Lips Touch: Three Times

Lips Touch: Three Times
by Laini Taylor

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 tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.

Hatchling: Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?
(description taken from Amazon.com)

I am sooooo glad that I finally got to this book. I first heard about it at BEA two years ago, immediately put it on my list of Books To Read, and it just lingered there ever since. Honestly, I even checked it out from the Library twice...and never read it. I just kept finding other books that I was dying to read more.

Let me tell you, though, Laini Taylor's writing is mysterious, beautiful, dark, destructive, and yet hopeful and breathtaking. I was listening to this as an audio book in my car and I couldn't wait to get back into the car at the end of the day to drive home from work because I had to know what happened to each girl next. I was totally hooked!

The first story, Goblin Fruit, is lyrical and compelling. It's insidious and tempting. It's short but punches a big impact. I had thought that Taylor wouldn't be able to top that when she blew me away with the concept for Spicy Little Curses. That was heartbreaking and courageous. Then...then I listened to Hatchling. What an amazing world that Taylor has created. I was enraptured as I listened, drawing deeper and deeper into the cold, nightmare world of the Druje. I loved the layering of different generations, love stories, and how each character was fleshed out as the story's complexities unfolded.

All be told, when I was done, I wanted to start over again. *Sigh* These were great short stories. I should have read this years ago...

Full disclosure: Audio book received to review for AudioFile magazine