfect plan was her best friend- Dash. And the fact that no one has ever wanted to date her before. Because Dash. *blink*

Mr. Dashiell I-will-do-whatever-the-fuck-I-want-because-reasons Thane is your typical bad boy; actually he reminds me more of those bad-boy MCs from those YA books that had gotten unwarrantedly popular in the 2007-2014 era. Anyone remember Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick? Yeah, I’m talking Patch kind of bad boy here. Anyways, Dash literally makes life difficult for Peggy on a regular basis, all due to his best fried duties. But when he hears of Peggy’s new desires for a change.. you guess exactly what he does—

He offers himself as a practice kissing/making out board for Peggy (yeah I didn’t really see that coming either, so kudos to the kid). It’s harmless, with the sole aim being Peggy learns how to make out with someone without sneezing all over them. Except for during all that kissing he figures he is in love with her.

Because of course. *cue eyeroll*

And from then on it’s a cluster of teenage hormones going rampant all over their sane decision making part of the brains.

Which actually brings me to point no. 1: Dear adults, I don’t know what you remember of your teenage years, but teenagers are not nearly as dramatic as you remember. I should know. I was one until last year.

On a serious note though, I feel like grown up old people cannot portray the teenage years nearly as correctly as they think they do. And the most tumultuous years are the ones before 17, because after that you really do grow up. I guess the point I’m trying to make is, if you are portraying your characters as idiots, don’t blame it on the hormones. If they were normal for the first 5 years through their teenage, then there is no way the hormones army would hit that hard at eighteen. If they’re acting stupid, then remember that it’s because they are stupid, it’s not their fucking hormones acting stupid on their behalf.

Moving on.

That was actually pretty much all the book was. A cluster fuck.

Which brings me to my second point: I just cannot figure out Peggy. 

Her character was so all over the place, she gave the Kardashians a run for their money. She started out as a simple, smart girl who just wanted to date someone. And suddenly her character spirals down into the party girl who sneaks out, and drinks and grinds all over strange men, because her best friend slept with another woman, after he told her that he loved her and she made out with another man. I mean, am I the only one who’s seeing the problem with that situation?

And point no. 3 is what comes after all of that: the rushed ending.

All that drama, and running away after being grounded, and becoming a bad girl and never forgiving Dash and bla bla bla, and suddenly they’re together and the book is over.

Yup. That’s it. Fin. Done. Finito.

Fuck! The abruptness killed me. It really did.

Which brings me to the question that you might be thinking by now, if I had so many problems with this book, then why even give it the 3 stars I did?

Well, the three stars that I gave this book were for three very deliberate reasons:

• One for the trope cuz’ I loves it.
• One for the cover. Yes, it is still awesome.
• One for Dashiell, cuz’ that boy is just damn hot. And amazing. And totally worth my swooning. #TeamDash

But that’s literally it guys. Nothing else about this book stands out to me. But I wanted it to. I so so so wanted for it to stand out to me, and it just didn’t and I’m so bloody disappointed. And petulant. And I know it.

I don’t think Ella Fields is an exceptional author. I don’t know, maybe I just had the hard luck of reading a book that probably wasn’t her best, but the story aside, the writing isn’t really something I’ll go gaga over. Obviously, it’s not that bad that I need to virtually castrate her or anything, but it’s not memorable either, if you get what I mean.

All in all, this book was a huge pile of meh. And since today was a Sunday dedicated to this book, my weekend was also a meh.

Meh.

If love doesn’t terrify you, you’re not in love. And if you’re not in love, then what are you, Peggy?

—Get this book—

About this author:

Ella Fields is a mother and wife who lives in the land Down Under. While her kids are in school, you might find her talking about her characters to her cat, Bert, and dog, Grub. She’s a notorious chocolate and notebook hoarder who enjoys creating hard-won happily ever afters.