646 reviews for:

Lips Touch

Laini Taylor

3.92 AVERAGE


3.5 stars. I will read anything Laini Taylor writes! The illustrations are also ❤️.

And I needed something else by Laini Taylor to read once I'd finished the "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" trilogy and I took my sweet time with this book because I just love Laini Taylor's writing and out three short stories in "Lips touch" my favorite is "Spicy Little Curses Such As These" the other two "Goblin Fruit" was okay but I found it way too short and lastly we have the final story "Hatchling" it was interesting to say the least being the longest short story in this book it was just okay.

My ratings for each story:

Goblin Fruit- 3.5 stars

Spicy Little Curses Such As These- 5 stars

Hatchling- 4 stars.

At least the good news is Laini Taylor will be releasing a new book next year and I'll read anything this woman writes.

I don't know, what should I say now..
I like the first 150 pages, but I did not liked the ending, and the third story.
I think the second was the best.
When I was reading the first, I thought that Kizzy will die, she did not care about goblins..poor girl.
But the second one was REALLY interesting and exciting. I loved it. I lived it. It was cool.
I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars, because I just liked the second story. Sorry, I thought it will get better. :(
dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was so dark and sad...I completely adore it.

The three stars come from the offensive terminology that was sometimes used.

Moving on to the stories themselves my favorite ones are absolutely the first and last. Laini has always have had the gift of beautiful whimsical foreshadowing and she has this uncanny ability to write my favorite kind of men as always. 

The second left me wanting but that is also heavily influenced by my lack of desire to have children or really care for them. 

Overall this was an amazing story, just used outdated terms and themes which makes sense given the age.

2.5 stars. DNF the last story.

I absolutely love Laini Taylor, but this just didn't captivate me. It wasn't bad, but while reading this it became quite clear to me that Laini wasn't always as brilliant as she is now. She's always had a talent for world building and just writing stories in general, but I noticed a lot of flaws in these stories.

The thing is, it doesn't mind me that much. I can't call this book a disappointment, because the flaws in these stories aren't in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. And I always find it a lot of fun to see how writers have gotten better over the years, so this was just a cute little book with a lot of potential: nothing really that special, but nothing bad either.

Short fiction is rarely as exciting for me as novels are, and I haven't read many short story selections, so it took me a while to really dig into this book.

But I'm so glad I did, because all of Laini Taylor's magic (literal and figurative) that she pours into her novels she also brings generously to her short fiction.

This book of beautiful fairy tales consists of three stories, each one building up in length and complexity:

1. Goblin Fruit
2. Spicy Little Curses Such As These
3. Hatchling

"Goblin Fruit" was more like a sketch or a snapshot of a story, but even then it managed to surprise me with how things turned out. Heavy with Laini Taylor's trademark lyricism, the story is written with so much atmosphere and vividness that it actually comes alive on the page. Everything is easy to imagine, and the sense of magic, world-building, and characterization adds to it. The narrator's voice, powerful and vibrant, creates a fairy tale tone that perfectly fits the genre, and gives this simple but artfully told tale its distinctive touch, sucking the reader right into Kizzy the main character's (internal and external) world.

If "Goblin Fruit" was more like an appetizer (to use a food metaphor), "Spicy Little Curses Such As These" is where the author brings on the main course, diving into full-fledged story-telling mode, layering plot on top of characters on top of a fresh, intriguing premise that draws on the culture and world of the British Raj. Here, each of the main characters has a backstory as they stumble into the plot. The romance is traditional, but the way it's formed around the idea of the curse—and how it complicates the story as events unfold—renders this story an exciting read, even, I imagine, for readers who have already read similar fairy tales.

The last one, "Hatchling", felt more like a novella to me, and no wonder it's the one I enjoyed most. The story begins in the characters' present, but moves back and forth, utilizing a ton of flashbacks and switching of POV characters, sweeping across time and people, weaving a complete story with intricate world-building that makes you feel like you've spent a lot of time with these characters in their own world—which is that novel-esque feeling I usually seek, and this story supplied it in plenty, in addition to the pretty prose, of course, that Laini Taylor's fans can never get enough of. The breath-taking atmosphere, description, characterization, and plot development in "Hatchling" makes it my favorite one in this beloved collection.

Every story ends with a neat, fairy-tale-like conclusion, even if sometimes (I'm not going to spoil a particular story by naming it) the ending does come as a surprise. Readers of fairy tales and whimsical stories are going to love this collection, as are Laini Taylor's fans. I also highly recommend it for readers who love lyrical prose in general. This is a wonderful book of short stories for someone who is wanting to branch out from novel-reading and is looking for something new and different - a breath (or book!) of fresh air!

Not to mention, each story includes illustrations at the beginning by Jim Di Bartolo (who also happens to be the author's husband—how cool is a creative partnership like that?!). The illustrations have given these fairy tales another touch of realism and have vibrantly brought out the atmosphere. The first time I went through each illustration before reading the story, the visual story-telling didn't make much sense to me, but it was a really interesting feeling, in the middle of the story, to mentally re-interpret the images and understand how they fit together in portraying the events.

Final rating: This is a 5-star book, folks. Go read it!


Tiga cerita pendek tentang magicalnya pengalaman ciuman pertama. Kesannya lebay ya, tapi aku selalu suka dengan gaya bercerita Laini yang puitis tapi gak nyebelin. Tiap untaian kalimat terasa intens, deep dan rich. Kayak makan kari berempah. Dalam satu alinea aja dia bisa memberi nafas yang unik pada tiap karakternya.

Awal scene yang kelihatannya biasa aja. Tapi disetiap informasi yang dibagikan di paragrafnya bikin cerita yang simple jadi lebih gripping attention. Aku suka banget style dia. Buku ini dibaca untuk pemanasan baca Stranger the Dreamer. So exciteeeeee

3.5 Stars. This is a collection of 3 short stories that each involve a supernatural element (goblins, demons, etc) and each include a kiss with unexpected and out of the ordinary consequences. I thought the writing was very beautiful and the stories imaginative -- I liked how they were each based on a different folklore. And I liked the series of illustrations at the beginning of each story that set up the background for the upcoming story (and were further explained in detail within the story). The biggest negative for me was that the stories were a bit dark at times. (And I have to say the cover is not my favorite, either.)

Great fun. Creepy without being overwrought. I did not see the ending coming in the first tale in particular.

Loved it!