High school love is magic in a bottle. It's a time to experience love, heartbreak, and all the butterflies in between. I think Kissing is the Easy Part captures those feelings in a way that is true to the young adult romance experience. Sean and Flora are complete opposites, and I think many would be surprised to see them together romantically. But chemistry works in mysterious ways.

I do wish that I could have liked this more because it had the potential to be 5 stars. The first quarter of the book had me hooked, and then when miscommunication between the pair took hold, it lost its momentum for me. I liked that the characters were able to learn more about what they want and how to express themselves. Like the title, kissing is the easy part; it's everything else that complicates things.

I wanted more from these characters. I felt like it took them awhile to really open up to each other and dig deeper. And they definitely struggled with communication.
It did feel very real though and a good representation of a teenage life and romance.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

This book really took me on a roller coaster and was not what I expected it to be. I was expecting a happy fun palette cleansing romance but it felt more nuanced than that, especially by the middle till the end. I love how nuanced and deep the romance felt. A lot of books, especially modern (2020-present) romances, are so surface level and don’t delve into anything beyond that. I want to really know the characters and understand them on a personal level. I feel like I do with Sean and Flora which I appreciate, there’s almost nothing worse than flat characters in my opinion.

Kissing is definitely the easy part for these two, communication on the other hand is not. While I do hate miscommunication, if the miscommunication is over something understandable then I can get past that because in real life people do (unfortunately) miscommunicate all the time. While it’s is never fun to read about I’m glad this one had the understandable kind instead of the annoying kind. Flora and Sean are both very different people and while I don’t believe that their differences are something that should separate them, I don’t think it does either of them any good to ignore them. This book just demonstrates why honest communication is key to any successful and healthy relationship.

Anyways, onto the more fun and happy parts. I was grinning constantly, these two were so adorable. Popular girl x nerdy guy trope will always have me in its clutches. This was super fun and cute but also angsty at times, which I enjoyed. I haven’t been this excited to read in a while and it was so nice to have that feeling back.

I really wish I liked this more. Unfortunately, Maybe my hopes were too high knowing there’s a movie adaptation and that it’s well loved but this wasn’t for me. The couple got together way too quick for my taste plus I didn’t care for 70% of the drama they did have. And honestly I feel like it would’ve been more compelling if we saw these characters actually work on their “flaws” rather than a quick second break up at the end.