Reviews

It Started With A Kiss by Miranda Dickinson

hobbleit's review against another edition

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1.0

Bloke kisses emotionally vulnerable random woman on the street and then runs off and I’m supposed to find that romantic because he’s hot.

Woman spends year trying to find said bloke and I’m supposed to find that romantic because it’s not at all creepy and stalker is.

Add in some boring, repetitive scenes to pad out this meagre storyline and there’s nothing much left to say.

Boring.

arthuriana's review against another edition

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5.0

You know, I said to myself one day, 'gee, chick-lit seems to be popular nowadays, I'll just check some reviews of the genre online to see if it's gonna click with me.' Thus, in doing so, I've discovered that, apparently, chick-lit was for middle-aged women and, rather negatively, those who were a sucker for sappy romance films and had nothing better to do than sigh about their love lives.

Then, I saw this book. I saw its cover and said, "my, what a gorgeous font!"* I saw the palette and appreciated its colors. I know that you should never judge a book by its cover, but, dear God, if that's a sin, then I'd surely be in hell. I'm deeply appreciative of really good covers, and when something looks pretty, there's a good chance that I'll read it.

Most often, this has resulted in bad tussles with the written word. When talking about covers, I'm most drawn to the YA genre (a dark, dark genre that I'm not sure I'd ever be ready to go back to) but those largely resulted in fails (some of which were so fail-tastic that I'm embarrassed to even mark them as read in Goodreads). Despite that, I still went and got the book.

Suffice to say, I'm really thankful that I've done so. This book, while containing not much action, contains a cast of richly drawn and fully realized characters, which accounts for about 99.9999999998% of how I judge a book. Dickinson manages to write off Rom's quest as heartwarmingly romantic without making it look stalker-ish. Although the fact that it could be seen as such is acknowledged in the book (and even more than acknowledged . . . but I hesitate to say more for fear of telling spoilers), which is something that I'm incredibly grateful for.

In conclusion: a quick, heartwarming read.

sakamknigi's review against another edition

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3.0

Great story, very unique but what bothered me the most were the elements that distracted me from the main story... lots of unnecessary pages:( I would've enjoy much more if the book was 300 pages and without the stories that weren't important. Loved how it started with the confession and i had very HIGH expectations...

bookevin's review against another edition

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5.0

Review originally on www.iheart-chicklit.blogspot.com

Why you would love this:
The first ever book I read by Miranda Dickinson was When I Fall In Love, which was out last year. I will never forget it as it was simply magical and beautifully written. Since then, I've been a fan of Miranda's magical, sparkling books. After reading When I Fall In Love, it definitely made an impression and I knew I had to read Miranda's other books, so I bought It Started With A Kiss and read it and loved it.

It Started With A Kiss follows the story of Romily Parker who gets kissed by a handsome stranger, but before she can ask him who he is, he disappears off the face of the earth. Fueled with the thought of finding true love, Romily sets off for a yearlong quest to find her "mystery man". With the help of her uncle and aunt, and her best friend, Wren, she embarks on the quest to find him and maybe discovering true love along the way.

Right from the start, I really liked Romily as she was really down-to-earth and friendly. Miranda managed to create another heroine who you will love, root for and want to be there for her through out the book. Her being in a wedding band, as the lead singer, turned out to be a very exciting job! Imagine getting invited and paid to sing at wonderful occasions of uniting love birds? Ask Miranda! She's in a wedding band herself! The characters in the book were very well-written, each of them were really wonderful to read about and their presence in the book complemented the plot. My favourite has to be Auntie Mags, she's really lovely and kind, with her remedial cake recipes. Hurrah for Auntie Mags!

The book is set in Birmingham, Britain's second largest city, which Miranda described beautifully and I can't argue that it's the perfect setting for a young lady to find for her true love. Aside from the vibrant city as its setting, the plot of the book was well-paced and the closer the deadline for Romily to finish her quest, the more excited I got, and the build-up to the ending was timed very well. And the ending? It was perfect. Read it and find out!

It Started With A Kiss was another magical book which will whisk you away from reality and as you read Romily's journey, you won't be able to not fall in love with the book and its fabulous characters, of course! A fabulously written novel about following your heart and believing in Fate. After all, isn't true love meant to be?

fxtrtr's review against another edition

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2.0

This book was OK, but not great. I will admit, I skimmed through many parts because it just wasn't funny or interesting. In fact, the last two chapters were some of the best.

anjazikova's review

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adventurous inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

doris1310's review

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3.0

sweet and romantic :) perfect for the winter holidays

irrelevantareej's review

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4.0

i love this book SO much, literally my third time reading it, such a comfort read <3 i love all the characters, will and romily 4ever, fate 4ever <3

anna_laaa's review

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4.0

I started this book a bit late, it would have been a brilliant Christmas read!
Nethertheless it was such a lovely book.
Really loved the characters..Romily; Auntie Mags and Uncle Dudley, and "the Pinstripes".
The opening chapters were really exciting and also the finale at the wedding.
Some parts made me laugh! D'Wayne and Wren were great! haha
A really happy, heartwarming end...I have to say it wasn't an obvious ending for me :)

wordsofclover's review

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3.0

I give this book 2.5 stars.
I picked this book up due to the Christmas season, I felt like reading something with a bit of Christmas cheer. I was a little wrong however, as there wasn't actually that much Christmas in the book.

I will start that I did love Romily, and not just because of her beautiful name. She showed strength when she was honest with Charlie about how she felt and throughout the year, she never allowed anything to stop her hope in believing she would find PK.

The character who annoyed me however, was Charlie. So a great girl admits her love for him, he's a complete jerk and then within weeks, he's acting like he's love with her....and then it takes him almost a whole year to finally admit he might have feelings for her. Like, how can you like someone with no backbone like that...I lost a lot of respect for him.

I guessed that Romily and Charlie would try to make things work between them but I didn't expect what happened to happen. I wish there was a little more between Will and Romily at the end, like even an epilogue of the Christmas after that with them together, or engaged or something. Overall, not a bad book but dont't expect too much from it.