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About the Book

A brand new timeless romance with a sprinkling of magic from the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author.

‘A complete joy to read, and once I’d started I genuinely couldn’t stop. I was entranced and beguiled from start to finish by this beautiful story. Carrie has single-handedly converted me to magic realism’ Jill Mansell.

‘A spellbinding and enchanting read with a charming cast of characters, With This Kiss is guaranteed to sweep you off your feet and have you rooting for Lorelai’s happy-ever-after right up to the final page. I adored it’ Holly Miller, The Sight of You.

‘Spellbindingly romantic – With This Kiss is utterly captivating. A feat of magical and mystical storytelling’ Laura Jane Williams, Our Stop.

‘A gorgeous story with plenty of heart’ M. A. Kuzniar, Midnight in Everwood.

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If you knew how your love story ends, would you dare to begin?

From the outside, Lorelai is an ordinary young woman with a normal life. She loves reading, she works at the local cinema and she adores living with her best friend. But she carries a painful burden, something she’s kept hidden for years; whenever she kisses someone on the lips, she sees how they are going to die.

Lorelai has never known if she’s seeing what was always meant to be, or if her kiss is the thing that decides their destiny. And so, she hasn’t kissed anyone since she was eighteen.

Then she meets Grayson. Sweet, clever, funny Grayson. And for the first time in years she yearns for a man’s kiss. But she can’t…or can she? And if she does, should she try to intervene and change what she sees?

Spellbinding, magical and utterly original, With This Kiss is one love story you will never forget.

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About the Author

Carrie Hope Fletcher is an actress, singer, author and vlogger. Carrie’s first book, All I
Know Now, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller and her debut novel, On the Other Side, also went straight to number one.

Carrie played the role of Eponine in Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre in London’s West End for almost three years. She has since stared in and received awards for a number of productions including The War of the Worlds, The Addams Family and Heathers: The Musical. She will soon star in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella in the lead role.

The magic in this book comes from the relationships within it and so I will focus most of my review on those.

What I Thought

First up is between the main character Lorelai and her best friend Joanie. Joanie is the one person that Lorelai has trusted with her secret and she has got Lorelai’s back throughout- even when Lorelai is trying to push her away. I liked the mention of soulmates in the book not just being romantic ones and Joanie definitely fits the soulmate bill.

Next between Lorelai and her grandmother and mother. The familial relationships in the book start strained by the weight of Lorelai’s secret, but I enjoyed how they developed throughout and would have loved some more time spent with these. The quiet moments that Lorelai spends with her parents after seeing how her love is set to die had a healing air about them, especially when she is going through her grandmother’s belongings with her mum.

Then Lorelai and Riggs. Riggs is the son of the owner of the cinema where Lorelai works and he is not at all keen on taking over the family business. Lorelai’s relationship with him is designed to show us how kind she is and he is the catalyst for a number of the revelations she has in the story.

The other random men she meets felt like plot devices – but both James and Darren seemed nice so I did feel a little sorry for them when she kissed and ran, although it was necessary for her to test out what the power of her kisses means. Lorelai is such a helpless romantic at heart so her reactions with these men did seem a little out of character.

Finally Lorelai and Grayson. A love story has to have a desirable love interest, and Grayson is definitely that. From his late entrance to book club, to his hairy hobbit feet and relationship with his brother it makes sense for him to be the person that Lorelai turns her life upside down for.

The writing wasn’t always as engaging as I was hoping for and with perhaps a little too much focus on tell and not show. This was definitely a romance first and foremost with the main focus on the relationship – at times to the detriment of some of the other plot points that were introduced such as the book club and Lorelai’s desire to write scripts.

We have lots of flashbacks included that build up a picture of why Lorelai makes the decisions she does but she did frustrate me a little at times – she definitely is responsible for much of her own heartbreak, not that this is uncommon. There was one point where I thought she only cared about saving one person in a vision of a catastrophic accident, so I was relieved when it was eventually mentioned that she had taken steps to save the others her vision would have affected too. Not sure how keen I would have been on her as a character if that hadn’t been the case.

Overall this was a super easy and enjoyable read, and I can see it making a cute romance film (or musical) in the vein of Last Christmas. Author Carrie would make a wonderful Lorelai.

Content warnings: misgendering (apologised for), suicide, traumatic scenes of predicted deaths (think Final Destination), kissing without consent.

With thanks to HQ for the gifted ARC for the purposes of an honest review. Do check out what everyone else thought.