Let me start off by saying that I did not like the first story of this three short-story collection. The main character of Goblin Fruit was a foolish, boy-obsessed, ignorant girl who was willing to do stupid things just to have a boy like her. I didn't much care for the "plot", and though I found the writing and lore of the story to be enjoyable, everything else was not.

However, the same cannot be said for the remaining two stories. The second story in this collection was absolutely stunning! Taylor's ideas behind it are incredible. I love how she took real lore, real mythology, and wove it into her own ideas. The characters were complex and the writing was superb! The same could be said about the final story. I have no complaints about any of it. Not to mention the artwork, done by Jim Di Bartolo, was exquisite! It meshed well with Taylor's story imperceptibly. I have fallen in love with his art style and with Taylor's writing style. Basically, they are a duo that I would like to see more of~ (They are husband and wife so I assume I can find more projects they have collaborated on.)

I am glad I read more of Laini Taylor's work. I did read her Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and adored it. I am so glad I read this and enjoyed it just as much. I really think you should give this a read if you like mythology, dead languages, complex characters, and a fascinating story. Just keep in mind that the first story in the collection is not the best.

Reading this book was like eating a very sweet and delicious cake.

Okay, that may sound like a weird thing to say, but hear me out. Lips Touch: Three Times 

is like cake because both are beautiful, both are delicious and it feels good when you consume it (although obviously you're not eating the book, you're reading it) and both leave you satisfied when you finish but at the same time wanting more.

Laini Taylor deserves a shiny gold medal for being an excellent and brilliant writer. Somehow, she's able to use beautiful, descriptive prose without it turning purple and bogging down the story. Or stories, in this case.

Let me talk about each story separately

Goblin Fruit-
This needs a sequel. It definitely finished on an open- ended note. It was a little unsatisfying, but overall I still enjoyed it. Kizzy was a very intriguing character and I would read more about her in a heartbeat.

Spicy Little Curses-
Although the first story was great, this was better. It's hard for me to find words to describe it. All I can say is that it's awesome and READ IT.

Hatchling-
This is the best of the three. In such a short story, we are introduced to three complex and intriguing characters and an intricate and beautiful world of demons known as the Druj. It's a fantastic story, easily the best of the three.

Overall, Lips Touch has fantastic writing and three amazing stories. Add it to your TBR list RIGHT NOW. And then read it as soon as you possibly can. Go on. I'm waiting. 

Tl;dr |✭✭✭✭✩| Overall, these were rather enjoyable stories. My favorite was Spicy Little Curses, and the other two were good, but in my opinion not as good. Hatchling was a little odd, and felt a little too long to me. And Goblin Fruit was kind of your typical, girl thinks she's ugly and attracts the hot dude story, with a fantasy twist. 

[[MORE]]

Description Laini Taylor weaves three stories about the magic and wonder of kissing, and the romance with it. From Goodreads: Goblin Fruit
In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls?
Spicy Little Curses
A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse.
Hatchling
Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons?

So, these stories! I was a little unsure at first... what with them being YA romance short stories. I've never really read many short stories.... so I just really didn't know what I was getting into. And the first story, Goblin Fruit, was ok. It felt too stereotypical to me though. It boils down to outcast weird girl with a weird family longs for a relationship, meets a new transfer hot dude who shows interest, flirtations ensue.

Her family sounds crazy, heaven knows I wouldn't want to have to chop off the head of a swan for some burial ritual. But her grandma is awesome, even though we only get her through memories. But yeah, this story was ok but it wasn't really memorable, and I don't know that I'd ever read a full length version of it. 

Now, the story Spicy Little Curses was everything I could want in a short story. It had such a fantastic plot, and I would most definitely want to read it as a full length novel, maybe even a series of books. Thats how much a i liked this story.

The old woman who acts as an ambassador to the afterworld is amazing. She's feisty and awesome, and I love that she isn't content to let the demon take all the innocent lives he wants. So when the curse has to be delivered to the newborn English baby (this book is set in India, sorry I forgot to mention that detail), she does so with a heavy heart. Fast forward 18 years, and the cursed young lady has never once wanted to test her curse (of which she is fully aware). And then she meets a dashing young man, newly come to town. And for the first time in her life, she is tempted to see if her curse is real or not. Gosh, I just can't get over how much I loved this story. 

And the final story, Hatchling. This one... if I were to rate this one story with stars, it would have gotten 2 stars. A young girl and her mother, both with vibrant red hair, must flee for their lives when the daughter wakes up in the middle of the night hearing wolves howling. The daughter knows nothing about her mother's mysterious life before she was born, and it isn't until they come across a dark stranger that her mother seems to know that the truth finally comes out. 

This story just didn't resound with me. It felt too long to me, and it was rather dark. Dark stories are fine and all, but... I don't know. I didn't care for any of the characters, though I did pity the mother. I don't know how I felt about the shape shifters, especially the the rouge dude. I just don't know. And I guess that kind of sums up the story for me.... it didn't feel like it belonged with the other two, and I couldn't connect with it. 

Laini Taylor's writing style is great throughout, though. I will always love her story telling. Even if I don't particularly like the story, I will always appreciate the way she has the story unfold, the language she uses, the way she sets up the characters. 

Overall, I'd recommend this book to someone who is looking for some different short stories! 

"The fire took in souls and made them new, and Yama sleeved them as he saw fit. Estella might be reborn as a tigress or a river dolphin or an ibex that could balance on tiptoe on a mountaintop. 

Or she might be born as a woman again, perhaps one who could have love all her life, instead of only the memory of it."

I don't know why this passage hurts me, but it does. 

"Kizzy wanted to be a woman who would dive off the prow of a sailboat into the sea, who would fall back in a tangle of sheets, laughing, and who could dance a tango, lazily stroke a leopard with her bare foot, freeze an enemy's blood with her eyes, make promises she couldn't possibly keep and then shift the world to keep them. She wanted to write memoirs and autograph them at a tiny bookshop in Rome, with a line of admirers snaking down a pink-lit alley. She wanted to make love on a balcony, ruin someone, trade in esoteric knowledge, watch strangers as coolly as a cat. She wanted to be inscrutable, have a drink named after her, a love song written for her, and a handsome adventurer's small airplane, champagne-christened Krizzy, which would vanish one day in a windstorm in Arabia so that she would have to mount a rescue operation involving camels and wear an indigo veil against the stinging sand, just like the nomads.

Kizzy wanted." 

Now I remember why I love reading Laini Taylor.