This was a cute book. They story flowed well and there was some suspense. I felt like the love story took a backseat to everything else. I was looking forward to that story. Though, the movie make up aspect was fascinating and unique!

I enjoyed the narrator, her voice seemed to fit well in this story.

DISCLAIMER: I received this book free from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and sourcebooks casablanca for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
This book was such a fine light hearted read. I did feel like there was something missing for me but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I listened to this audiobook in 2 day. I Kissed a Girl is a light and fluffy read with a jewish bisexual main character and a jewish lesbian main character! I really enjoyed Lilah's character, her coming out, and struggling with her identity. Lilah was very relatable especially as she learns that bisexuality is valid.
I enjoyed the book but sometimes there were useless details. It could have been a 300+ page book instead of 400+. I absolutely adore the characters

3.5 stars

I Kissed A Girl, Jennet Alexander's debut novel, is a delightful romance between a Hollywood starlet trying to break out of the horror genre and her makeup artist who has dropped out of UCLA for her first big job. I loved the diverse cast of characters that Alexander included in this story and appreciated that she not only included people of different sexualities and races, but also people in various types of romantic relationships. The backdrop of the movie provides an excellent backdrop for our leading ladies Noa and Lilah to fall in love and I adored the level of specificity that Alexander put into the descriptions of the set.

I was a little taken aback by the inclusion of a stalking plot; while I understand that the author needed a conflict, I would have never guessed from the cover that such a dark subject was a part of the plot. That, along with the book being about 50-75 pages too long, did take me out of the story quite a few times. However, no book is perfect and I think that there are definitely people out there who would give this a rousing 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I listened to this audiobook in 1 day. The story was an overall pretty cute wlw romance. Lilah is an up and coming actress working in horror movies, even though they are not her passion at all and falls for Noa, a special effects make up artist working on the set of her new movie Scare-odactyl. Lilah is a bisexual who hasn't really gotten a chance to explore queer spaces/feel involved in her local lgbtqia+ community. Meanwhile, Noa is a lesbian who is much more connected and while they fall for each other Noa also introduces Lilah to the local queer community.

And while this romance was cute, the stalker-fan subplot, if it can even be considered a subplot because it occasionally and more towards the end became the main focus. At some points I even for got this was a romance because it became quite focused on this mystery/thriller element rather than the romance.

I enjoyed listening to this book, and it only took me a day. The narrator is excellent, and the story is entertaining - it's the perfect light-hearted beach read. However, it feels a bit like two stories mashed into one to make a full-length novel. The pseudo-mystery is predictable and frequently forgotten when convenient, and the romance takes precedent over any real character growth. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.

There's a lot to love about this wlw romance. Lilah's characterization was an absolute gem. I loved reading about her exploration of queerness and what it means to her as a person who largely inhabits allocishet-normative spaces. I was drawn to her journey of self discovery and really enjoyed learning about her experience as a horror movie actress and all the ins and outs of the movie set. I was less drawn to Noa, who felt less developed. I found Noa to be realistically flawed, but... not much else. I wished she'd had a stronger character arc that investigated why she's judgmental and afraid of big feelings more and engaged with why she felt that way and her journey to working toward not judging people so much, but alas she fell a little flat. I think this book succeeded in telling Lilah's story tremendously--the plot with the stalker and her journey to self confidence and feeling like herself were wonderful--but I didn't buy into the romance as an endgame happily ever after, more like a first step for Lilah into the world of queerness and her own journey. I think the author is talented and I'll look forward to reading more of Alexander's work in the future!

I love Natalie Naudus and wlw romances so I knew I had to request this one. But I am DNFing it at 18 percent because I just can't get into the story. It already has so many issues between the characters that would be fixed if they JUST TALKED TO EACH OTHER. There are also so many details I don't need to know about (the daily schedule of things going on set, what scenes are shot, etc).

Lilah is a rising actress working in a low budget movie where Noa is in charge of special effects makeup. They are attracted to each other almost instantly but their completely opposite personalities seem to be too big of a difference for anything to happen. Having to deal with being open about their sexuality, the pressure of working long days and relationships forbidden between cast and crew, Lilah and Noa end up forging a friendship they both wished was more.

It was a really cute romcom, I loved reading the about all the works of filming a movie and the characters were likeable and unique. I loved the growth the characters had and the LGBTQIAP+ and jewish representation was very well done.

I listened to the audiobook and although the narrator is great and she had different voices for the characters, the inner monologues were done with the same voice so it was hard to know who was who until a few chapters in when you knew the characters enough.

DNF at 20%
Thank you to Netgalley for giving me this one change for a honest review
This one was just boring to me. I didn’t really care for the characters or their behaviors. There wasn’t a lot going on either.

I requested this because I love Natalie naudus as a narrator and I love sapphic romance but I have to DNF. I listened to 70% of the audiobook on a long journey but a) this book is WAY longer than necessary, this should be no longer than 8 hours on audio but it's like 10 and b) I'm not invested in the characters. it switches too much between noa and Lilah so I'm not always sure what's going on a d there's no chemistry + poorly done instalovs

DNF

I went into this novel with no expectations yet I still found it dissapointing.

The relationship really wasn't anything special and I found it to be quite lacking at times. There was barely any chemistry between the main couple. Insta love has never been a favorite trope of mine and this didn't sell me.

I also found myself bored throughout parts of the book which obviously isn't something I'd hoped for.

I was going to try and continue but I didn't feel the need to try and finish something I have no interest in.

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

On the whole, this book was very underwhelming to me. I Kissed a Girl follows a up and coming makeup artist, who gets a job applying stage makeup to a B list actress, Lilah Silvers. They clash, they have misunderstandings, but ultimately they're both very drawn to each other. This sounds like the perfect recipe for a rom-com, but this book unfortunately just didn't hit the mark.

Starting with the good, I absolutely loved Lilah Silvers. She's a bisexual actress struggling to get out of her type-cast mold of B horror movies. She's a former beauty queen from the parent circuit, but she's so much more than that, something it takes her makeup artist Noa a while to understand. I felt super connected to her, she had a compelling story, and I loved her personality.

Unfortunately this book just couldn't sell the romance between Lilah and Noa to me. Noa makes snap judgements about her based on her past, she insults her for reading women fiction, and it takes a pretty long time for her to stop viewing her in a very objectified manner. We watch their romance blossom as they grow closer, but the chemistry just... isn't there? There was never a scene where I felt "oh, this is why they make sense. This is why they belong together."

I did enjoy the stalking sub-plot involving Lilah. I think it added more depth and excitement to the story than even the romance, which is supposed to be the main plot. I do think the stalking sub-plot became a little campy at the end, which I wouldn't have an issue with if the rest of the novel was also camp, but this discontinuity was cringe to read.

The story also really dragged. I confidently think the author could've cut out about 100 pages of this book and ended up with the exact same story. We're taken on set almost everyday with painstaking detail. Did I need to know what Lilah and Noa's day to day lives were like when so many scenes had no relevance to the story? Nope.

Overall, Lilah was definitely the saving grace to this book. I didn't enjoy much of the story, romance, or writing style. I think the plot idea was great, but the execution was really lacking.

As for the audiobook, I really enjoyed the narrator. She has a smooth voice that's enjoyable to listen to, and she had great inflection and diction. The audiobook definitely added a layer to this book where I felt more immersed than I did when I was just reading it. I rate the book 2.5 stars, and the audiobook 5 stars; I'm taking an average and giving this book 4 stars on Netgalley.