I’m a fan of Anna Martin. She’s written a few of my all-time favorite novels, such as Tattoos & Teacups and Summer Son. But then there are also a few just nice novels, such as My Prince and now Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me.
My biggest problem with the story is not the friends-to-lovers trope or the sweetness of it (it’s sweet!) but the nonlinear storytelling.
In one chapter Evan and Scott are 7-year-olds, in the next twentysomething, then it’s back to their teen years, and over and over and over. Perhaps it would have been easier to keep track if I’d read the story instead of listening to the audiobook, but it is available on audio.
There are some fantastic relationships in the story. First, Evan and Scott as children and teens. Their closeness to each other was nearly palpable. Both Evan’s and Scott’s relationships to their families are warm and ooze belonging. Even if Evan’s family is only his mother, it doesn’t feel lacking. Sometimes all you need are two people who love and trust each other.
The story is sweet but that is to be expected. It tells how two boys grow up together and grow into each other, how they are family to each other from almost the first moment they meet.
I sometimes complain a story has too much drama or that the drama is too major to be believable. Five Times My Best Friend Kissed Me could have used a little more drama, in my opinion. Even with the ups and downs in Evan and Scott’s relationship, it did leave me wanting a little. Yes, I had a smile on my face (and still do as I write this) many, many times as I listened to the story, but a mild warmth is pretty much the only thing it left me with.
Then again, warm is never a bad thing. I just wish it evoked something more in me.
Three charms on the Book Charmers’ scale.
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