Wow! Just wow! This book did something to me! I laughed, I cried! I loved it!
As a women, I have never related to a character more, constantly wondering what if in life.
What if I said yes, what if I kissed the boy, all of it.
This story follows a character preparing for her best friends wedding, and she has to interact with the “boy who got away.” Who is now her enemy. During the wedding she gets transported to a new life, where she is happily married to the boy, but her best friend and mom won’t talk to her.

The whole concept is her trying to get back to her life, but wanting the best of both worlds, her best friend, and the boy.
I love how the author wrote every bit of the love story, and made me truly root for these characters.
Bravo!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this cute and light romance. It was a sweet take on a what-if/alternate universe plot. Oliva is preparing for her best friend's intimate wedding and the best man Jake, in the wedding is also the guy who she almost kissed at prom but had an embarrassing moment and rejection instead. She is currently struggling in her life with finances and job, however, she has the greatest best friend and relationship with her mother. Without giving too much away, Olivia finds herself in an alternate reality where her and Jake had actually kissed. Her life is completely different in almost every way. It seems like there are aspects in each life that complete her and others that tear her apart and she has to decide which are worth more.
It was a really sweet romance. I loved her chemistry with Jake. He was extremely charming and devoted to Olivia. I also loved Olivia's dog! It was a cute addition to the plot.

Oh my heart!! This was amazing.

Our main character gets to see what would have been if she had kissed her rival at prom. I laughed, I cried, I felt all the emotions! Such a beautiful story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

📖 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘒𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘓𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘒𝘢𝘵𝘦

"𝙸𝚗 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍𝚜. 𝙰𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜.”

What if one little moment could change your whole future? Nothing huge, just a little kiss. Olivia is having a run of bad luck. When her dad died her senior year of high school her life changed. Instead of going to Juilliard for acting she stayed home to help her mother grieve. She’s been furloughed from her drama teaching job and flat broke. Now she’s planning her best friends wedding and freaking out because her high school crush is the best man, and she hates him. Jake graduated high school, went to New York and got everything he ever wanted. He’s a famous tv show star and the whole world loves him. A misunderstanding in high school has caused Olivia to hate him. When he jumps into Olivia’s ride-share they are back to bickering. At the wedding, she catches Jake staring at her and from that moment she wakes up in an alternate reality. A reality where she got everything she ever wanted, but was it worth the cost of what she lost?

This was a fun book! Jake was a great book boyfriend, and I loved the role her dog played in the story! This book makes you think about the tiny little things we take for granted everyday. Nothing is promised but we have to live each day appreciating what we have.

There was some mild spice in this book. Spice rating: 🌶️

Overall rating: 4.5⭐️

Tropes: enemies to lovers, time travel, alternate realities, doggie sidekicks, mild spice, contemporary romance

Thank you 𝖭𝖾𝗍𝖦𝖺𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗒 and 𝖫𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖾𝗇 𝖪𝖺𝗍𝖾 for my ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! This book is available to read on July 2nd, 2024.

DNF

I loved the concept going into this, but I DNFed it because I just thought it was lacking pace, low-key. I found myself skipping sentences and paragraphs to get to the good part and I stopped 34 pages in.

The writing felt kinda everywhere and I couldn’t entirely keep track. There is still so much time for this book to develop and I really hope it does because it was such a good idea to write about and I really hope it does come out so well. Maybe I’ll read it again when it comes out next year, but for right now, I couldn’t.

EDIT: SHE WROTE THE FALLEN SERIES??? OMG I ATE THAT SHIT UP WHEN I WAS YOUNGER I FEEL MORE HONORED TO READ THIS. <33333333

I like the concept of this book. I was rooting for the characters. I was generally happy with the ending. The story was well-paced and the characters were interesting.

For those who care: there was A LOT of descriptive, seggsy stuff.

I enjoyed the switch of lives, it also reminded of me 13 going on 30. The love she has for her best friend & mom matters so much to her and her love story can exist on both sides. I did stumble a little with lives switch & repetition of her saying she needs to leave then not leaving. Baseball really was used in the beginning but not as important later. But I will definitely be recommending to our Book Club TBR.

Not sure what I thought I was reading but that wasnt it. Now dont get me wrong there were definitely parts I liked but I just was NOT a fan of FMC. Loved Jake, loved seeing his character but I just could not get into this book for the life of me.

This was my first experience reading a parallel universe type book. In one reality, Olivia has the best friend ever. She also has an amazing relationship with her mom. But in this reality, she is enemies with Jake. In the other reality, her mom hates her and her best friend does too. But Olivia & Jake are happily married and completely and totally in love. Olivia tries to figure out if she should stay in her new reality or try to get back to her other one.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It was interesting to me to see how it was going to play out. I do wish we would've gotten to see more of Olivia & Jake in the end but I guess technically you see how happy they can be when she's in the alternate reality.

I received an advanced copy of this in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to netgalley & Putnam books.

This story revolves around Olivia and two different worlds. In one world, her "real" world, she has a great relationship with her mom and her best friend, Masha. She also loves to hate super rich and successful, Jake Glasswell, who happens to have been her competitor in everything from baseball to debate in high school. When Jake and Olivia are reunited as best man and maid of honor for their best friends wedding Olivia somehow finds herself in an alternate world where her mom and her best friend hate her and she's in a ridiculously happy marriage with none other than Jake Glasswell. Throughout this book, Olivia learns the importance of love and friendship.

What's in a Kiss? was a short and sweet read but it left me feeling like I needed more. I didn't understand how she got from one world to the next? I also didn't understand how her mother in the other world could just refuse to even try to reconcile with her.
I think there is quite a bit that could've been explored and more detailed.
Overall, it was easy to read and the relationship between Olivia and Jake was fun and sweet.

In one universe Olivia is annoyed by her high school rival Jake. He is famous and Olivia missed out on her dreams of going to Juilliard. While they are both attending their mutual friends wedding, something happens and Olivia ends up in an alternate universe. In this universe Olivia is a famous actress and is married to Jake. Her life seems fabulous except that her best friend hates her and she is estranged from her mother. Olivia tries to figure out if she should stay in this new life or risk her love for Jake by going back.
I enjoyed this book and I do like the author's writing style. I felt like some aspects of the storyline weren't very clear. I never could figure out why the relationship with her mother fell apart and why she was so angry with Olivia.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book for review.

For someone who never reads time travel or time shift novels, I have now managed to read two in the past week. While I liked Amy Lea’s Woke Up Like This, I can’t say the same for this novel. I did not find it believable that the main character had zero idea that Jake had been in love with her for years, and there were lots of gaps in Faux-livia’s plot line.

I wouldn’t say it’s a “never read this” novel, but I will not be recommending it to friends.

This is a super cute take on alternate universes which gave me 13 going on 30 vibes. Liv in suddenly thrown into a world where she’s super successful and happily married to her sworn emery Jake. She soon realizes it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in this world either.

This was such a cute easy read. I loved getting to see Liv let her walls come down and fall in love with Jake in his most down to earth version. I enjoyed watching her come to terms with what she could fix or live without and how the story played out.

I do wish there was more spice and time spent with regards to Liv and Jake being happy and in love. The time travel was well written but got a little confusing at the end. It felt like it was mimicking 13 going on 30 but also trying to be different. I did enjoy the ending, overall, but was sad there wasn’t an epilogue. It would have been really nice to see a glimpse into their future.

Woah, I was not expecting that! “What’s in a Kiss?” definately plays on some of the typical romcom tropes but spices things up with an alternate universe reality shift that I did not see coming. It was fun and kept the plot intriguing and the reader engaged. I did like the normal universe reality a bit more so was kinda rushing a bit towards the end to get back to normalcy. Overall this was sweet and fun and I would recommend!

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for granting me the privilege of ereading this book in advance.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.
The concept was very intriguing but I could not get past who the FMC is as a person. The grudge she has held on to for years about a person that did not deserve it was too much for me. It also took maybe a bit too long to get to the main plot of the story.

I was hooked from the beginning! The premise was so cute and the angst and spice between Liv and Jake was palpable and infectious from page one. I’ll be honest— I liked the writing and characters more in reality rather than Olivia’s alternate universe, so when things wrapped up so quickly at the end, I was bummed. I wanted more closure on real Jake and Olivia. Maybe even an epilogue? Still a really cute and fun read.

Thanks to NetGalley I received an advanced electronic copy of the book to read and provide a review.

This was a fine read! I enjoyed the writing and the overall premise of the book. However, I wasn’t a huge fan of the time travel / alternative universe. I felt as though the transition to/from was a bit forced and not entirely clear. But all in all, it was a cute story.

What is in a kiss? What is in THIS kiss? An absolutely charming romance and deliciousness and those warm feelings that one gets whenever you are caught in the most delightful of books. I loved every second of this novel, and equally enjoyed the characters - they are not dry, two dimensional, but living breathing humans that seemed so real that I felt they were beside me. This was one of my favorite reads so far this year and I highly, highly recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This was an interesting twist on the usual rom com. Though it has certain tropes like pining and enemies to lovers, it also relies on a plot device of parallel universes that lead the reader to ask “what if?”

However, despite the interesting concept of the book, the execution could have been better. For one, the tonal shifts in the book were jarring and needed better development, for example when the characters go from dislike to chaste friendship to explicit spicy. There also needed to be a bit more development of the male protagonist so we can understand why he has been pining.

The overall premise of What's in a Kiss? is fun and explores what ifs/parallel universes/one true loves.

In one universe/Olivia's reality, Olivia isn't exactly where she hoped she would be career-wise, but she has an amazing best friend who is getting married soon (Olivia is planning the wedding) and she has a podcast with her mom. In the parallel universe, she is an actress on a popular TV show, is married to her high school sweetheart (Jake, her nemesis in the other universe!), and is estranged from her mother and her best friend. Olivia seems to be stuck in this parallel universe and is surprised to find herself falling for Jake - if they had actually kissed a decade ago, would they be together "real life"?

There are a few cute scenes throughout but the scene setting isn't always clear and I wish there was more development/nuance/understanding of why Jake has been in love with Olivia for all these years and more scenes of them together. There are also some abrupt tonal shifts in the relationship from chaste to explicit, that didn't seem to fit either of the characters. The romance felt rushed. If you are a fan of parallel universes, rivals-to-lovers, and long-lasting high school crushes, give this a read.

Thank you very much to Putnam Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.