Poppy swept into Runes life like a ray of sunshine. Poppy spontaneous and full of adventure keeps Rune on his toes. After Poppy’s grandmother passed away she left her with an empty jar. The jar to be filled with kisses but not just any kisses. The kisses that make your heart beat out of your chest. The kisses that change your world. Rune wants to fill her jar with those moments but when his family is forced to move back to Germany Poppy vanishes. Will their love be enough to fill Poppy’s jar in time? Will time heal the void that was created by distance?

A Thousand Boy Kisses was my absolute everything. There were smiles, laughter and tears. Lots and lots of tears. So many tears that I had to put the book down in order to see the pages. It made me feel so many emotions and I love every minute of it.

TW/CW
Death of a loved one.
Child loss.
Terminal illness.

When they are five years old, Poppy and Rune meet. Rune is from Norway and his family has just moved in next door.

Over the next ten years, they grow up together and fall in love.

When they are 15, Rune’s dad has to transfer back to Norway for his job and Rune and Poppy are separated. They make plans to keep in touch but after a little while Poppy stops emailing and calling and Rune has no idea why.

Honestly, I was skeptical about this because sometimes I think I’m a little old for some YA romances. When I tell you I bawled at this book…it was really good and not what I expected.

This book was more than just a YA story. Is was mysterious, addicting, and sinfully tragic.

Any well written book about young love stirs up sincere memories and emotions that take us back to our young and first loves. That’s what this book does for the readers. It allows them to remember a time where someone noticed them for the first time. Where a person was their whole world just for a little.

Then it reminds the readers how life is when something tragic strikes and that’s what makes the book so emotional. It makes you remember and then makes you remember more. It reminds you that sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, you cannot change fate. But your love can make their lives just a little bit better for a time.

Told in dual-perspectives you really get the sense for what both main characters are feeling. Tillie Cole makes you fall in love with them, your heart breaks for them, you cry with them. This book is an emotional roller coaster, but by far worth every emotion. A “read-jerker” is an absolute understatement for this book.

Sobbing, screaming, crying, throwing up. Tillie cole you have literally broken my heart into a million pieces. This broke my heart in every possible way. Rune and poppy's love is so deep, strong and passionate, which is unheard of at their age. Their love is unbreakable. Legit like the love you dream of as a kid. I will say that 70% into the book it felt rushed and predictable, kinda drawn out. Nonetheless I really loved this book.

This book had me SOBBBING!
I absolutely loved every minute of the heartbreak though.
I loved absolutely everything about Poppy and Rune.
Their story was so beautifully written.
And once you start this book there is no stopping until its over.
This book reels you in and keeps you in.
I have nothing but good to say about this one!

Thank you Netgalley and Bloom books for the opportunity.

This book had me in tears which surprised me since I don’t usually cry all that much at books. This was an absolutely wonderful story and I loved every minute of it. The relationship between Poppy and Rune was beautiful and amazingly portrayed in the writing. There were so many pretty lines/quotes in the book.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I enjoyed reading this love story of two young people who seem destined to be together. Despite the challenges they face, they live life to the fullest and truly appreciate every moment they are able to spend together. They fall in love quickly, grow apart, and are able to come back together when the time Poppy has is cut short. These two never failed to express love and there story was beautiful up until the end. The cherry blossom is one of my favorite flowers so the significance of it in this book touched me. I don't think I'll ever see them the same way again. I did like this book, it was a fast enjoyable read. It was a little too YA for me and I found myself a little bored at points and able to predict how everything would happen. Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend to people who want to read a touching love story... haha but bring tissues!!

Ugh this book utterly destroyed me to the point where I'm not sure if I really liked this book. It was so well written though, I could see myself with the characters, but man, my heart will need time to recover from this book.

Tillie Cole's YA novel, A Thousand Boy Kisses, is a heartbreaking story that you will not want to put down. The characters are engaging and though some of the situations seem a bit much, they could happen. If you are someone who cries when reading, you may as well be prepared with a box of tissues. Though is not a novel that will provoke deep thinking and heavy discussions for years to come, it is a well-written YA novel that will touch your soul and haunt you for a long while. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook to read for this review.

“And my heat almost burst”
Met Poppy and Rune. They became more than friends, a special bond link them together when Rune moved next to poppy… until he return to Norway. At 17 he came back But when they meet again, they are distant, and rune learns that Poppy had left for a few months, a secret that she is not ready to share. Yet Their link is still there.
I loved this book so much it kept me awake during night because I have to finish it.
This story is heartbreaking, and it comes with a box of tissues. If you need to cry, this book is for you. Beautiful love story.

An absolute tear jerker for sure! I was enveloped from the first page and could not put it down. This is one of those books that will stay with me forever.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. I've had this on my radar for what feels like forever at this point, and I couldn't wait to finally have a reason to pick this up.

I can't even begin to tell you about this book. I don't even feel like I can rate this book accurately. Did I like this book? NO. It destroyed me. I cried from the very beginning and constantly throughout the rest. This was heartbreaking. Was it well written? Absolutely. Would I recommend this book? Without a doubt. As long as someone went into it with better expectations that what I did. With this cute title and cover, you are undoubtedly thinking "love story" and while this IS a love story at its core, it's tragic. It's depressing and sad and not at all what I was expecting.

Look at trigger warnings. Go into this with the right idea what this book is about. Or don't. If you need a good cry or want something different than a typical romance, this book could definitely work for you. I won't forget this anytime soon and I am definitely interested in picking up other books from this author.

3 Stars
I have been seeing and hearing about A Thousand Boy Kisses for a long time amongst book bloggers and in the reading community. Despite hearing some glowing and some mixed reviews about it, I had pretty much written off ever reading it because it sounded depressing. When I saw it on Net Galley and that it was picked up by a publisher I thought, why not give it a try after all of these years? Before I get into it though, you should know I am a 31 year-old wife and mother so I am definitely not a young adult reviewing this story.

Overall, it was a really sweet and heartbreaking story about young all-encompassing love in the face of time, distance, adversity & other *ahem* challenges. I really did like it and I can see why others love it. I think if you’re into YA and don’t mind a tear-jerker then you should give this a shot.

I would say A Thousand Boy Kisses is YA and it reads like a YA. While reading this book, I found myself thinking a few times how over the top the characters would be about certain things— and then I had to remind myself how at 15/16/17 everything felt intense and like it was truly a huge deal. I tried to keep this in mind, be understanding, & even try to think like a teenager. Despite this, at times the writing and dialogue felt immature and weak to me and I’ve read & loved a lot of YA where that was not the case.

One last thing though and I will be vague as to not give anything away— as a mom, I didn’t love when/at what age the jar came into the picture. Eight is REALLY young for that to be on your radar??? If I was Poppy’s mom I would have been pissed at grandma, just saying.

Thank you to Bloom Books & Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I will start off by saying that this book DID manage to make me emotional in some parts, however…. I feel like this was a poor rip off of “a walk to remember”.
I absolutely love a walk to remember. I adore the movie and book so much. So after I worked out that this was a similar story I expected to really like it.
This wasn’t the case unfortunately.
A thousand boy kisses just fell short for me. I didn’t feel a connection to the characters, I felt they were very surface level. I was sick of hearing how rune was just born moody and darker in nature, he was always angry. It was mentioned so often that it lost meaning.
In a lot of instances the ages didn’t match the language used, for instance we start off when rune and poppy meet at age 5, poppy says things like “Norwegian? Like the Vikings? My mamaw read me a book about the Vikings, it said they were from Norway.” Etc. that speech doesn’t match that of a 5 year old (trust me I would know, I have a 5 year old daughter).
Honestly I could probably overlook it, but I’m being picky because this book just really annoyed me.
I wanted to love it. I just really didn’t. I was 60% in and still waiting for something interesting to happen. I’m going to DNF and go watch a “walk to remember” instead.

This book emotionally wrecked me from Chapter 1 all the way to the epilogue in the best way. I cried this entire book and I'm not talking a few tears I'm talking about the ugly cries where your eyes are swollen and your nose is raw type of cries. I have never had a book make me cry this much in my entire life!

The characters are so endearing. Reading about Poppy and Rune's love blossom from friends to lovers was such and exquisitely painful journey that I didn't want to stop. Their personalities and how the interact with each other had me hooked from the prologue.

This book was written so beautifully in my opinion. There were sayings that were profound to me and made me rethink everything. This book altered my brain chemistry.


I can not recommend this book enough! If I could give this a thousand stars I would for infinity forever always!

Thank you to Bloom Books Publishing, NetGalley, and Tilly Cole for letting me read this!

This book made me cry! I couldn’t put it down! If you are looking for a romance book this is the one to pick up

3.5⭐️

Based on the premise of this story, I thought it was something I would really enjoy. And yes, I did find it to be a beautiful and heartbreaking story. It was just a little to ya for me, but I think it’s perfect for teens. Thank you for this arc!

BookTok had already spoiled the fact that this book would be a somber experience for me, but I chose to dive in with only limited information. The beginning was a bit of a struggle, and interestingly, it somewhat reminded me of the start of "Confess" by Colleen Hoover. While I did feel that a few scenes could have been trimmed down, the overall impression was that of a powerful and emotionally resonant read.

5 stars
I s o b b e d reading this. Get ready for all the feels and to have your heart broken & healed simultaneously. Only complaint is I didn’t love the YA aspect of it, but I learned to embrace it. Wish I didn’t wait so long to read this one, it’s a goodie. I was so very excited to see that there is a sequel coming out. I will be anxiously awaiting its publication!!

Just not for me… probably more for the teenage Dawsons creek obsessed time in my life. Just couldn’t stomach it anymore when the (spoiler) happened. I’ve heard such great things but I just couldn’t get into the melodrama. When I realized it was headed down a depressing path I gave up. Just not for me but that doesn’t mean it’s not for everyone.