Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational
Weblink
www.katiedanderson.com

KISS & MAKE UP

Katie Anderson

What if you could kiss a boy and read his mind?

Lipgloss addict Emerson Taylor learns from a young age that kissing for her is different. In her first head-throbbing smooch, she gets clairvoyant glimpses into the boy’s past, and the result is so scary she vows never to use her Gift again. Until her grade-strict guardian, Aunt Arch, threatens to pull her from her private school if she doesn’t improve her grades. So Emerson puts a plan into place: She will kiss the unsuspecting brainy boys in each of her classes, stealing their homework assignments and test answers to rack up good grades. The solution works until—oops!—she’s asked to compete on the school’s Battle of the Brains team. Now she’s trapped in decathlon prep with every boy she’s ever kissed, including her super-secret crush, school-band loner, Edwin. And the boys all have crushes on her! Emerson’s foolproof plan begins to feel as ugly as bad cosmetics. But if she reveals her secret, will Edwin still like her? Determined not to jeopardize her reputation, lose the guy she loves, or let her teammates down, she decides to study on her own, stand tall and believe in herself regardless of the outcome. Set against the glamour and excitement of her aunt’s top-selling cosmetics business, Emerson literally “makes over” her previously selfish ways in this magical romantic comedy where “real” beauty wins out in the end, and everything hinges on a kiss.

Katie Anderson lives and writes in Oxford, Mississippi. She has been featured twice in local journals as an up-and-coming writer, is a member of the online writers group The Bookanistas, and a blogger whose home can be found at kdandersonbooks.blogspot.com. KISS & MAKE UP is her first young adult novel.

Available products
Book Published 2012-10-01 by Amazon Children's Publishing
Book Published 2012-10-01 by Amazon Children's Publishing

Comments

This successful debut delivers chick-lit fun and a bit of depth, all served up with a dash of ESP…Anderson writes with a light touch but fleshes out her characters nicely. She keeps her focus on Emerson’s guilt about using the boys and gives her a difficult family history—her mother committed suicide—investing her story with some emotional intensity. Although the book easily can appeal to the chick-lit audience with its constant search for those elusive boyfriends, some school rivalries and, especially, the overarching importance of cosmetics in life, those looking for more won’t go away unsatisfied.

The situations and reactions ring true for this age group. If this debut novel is any indication of Anderson’s talent, it portends well for her future.

Russia: AST Hungary: Nouvion

Debut author Anderson, to her credit, uses this fun premise to get at deeper issues of teenage curiosity, identity, and self-doubt, as her characters play smartly off one another, and Emerson learns that the supernatural path to success isn’t necessarily the best one.