This book both broke me and put me back together. Such a bittersweet (emphasis on sweet) read that I devoured it in a day. Tear blurred eyes couldn't hold me back! I just love love loved this.

OH MY GOSH!!! As i'm still processing this book, I have no clue what to say other than, I will never forgive Tillie Cole for writing this book, because my heart just burst. A Thousand Boy Kisses was so beautiful, yet so heart wrenching. My heart hurts so much. This book honestly messed me up. I don't know how long it will take me to recover from this book. As I was sitting here trying to finish this book last night, I was struggling so much to hold back the tears, but boy did they flow. In my opinion everyone needs to read this amazing book at some point. This book absolutely DELIVERED!!!! I told myself I wasn't going to sob so much reading a damn book, but I will never promise myself that ever again. As i'm sitting here trying to write this review the tears are flowing freely and my heart is still hurting.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND SOURCEBOOKS BLOOM BOOKS FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!!

"Our kiss may have been a middle finger to anyone who didn't want us together, but her smile was a middle finger to the darkness in my soul".

Poppy Litchfield and Rune Kristiansen have been two peas in a pod since they were five years old. Rune moved to Blossom Grove, Georgia from Norway. One day, Poppy gets pulled out of school because her mamaw was sick, Poppy didn't understand what was going on until she got home and saw her family members quietly crying and nurses surrounding her mamaw. Poppy was her mamaw's best friend, her favorite girlie, her everything, they did everything together. When Poppy's mamaw tells her she's going on an adventure and Poppy can't come with her. Poppy doesn't understand what's happening, but when her mamaw tells her that she's going home to be with her angels, Poppy is broken. Before Poppy's mamaw silently goes home, she gives Poppy a mason jar filled with one thousand plain hearts. Poppy's mission is to find her soul mate, and every kiss that she has, she is to write it down on the heart explaining everything, who she kissed, where she kissed this person, and if it made her heart bust.

Poppy tells Rune what is going on, but Rune gets so defensive and tells Poppy that he is the only boy she will ever kiss. I loved Poppy and Rune's relationship so much, they were just so cute, sweet, and perfect, and deserved the absolute world. When Rune is fifteen years old he learns that his father got a job back in Norway, Rune is so determined that he won't leave Poppy behind, but Poppy tells him that he has to go, Poppy promises Rune that she won't kiss anyone else until Rune comes back. Fast forward, Rune returns back to Blossom Grove, Georgia when he is seventeen years old, where he befriended Poppy as a child, when Rune returns he just has one thing on his mind. Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation? I'm not going to say what happens because you need to read it for yourself, but I will say that it will destroy you.

When Rune is away in Norway, Poppy halts her one thousand boy kisses. When Rune returns back to Georgia is he a completely different person, he's much taller, he's more angrier, he now smokes. Rune's heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent without a word or why she cut him off, but when Rune discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come. One kiss lasts a moment. But a thousand kisses can last a lifetime. I love love love this book so much even though it destroyed the heck out of me. I just wanted to reach into this book and pull both Rune and Poppy in for a hug. Both of these characters deserve the absolute world. If this book turns into a movie, I promise you I will run to it so fast, but don't laugh at me when you see me sitting in a movie theater sobbing, looking like a whole mess. When Poppy and Rune were in the blossom grove touching the flowers, boy did that make my heart swell.

LET ME JUST SAY, THE ENDING WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

I don’t know how to fully feel about this book. It was not my favorite, but at the same time it made me cry more than most books do. It broke my heart.
The family dynamic to me felt strange, it was unlike my own so I struggled to understand it fully.
The romance seemed to move very quickly in an almost unrealistic way, but I can see that some people would enjoy that. It just was not for me.
I do not think I will be reading it again anytime soon but I would recommend it to those who enjoy a sad read every once in a while.

Thank you to Net Galley and sourcebooks bloom books for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to SourceBooks, Bloom Books, NetGalley, and Tillie Cole for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Poppy and Rune oh my word. Their story is so inspiring and will absolutely make your heart strings burst. You will feel every feeling imaginable while reading their story. You will be transported into a different world and be surrounded by their lives. You will cry, you will laugh, you will fall in love. Sometimes life doesn’t seem to be going your way but you love life and it will come full circle.

This book is a little on the longer side but I promise you, it won’t feel like it once you get hooked. You might struggle to get really into the characters but stick with it! Its all for a reason and I’m sure you won’t regret it! It is YA and the storyline is between two teenagers but I didn’t mind at all and I really don’t read much YA at all.

“Poppy and Rune- There was no beginning to us and no end.”

A Thousand Boy Kisses steals your heart and doesn't give it back, honestly I was blown away by this. The writing and story is so completely beautiful and heart-warming yet also heart-breaking and so sad. I normally don't cy at books but this had me bawling at almost every chapter. The relationships and characters in this were so perfectly written and dynamic I can not recommend it enough. An absolutely world-rocking book that every romance reader should check out.

This story had my heart in a choke hold. The storyline was so beautiful. I believe this book is the only book that had me balling like a baby. Make sure you have plenty of tissues while reading this book.

I’ve heard a lot about this book and was happy to receive an eARC of the reprint. It started off well and sucked me in early. I was in tears about 30% of the way into the story. However, it ended up falling flat for me. There could have been more character and plot development early in the novel when Poppy and Rune were younger. It felt like important moments of their relationship building were missing. The storyline jumped ahead too quickly, making the last third of the book feel repetitive. Also, there were things that didn’t feel right in the story, such as them calling each other “babe” suddenly at age 17.

I liked the idea of the story, I just feel that it could have been better developed to add depth. I should have been moved to tears by the end, but I wasn’t. I was actually bored as it dragged on. I thought I was going to love this book and am disappointed that I didn’t. Hopefully it fares better with a young teen audience.

Thank you to #NetGalley for an eARC of #AThousandBoyKisses in exchange for honest feedback. - 2.5 stars

If you want something beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time, this is the book for you! This book will make you cry your eyes out! The characters were just absolutely lovable and adorable. The relationship between characters was so dynamic. Highly highly recommend!

5/5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for access to this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I'm broken. I don't even know what else to say. I DON'T recommend reading this book in public, in a bus like I stupidly did. I don't often cry. In fact, I very rarely cry even in real life. At 35% of this book, I was crying ! And not a cute little tear at the corner of the eye. I was all the ugly cry, the runny nose and puffy red eyes crying. This book broke me and made me rethink my life. Damn, I'm not single but I want Rune in my life. I wanted more out of the epilogue, why ? How ?
Seriously, this book was great. Just read it at home far from other people.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to get to review this ARC

I have been wanting to get my hands on this book for a long time, but it wasn't available in print at Barnes and Noble, so I bode my time. When I saw that there was an ARC available via Netgalley, I knew I had to try to get my hands on it, and I'm so glad I did. But so...destroyed. This was one of the most emotionally charged books I've ever read with the most tragic couple I've ever read about.
The story starts off sweet enough. There's a girl, Poppy, and a boy, Rune, who become best friends forever when he moves into the house next door at the age of five. They are inseparable, Poppy and Rune. One day, when Poppy's grandmother dies, she gives her a challenge to obtain one thousand boy kisses to fill in a jar as an adventure to remember her by. Rune decides he needs to give her ALL one thousand kisses, and gives her her first kiss to put in her jar at the age of eight. So sweet.
They grow up together, Rune and Poppy, and enter high school as boyfriend and girlfriend. Still completely inseparable. They are as often described, "Two halves of the same heart". But then, tragically, they are ripped apart when Rune's father takes him back to Norway because of his job. On their last night together, they make love, although completely, utterly heart-broken.
The story takes a dark, mysterious turn. The two years that they are kept apart, Poppy cuts Rune off from her life and stops responding to any attempt he has to reach out to her. Rune becomes darker and darker as anger becomes all he feels for being ripped away from his beloved Poppy. Poppy too has changed, and has a secret to hide from him. When he returns to the same house two years later, she has seen with sadness that his heart and soul as darkened from her absence, and her own heart is heavy from a secret she keeps from him to save him from more pain. Rune grows to resent her and treats her coldly, but nonetheless, he cannot stay away. What results is a story about a young couple, joined by body, heart, and soul so fully and completely, that nothing will keep them apart.
This book is very sweet and romantic, but also very sad, so I couldn't get through the last two chapters without crying my eyes out with a box of tissues by my side. A complete tearjerker, that takes you through a journey of what it means to truly live, love, as well as the pain of loss and grief, all of which makes up a life, beautiful in its entirety.
My only complaint is the Epilogue, which I could've done without because I thought it ended so perfectly...so maybe I'll just pretend it doesn't exist.

4/5 🌟 It. Broke. My. Soul. (In a good way 😉) Keep the tissues and wine bottle close by. Perfect mood read that gives you the all consuming emotions of first and forever love!

How it took me this long to read A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole, I really can't say because it's been on my list for forever! On one hand I was a little scared to be honest. Even as a reader that loves angst, all of the sobbing reviews had me nervous to say the least! BUT I can say that this one honestly lived up to all of the hype!

Poppy & Rune's story was both heartwarming and devastating, and certainly warrants a need for tissues! As in boxes of them!

A Thousand Boy Kisses left me speechless. It's beautiful, poignant, thought provoking, and unlike any other romance I've read! It's moving beyond words, and simply put an experience.

If you love fateful and angsty romance this is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for review. This book follows Poppy and Rune. They are young and in love until Runes family has to move away and Poppy suddenly stops contacting Rune. The love between the two characters is never questioned and it is refreshing to see real love instead of instalove. This book is so beautifully written and reads the same. While this book may have been a little too young for me, I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a great new read.

Talk about needed to come with a warning that this book will most defiantly make you sob. I really wished the characters were older once they reconnected. Maybe just by a few years it would have made a difference to me but I understand it’s a YA book. Very well written & swoonworthy.

I am so sad to say this, but I was never able to get into this book for some reason. I was just super bored the entire book, was not able to get attached to the characters, and found it very unrealistic. I think I would have been more invested if the chapters were shorter and if the characters were more realistic.

Overall, this was a well-written book, and I think so many people would love it, but it just was not for me.

I truly don’t know how to rate this book. I do think it’s a book that readers should go in blind. Be prepared to cry though.
The author created such beautiful imagery and emotions in her characters. I felt everything they felt and it enriched my reading experience so much.

I would like to say that I didn’t totally find the characters realistic or realistically relatable. But I hope someone can find something in them that will help them as a reader heal.

The story covers some important themes about life and love. And that’s going to stick with any reader

This book was really high in emotions and is a perfectly heartbreaking story about childhood sweethearts who finally reunite but under timed circumstances.

I feel like the FMC, poppy, was one of those characters who you could feel with your entire heart. The way she acted, was described, and everything else formed this beautiful picture in my head of what kind of character she was. I could hear how she spoke while reading her dialogue and felt the emotions in her voice and actions. She was genuinely a beautifully written character, who might as well have risen straight off the pages. Additionally, Rune was a character with beautiful character growth, and one of the most emotional part of his story was watching him forgive and reconnect with his family. Out of everything that part of the story was the most beautiful and well-done part of the book, and while it was not the main focus it did leave a strong mark behind for me.

This book was almost a five-star read, because of how beautifully emotional it was. But I have one thing that gives me the ick, and it's nicknames or pet names. Especially when used in excess, and for this book there is a certain nickname that is used on almost every single page. Sure it was cute, and had deep meaning but I was losing my mind. Also, their backup nickname was, "baby" which is nauseatingly gross for me to read. I just hate it. And it especially didn't help that the start of the book is when they are 15 and are using the word baby to refer to each other. Sadly it just left a really bad taste in my mouth that was only worsened as it was used continuously in every chapter. I am not a nickname girly, or at least not a consistent nickname girly.

Other than my own personal issues with nicknames, this book was extremely heartbreaking and powerful. It's not one of those stories that will be easily forgotten and was a perfect book for a small cry.

Great story. Wonderfully written. Loved the build-up to the issues that came about in the book and how it was handled.
Was tearing up by the halfway mark of the book and then completely crying by the end of the book.

Loved the book but I found some areas really hard to get into but I would also love a book of rune after and would want to know what happen

I have shed a thousand tears for Rune and Poppy. My heart has broken into a thousand pieces. I will never get over this book. It is so beautifully painful. This book was a special as special can be.