Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for an advance E-Book of What's in a Kissy by Lauren Kate in exchange of an honest review.

"Lauren Kate's 'What's in a Kiss' takes readers on a captivating journey through parallel universes and explores the power of one true love. The premise is fun and engaging, diving into the 'what ifs' of life and the impact of a single kiss. The contrasting realities of Olivia's life provide an intriguing backdrop, from her career struggles to her relationships with her best friend and estranged mother. The chemistry between Olivia and Jake, her high school nemesis turned love interest, is palpable, but the romance feels rushed and could benefit from more development. Some abrupt tonal shifts and explicit scenes seemed out of place for the characters. Despite these shortcomings, if you're a fan of parallel universes, rivals-to-lovers tropes, and long-lasting high school crushes, 'What's in a Kiss' will captivate you from start to finish."

Thanks so much NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam.

Liv sees Jake for the first time in 10 years. He's her Lyft passenger. He had humiliated her at Prom. She's in a wedding where Jake is the best man. Suddenly, the world does a weird shift and she is back at Prom. She's now living a life where Prom was the beginning of the two of them, not the end. Other things have changed too.

It was quick and cute. I wished there would have been more about exploring the switch itself, but I was certainly entertained. I like books that question what would have happened in life had this gone differently. Liv wasn't my favorite but Jake redeemed it for me!

This was a really great story and kept me interested. One minute I was smiling, the next tears streaming down my face, and then back to happy again. Lauren does a good job of taking us along on the journey with Olivia of self-discovery and the what ifs of life. I think many people can relate to wondering how life would have turned out if we had been able to do what we thought we wanted in the past, but don't think of how that would change how our life turned out in other areas as well. I enjoyed this journey with Olivia and Jake as they find where they are meant to be!

Olivia is helping to plan her best friend Masha’s dream wedding. There’s just one problem. Her arch nemesis from high school is back in town after finding success and fame...and he’s the best man. Olivia still feels a strong sense of competition with Jake which makes their reunion less than pleasant. Then, at the wedding, Olivia somehow finds herself in an alternate universe where she is happily married to Jake, but estranged from her mom and Masha.

This book was a quick and cute read. I loved Olivia’s relationship with her mom and Masha in real life. I did feel like there was a lot of information missing. I’d love to know more about how Jake fell for Olivia in high school. He’s clearly crazy about her, but that part was never really explained.. The switch between worlds could have been better explored. It would also have been nice to have a real reason why Olivia’s mom and Masha both hated her in the alternate reality.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC.

"What's in a Kiss" is a sweet "what if" story that kept me entertained and turning pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed tagging along with Olivia as she navigated a world where "the kiss" did happen thus altering the course of her life.

If you like Sliding Doors or Freaky Friday type stories, put this one on your list!

I always love the “what would have happened if I made a different choice” plot and What’s In A Kiss delivers. A famous rival is of course dumped in the lap of Olivia as she tries to navigate her best friend’s tricky-because-it’s-low-key wedding. They’ve all known each other since high school and an almost kiss between the rival Jake and Olivia could have changed her life completely from the somewhat pathetic furloughed teacher turned Lyft driver (when she really should have been a famous actress).

This book which I received an advanced reader copy from Net Galley is a fun summer/beach read and is a solid 4, maybe even a 4.5.

Light spoilers, that won’t mess up your reading experience (but if you like to read books in total darkness stop here):
I missed a flip into “what might have been” and spent two chapters trying to figure out what was going on.
I also wanted to know more about all the secondary characters that Olivia “Liv” has in both timelines and why they like or don’t like her so much.
*to note there is a light touch on miscarriage/fertility so if this is at all a trigger for you, it’s not major plot line but it does come up.

I'm so torn about this story! I've said multiple times that I love this trope, and it was certainly handled very well in this case. But, there was something that kept me from fully connecting with it.

Liv started off as a pretty frustrating FMC. It was almost as if everything that could possibly go wrong in her life had gone wrong. What was most frustrating was her almost unreasonable dislike of...

Jake Glasswell, a strong MMC. I liked his character almost immediately. His no-nonsense, straightforward attitude was very attractive.

The whole fiasco with skipping ahead to an alternate reality was a bit confusing to follow. But, I digress.

It was in this alternate reality that Liv started to realize that Jake wasn't the villain that she'd always painted him to be. In fact, she learned that in the many years that she'd known him, she'd basically misinterpreted their every interaction; he'd loved her all along. And this is where the story began to shift from a traditional enemies-to-lovers romance. It certainly kept the plot interesting!

Unfortunately, I found Liv to be annoying in every reality, whereas I found Jake to be redeemable and adorable in all of them.

This might be one of the few stories where I didn't want Liv to get her happy ending with Jake. I truly felt like she didn't deserve him, having treated him unfairly for most of their lives.

3 ⭐️

The book what’s in a kiss by Lauren Kate is a cute love story . I felt that this book was very easy to read and get through in a short amount of time . I will say that I did feel confused at some points as to if the events were really happening .

I loved this premise. The idea of sliding into another reality and getting to see what might have happened is poignant and one of my faves. And this was well executed. A little bit lacking on chemistry btn the 2 main characters, and I didn’t like that the 2 biggest relationships in her life were sour and it wasn’t explained why. I also thought the best friend was a big demanding and she was a doormat in the original reality so that was left unexplored and I wanted more. I also wanted more of an epilogue once she snaps back to her original timeline, it just sort of ended and that was a bit sad. Otherwise, I liked idea and the meditation of success and destiny,

This was a good book in the sense that it kept me entertained. It was a quick easy read but I didn’t really like the concept. It was a what if type of story. The first part of the book takes place in the current reality and then it magically transitions to an alternate reality and eventually goes back to current at the end. I wanted to see more Olivia and Jake’s relationship in the current reality. The book ended before we got to see what their life could look like. Book 2? 3 stars!

Cute story with a parallel universe twist

-enemies to lovers
-second chance
-time travel

Quick read and interesting story that made me want to read it all in one setting. Overall a fun and sweet book but I do wish we got more answers into the parallel universe aspect and more time with the characters in present day/ the real universe.


Thank you to NetGallary for the arc in exchange for a honest review.

When we first meet Olivia it is the day before her best friend Masha's wedding. Olivia is doing her best to make sure Masha and Eli's wedding goes off without a hitch. She's also trying not to think about her archnemesis and best man, Jake Glasswell. Jake and Olivia have been in competition since they met in high school. Who cares that he's currently living the life she dreamed of for herself?! Liv just needs to make it through the wedding and she can go on pretending that Jake doesn't exist.

The funny thing about life is it comes at you fast... one minute you're glaring at your sworn enemy across the alter at your best friend's wedding and the next you're married to him.... wait what?! Somehow during the kiss Liv ends up in an alternate universe where she and Jake are madly in love and married. Olivia soon realizes in this life she and Masha are not friends, Masha HATES her. In this life Liv is a star. She is living the life she imagined but without the support of her best friend and her mother.

If ever a character needed some therapy it was Olivia. Sis was seriously carrying some deep rage for a guy from high school who obviously liked her. She decided they were competitors and so in their mind that made it so. I know high schoolers aren't necessarily the best communicators, but when we meet Liv she's like 30. Why was she so hellbent on hating Jake?

Jake was definitely a likeable character it took me MUCH longer to warm up to Olivia and this book is not a long one. I am a sucker for an alternate universe story so overall it was a decent read. I do wish we'd explored the reasons for the rift in Masha and Olivia's relationship as well as her estrangement with her mother. Other than one or two lines I don't feel as if I got anything that justified the damage to these relationships.

What is in a kiss? Apparently a lot! Throughout the story I was getting Midnight Library vibes although this one did not life-hop as much so you got a lot more detail and experienced the agony on the decisions that had to be made. There were a lot of little clues to pick up on of what could transfer between lives and what couldn’t. The story overall was good. I was lost when the change first happened as it was so abrupt, but I feel like that was on purpose so the reader got the feeling for the character not knowing or understanding what is going on. It was so nice to read about the love story that could be and to come to the realization that she couldn’t stay because of what she was discovering over time. And to see the transition in her mind of how to interpret things in the original life was refreshing. Some of the words for fishing or a boat were hard for me to understand just because I don’t know a lot about them. But I enjoyed the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC of this sweet book. It reminded me a lot of the Sophie Cousens Book "The Good Part" but more lighthearted. Also some parallels to this one and "Maybe in Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I enjoyed following along as the main character Liv, gets transported to an alternative version of her life with some things are better/unexpected and some things are not better. It caused her to examine the parts of her life that were important to her and also realize the feelings she has had for Jake the entire time. It's definitely one I'd recommend for fans of authors like Katherine Center, Emily Henry, Sophie Cousens and similar. The only thing I wish is that we got more of an extended epilogue to see how her real life turned out on the end. Such a fun a read though!

I wasn’t sure what to expected when I started “What’s in a kiss?” It took me a few chapters to get hooked. I felt like the author was saying a lot without actually showing us. As a first person narration, I know it’s all supposed to be a little “dear diary” but a lot of the times I found myself skimming through paragraphs trying to get to the action.

This is my first alternate reality read, and while I enjoyed getting to see the different outcomes of MC’s life, the ending felt rushed. I don’t see how two people that hated each other and don’t know each other in adulthood could just jump into a relationship just like that.

I debated not finishing it, but I was curious what the ending would be and which reality the MC sound stay on.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Lauren Kate's "What's in a Kiss?" had an intriguing concept similar to the movie "13 Going on 30," but it left much to be desired. The characters were underdeveloped, and the central romance lacked depth. The pacing was inconsistent, sometimes dragging and rushing through key moments. The resolution felt rushed and unsatisfying, with loose ends. The book showed potential but ultimately fell short. Despite its engaging premise, the lack of character development, limited exploration of parallel universes, and an unsatisfying ending earned it a two-star rating.

This was a cute romcom that gives “13 Going on 30” vibes. I liked the parallel universe idea, but it was a confusing shift between Real Life Olivia and High Life Olivia. I didn’t catch the jump between the worlds at first because it was so subtle, and it wasn’t very clear how she got there and back. I would have liked to know more about why Jake fell for Olivia when they were in high school, and more detail could have been given about why he didn’t act on those feelings back then. I was also left wanting a glimpse into their happily ever after. On a different note, I loved the relationship between Real Life Olivia and her mom, as well as her friendship with Masha, and seeing the depth of those bonds was heartwarming.

this was very sweet! i liked the whole concept. it was very 13 going on 30 but just like that movie, i wish more time was spent when she goes back to reality but if the synopsis intrigues you.,. go for it!

the banter is good. the husband is chef’s kiss. just got a little lost for a chapter or two with the yogi. would recommend.

What’s in a Kiss Review

A cute romance between what could have been high school sweethearts if not for misunderstandings.

Olivia had big dreams. Then her dad died and she stayed to support her mom. She no longer has her teaching job, she’s helping with her mom’s podcast and driving for Lyft.

She’s been busy planning her best friends perfect wedding and she wasn’t about to let seeing Jake Glasswell for the first time in ten years ruin that.

Jake Glasswell is everywhere. He’s a talk show host, he was dating a hot star, and people talk about how he’s changed their life.

Olivia kind of annoyed me in the beginning because of how she was treating Jake even though he didn’t do anything. She kept playing the victim because he supposedly was out to beat her. All. The. Time. In high school. I think I was most annoyed when she found out that Jake’s dad also passed away when they were 18 and she was just like no he has to be lying.

My favorite character is definitely Jake. He’s just so perfect! He’s kind, helpful, and a perfect body!

Highly recommend! Definitely going to come back to this book for rereading!