A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

“I’ll give you a thousand kisses, Poppymin. All of them. No one will kiss you ever, but me.”

I was not prepared for the things I would feel when reading A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole, it truly and thoroughly wrecked my emotions.

Poppy and Rune are next door neighbors and best friends since the age of five. Along the way they become more, they love each other and they become inseparable until he moves away for two years and she shuts him out mysteriously. When he moves back he’s an angry seventeen year old that she doesn’t understand and she’s more beautiful than ever but she’s not the same as she was before, something’s changed. To find their way back to each other, they will have to forgive the past and live for now.

The story is so good from beginning to end, I cried off and on throughout. The MFC is adorable with such optimism that it’s inspiring and infectious, she also has an innocence about her that I found refreshing. The MMC is loyal, strong and respectful of Poppy. Together they make the sweetest couple. One thing I was disappointed in was the epilogue, I wanted some details about Rune.

I definitely recommend this clean young adult romance with some tough emotions and feelings evoked throughout.

Wow. I don’t even know how to describe how this book affected me. It’s a haunting, sob inducing, heart-achingly sweet, mesmerizing tale of two young people that find deep love at a very young age and how their fleeting love story comes to prove the infinite lasting of soul felt love. The cover at first sounds cheesy and shallow, but as soon as you get in the cover, immediately the love just oozes from the page, so real and raw and beautiful. A total must read. Changed my life perspective. Would more than 1000 kisses recommend. <333

Compré este libro en 2018 y se había quedado en mi Kindle, hace un par de semanas leí la serie de Hades Hangmen por la misma autora y al ver que tenía este libro de ella también escrito por ella decidí desempolvarlo. Mucho antes había leído Sweet Rome y la había disfrutado mucho. Este libro es dulce y a pesar del tema te deja un sabor optimista hacia la vida. El mensaje de vivir aventuras diariamente desde lo más sencillo de la vida como el amanecer, los cerezos en flor y un día en la playa. De que la vida no se mide por años si no por momentos me aligeró mi corazón y calentó mi alma. Para mi los libros son mundos en los que te sumerges al 100%, a veces el viaje es emocionante, a veces es terroríficamente, a veces es sensual, a veces romántico, a veces aburrido y a veces como este es una aventura asombrosa.

A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
5 stars!!

“I knew this would be the best adventure of my life.”

Some books you live, every emotion, every event, every smile, every laugh and every tear, this is one of those books. This is a book that you will never forget, the characters will stay with you for a long time and moreover, you won’t want to forget them. This book is “as special as special can be.” This is by far my favourite Tillie Cole book and she has really excelled herself. As you know, I am an emotional reader, I crave that character connection, I want to live it and breathe it, I want to feel it but most of all I want to believe it and Tillie Cole ticked all these boxes. This book ripped out my heart and soul but most of all it made me believe in love, in soul mates, in forever… “And my heart almost burst.”

Tillie Cole switches genres to YA in A Thousand Boy Kisses and once again she can pat herself on the back for a job extremely well done, she really shows her versatility and being able to hold me captive for an entire book is no mean feat. I did not want to put this book down, from the first till last page I was held an emotional prisoner at the hands of Tillie Cole, she made me smile, she made me laugh, she made me laugh, she made cry a freakin river but most of all she made me fall in love with two kids. Two kids that from the age of five shared a connection, who were inseparable, who loved with their heart and soul for all their lives, who knew the other inside out, who had such an intense soul mate kind of love that they couldn’t bear to be apart. They were two halves of a whole.

“When you’re near, my heart doesn’t sigh, it soars.”

Tillie Cole takes you on a journey with Poppy and Rune from innocent five year olds to troubled teens, Tillie Cole perfectly encapsulates the trials and tribulations of growing up. From dirty dresses, to crazy adventures, to blossom groves, to sunsets, to first kisses, to first dates and everything else in between. Tillie Cole brings these characters to life with vivid descriptions, and deep rooted emotion. Every action, every hand held, every kiss will resonate deep within your soul as you experience life and growing up with two completely adorable characters. You will live their lives, experience their dreams, troubles and heart ache, but you will always believe. These two were meant to be together… “Poppy and Rune for infinity.”

“Perhaps it’s a lesson we may struggle to learn until it’s learned.”

Poppy was an old soul, she spoke and acted well beyond her years but her heart was always in the right place. She lived for all that’s good and for love, she was kind hearted, intelligent, a talented musician and just an intensely lovable character. She looked for the good in everything and everyone and always gave people a chance…Including a shy, angry Norwegian boy. Poppy had an impenetrable bond with her grandmother and when she sadly passes her grandmother regales her with tales of her favourite kisses. She had a jar and every kiss that made her heart almost burst she wrote it down and put it in the jar and the aim was to get a thousand. But these had to be special kisses with that special someone and once you found that person you knew. Poppy’s grandmother gives her her own jar with one thousand empty paper hearts and all her grandmother wanted was for Poppy to fill her own jar, to feel that forever love that she felt. This is Poppy’s journey to get her thousand kisses and she knew just the boy.

“Kiss eight hundred and nineteen was the kiss that changed it all. The kiss that proved that a long-haired brooding boy from Norway and a quirky girl from the Deep South could find love to rival the greats.”

Rune was uprooted from Norway when he was five years old. His father had to move to America for his work and Rune was full of resentment…until he met Poppy. Two five year olds, living next door to one another, just windows apart. Poppy introduces herself in the most adorable fashion and from then on an intense journey begins. Poppy totally embeds herself into Rune’s life and heart, she shows him friendship, she shows him loyalty, she shows him love. What Tillie Cole manages to get across is that sometimes young love can be a forever love, it maybe flitted aside as infatuation but sometimes two hearts connect to beat as one and this was definitely the case for Poppy and Rune.

“Weather the storm, Rune…Moonbeam hearts and sunshine smiles.”

As I have said, this is one intense, emotional read and I can guarantee that even the hardest of hearts will shed a tear. Life doesn’t run smoothly for these two, they have to embark on a journey that will test their love to the maximum but never once did I ever believe they wouldn’t make it. These two had an epic love, an epic connection and were an epic couple. Hell, this whole book was epic. With twists and turns I never saw coming Tillie Cole will drag you to hell and back, she will decimate you but you will be left with a heart fit to burst with one the most legendary love stories I have ever had the pleasure to read and one I will never forget. With dual POV you will appreciate their love, believe in their love and live their story, you will feel it, breathe it, but most of all you will love it.

“For my kisses. All one thousand. Every one was cherished. Every one was adored.”

I take my hat off to Tillie Cole, she nailed this one and I hope that this books gets the accolades it deserves. I would love to see this on film, their story deserves it.

“One thousand and one…one thousand and two…one thousand and three…one thousand and four…”

Grät 90% av boken och den är så fin, men samtidigt så hjärtekrossande och orättvis. Ett måste att läsa!