Lips Touch

Title: Lips Touch
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy (short stories)
Page Count: 265
Why I read it: like the author
Grade: C+

Synopsis:
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?

My review:
I'm sorry to say I didn't like this one nearly as well as the Dreamdark series. But, to be honest, I'm not and probably never will be a fan of short stories. And this was no exception.

I love Laini Taylor's writing. It's so imaginative, and you can really feel the depth and beauty of it. I even liked the ideas for these stories. I just felt like they were build-ups for real stories (novels) and left me feeling a little unsatisfied. The third story in particular felt like a lot of world building, especially for a short story.

This is not to say that I wouldn't recommend this book. If you like short stories, these are wonderful. It's like reading fairy tales like they're meant to be (not the Disney versions): dark, scary, not entirely happily-ever-after. I'm just not a short story person, no matter how much I love the writer.