Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor (4.5/5 stars)

This book consisted of three stories; each had something pivotal that happened because of a simple (or not so simple) kiss.  The stories were very well written, all the characters were engaging and very interesting.  Taylor has a beautiful writing style and uses very creative imagery.  Overall this was an excellent book and made me want to read more of Taylor's books. 

The book is formatted in an interesting way; and in itself the book is a beautiful book.  At the beginning of each story a series of beautiful pictures tells the prelude to the story.  The pictures are absolutely stunning and really fit the mood of the book.  The book is written in a classic fairy tale type way, think dark fairy tales though, not Disney.

I was a bit surprised that this was classified as young adult.  The last story especially deals with rape, torture, stealing souls from children, etc.  I thought the stories were immensely creative and very engaging, but all of them are very dark and a bit disturbing.  I personally don't mind that in a story, but some people might find it uncomfortable.   The stories are never dealt with in gory detail, but the imagery is there.

Below I touch on each of the three stories:

Goblin Fruit - About a girl who wants nothing more than to be someone else.  She is tempted by a Goblin to eat their fruit and waste away to nothing.  Beautiful story.

Spicy Little Curses - The ambassador to Hell and a demon curse an Indian baby so that the baby can kill with her voice.  Things work out until the baby grows into a young woman and falls in love and is then tempted to use her voice.  Another enchanting story.

Hatchling - This is the strangest and longest story of the bunch.  About a girl Esme who is daughter to a woman named Mab.  Mab was raised as a pet to an immortal race but escaped to free Esme.  Unfortunately Esme is tied to this immortal race in ways Mab could have never guessed.  This is a very creative story and the world is well-built; it is definitely an odd story too.

Overall it was an excellent and creative collection of stories.  I would have given it 5 stars if the writing had been a bit more polished.  At points the written can get a bit choppy, if the writing flowed a bit better these stories would be masterpieces.  I will be checking out Taylor's "Faeries of Dreamdark" series in the future.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
- Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge