The Kissing Booth

By: Beth Reekles

Narrated by: Cynthia Holloway

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

A cool, sexy romance novel written by seventeen-year-old British sensation Beth Reekles.

Meet Rochelle “Elle” Evans: pretty, popular - and never been kissed. Meet Noah Flynn: badass, volatile - and a total player. When Elle decides to run a kissing booth at her school's Spring Carnival, she locks lips with Noah and her life is turned upside down. Her head says to keep away, but her heart wants to draw closer. This romance seems far from a fairy tale. Is Elle headed for heartbreak or will she get her happily ever after?

©2013 Beth Reekles (P)2013 Random House

Coulda been better

I’m excited to see the movie and that’s what turned me on to this book. The narration was pretty bad though. Whenever she tried the male voices — it was cringeworthy.

9 people found this helpful

Poorly written

I know that this was written by a young writer, but I couldn't get through the whole thing. The story is repetitive, the dialogue is painful, and the love interest is borderline emotionally abusive.

5 people found this helpful

Meh

Over all the book was OK. Not worth the credit I Used to get it though. I didn't care for the narrator either.

4 people found this helpful

Can’t believe I’m saying this but....

The movie was better! I feel like the story was kind of choppy and didn’t flow like the movie did. I’m usually one who likes the book SO much better but not this time. So if you’re expecting it to be better I wouldn’t recommend it.

1 person found this helpful

Unmet potential

Cringeworrhy in a fun way. The book reads more like a first draft rather than the finished product. There are directions toward drama and intrigue where the characters could have gone. Instead the characters take short walks down the interesting paths and turn back to the same old thing. Noah 's response to everything seems to be "yeah"; yet he is a supposed intelligent student athlete being courted by ivy league schools.
If you watched the movie and are looking for a bit of background, you will not find it here. The book provides no more substance than the movie. In some ways the movie makes up for the lack of polish in the book. Both the movie and the book are fun, cringeworrhy and simple to understand.... Good choices when your brain is on overload and you need a bit of food to destress. Definitely a good first attempt by the author... A good editor could make this into a stellar book.
Final note, I definitely suggest reading this rather than listening to this version. The performer's attempt at the male voices just dumbs down the characters in a manner I do not believe is intended. Rather than the long suffering, brooding male, Noah comes off as lackluster and blah.
Read this if you enjoyed the movie or as a fun vacation from your problems read. Looking forward to future attempts from the author.

1 person found this helpful

The movie was much much better

The storyline was way different than the movie and the plot was just not as well developed. The narrator sounded like the character and in that sense it was good, however, I didn’t feel like Shelly was a great character. I found her annoying and the whole story sounded like a little girls fantasy.

This will probably be the only time I will ever say this, but watch the movie, it’s way better than the book. So sad.

3 people found this helpful

Beautiful, amazing, Breathtaking Book!!!!!!

This book was amazing adventure, if you love romance and adventure you will love this book. If only we all could have one Lee and on Noah

2 people found this helpful

Like The Book

So I must admit I watched the Netflix movie before I read the book - but in my defense, I didn't actually know the book existed.

With that said, I have to say I like the book, but I actually prefer the movie. There were so many differences though and that was actually disappointing. The movie changed so much. I do wish they kept most of the movie the way it should have been in the book. There were none of the rules the movie put in there.

Basically, while I enjoyed the book, I just didn't enjoy it as much since the movie left me biased.

Irresponsible

This book is awful. It is unbelievable that it got turned into a movie. (spoilers) I can’t get over how it’s OK for Noah to be so controlling and violent and that Rochelle had sex with him after only kissing him once. It’s about superficial kids and I find it somewhat irresponsible that it would be recommended for young adults.

Cute, total Rom-Com story line :)

4 stars: The books / series were good, and based on my audience - i recommend rereading it = i would recommend it to others.
I only give 5 stars in my top 10% of books.

I tell others about the story and or book(s) in regular conversation to expose the author.