Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me (Ele’s Review)

Title: Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me
Author: Anna Martin
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: May 20th 2016
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 200
Reviewed by: Ele
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Blurb:

and One Time I Kissed Him First

When you realize you want to marry your best friend at age six, life should follow a pretty predictable path, right? Maybe not.

As a kid, Evan King thought Scott Sparrow was the most amazing person he’d ever met. At seventeen, his crush runs a little deeper, and nothing seems simple anymore. Scott is more interested in football and girls than playing superheroes, and Evan’s attention is focused on getting into art school. A late-night drunken kiss is something to be forgotten, not obsessed over for the next ten years.

When life suddenly brings them back together, it doesn’t take much for the flame Evan carried for Scott nearly all his life to come roaring back, and Evan discovers that life sometimes has a strange way of coming full circle.

I can already see I’m going to be the minority about this book. Please remember that 3.5 stars means I liked the book, just didn’t love it like I loved Signs, Tattoos and Teacups, and My Prince by the same author.

The narration of the story is unconventional. The focus of every chapter is each one of the six times Evan and Scott kissed, which I loved. But the book starts with the second time and….I’ll leave the rest for you to find out. I found that to be confusing, considering that the chapters are not in chronological order, and the reader doesn’t know what happened in the past that led to the character’s present actions. The story just didn’t flow.

What I liked best, is the progression from friends to lovers. My favorite chapter was the one where Evan and Scott were little kids and a deep friendship started taking shape. The “wedding” scene was all kinds of adorable.

Another thing that didn’t resonate with me, was Scott’s character, and not having his POV certainly didn’t help. So Scott is bisexual and in denial. It’s one of the reasons that things with Evan don’t go beyond kissing or fucking. But his journey to self-awareness and self-acceptance was very poorly depicted. In one chapter he leaves things up in the air with Evan (once again), and in the other, after a “you almost died scene” (which felt manufactured), he decides that he and Evan are boyfriends. What happened in the meanwhile? How did his family react?

And then there were little things, like the misunderstanding that led to them losing touch, or Scott getting grossed out by Evan’s come on his chest.

There is a solid HEA and the epilogue was more than satisfying. But I felt it dragged the story out because it went on and on and on! The last 20% of the book is a HEA! Unfortunately, a satisfying ending will not save the book for me, when I haven’t enjoyed the journey.

Despite all the above, I enjoyed the book for what it is; a nice “friends to lovers” story with a feel-good vibe, that reads easily.

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