Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

In this world of regular kids becoming internet or YouTube superstars, it’s easy to see where Sarah Billington got her inspiration, and easier still to relate to Poppy Douglas. From having her heart broken and pouring her emotions out on the internet to dealing with the new found fame it brings her, she’s a great character to follow. She’s incredibly upbeat, even when she’s getting her emotions all tangled up by boys, adolescence, and real life. She actually makes some decent decisions, and even when she makes stupid, rash ones, it’s easy to see why her mind took her there because everything’s so clearly laid out.

Seeing her relationship with Tyler form and become solid was actually really nice. While it seemed to move pretty fast, it fit with the teenage characters (though I have a question — did Tyler really just up and totally forget about high school to go be a rock star?) and they were really freaking cute.

Along with Poppy and Tyler are some pretty good secondary characters, from her best friend to her parents and her little brother who inadvertently names their dog ‘Poo-Bum’, if I’m remembering correctly. Poppy didn’t overshadow her supporting cast, and I really appreciated that. Hell, I even enjoyed her ex-boyfriend Cameron.

I had very few problems with the book, my only main concern being how…well, self-indulgent it felt at times. I mean, to have Poppy write a song, have that song picked up by a local band who just happens to have a hot lead singer who likes her, and then they go on to be rock stars and maybe Tyler is cheating on her with all those groupies but maybe he really does love her… I wrote stuff like that when I was 15 and passing Nsync fanfic notebooks back and forth between classes with my best friends. It could have been a bit better.

But to be honest, that kinda spoke to me more than it should have. (I’m 27 and I read YA fiction, what else do you expect out of me?)

At it’s heart, The Kiss Off is a really fun, upbeat contemporary novel. The characters are fun, the plot zips along even though it’s kind of easy to tell what’s going to happen, and I ended up reading it in one shot.

It was a cute Young Adult read, I guess. Certainly not the best I've read. I had a really hard time identifying with Poppy at the end when she was trying to decide between Cam and Ty. I really didn't see much of a difference between either boy. I felt her relationship with both individually was extremely underdeveloped, so at the end I really didn't care who she picked. I don't know. I really hope teenagers aren't as stupid as Poppy was. I might recommend this book to some people but definitely not everyone.