The Prom Kiss by Maggie Dallen

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Title: The Prom Kiss
Author: Maggie Dallen
Series: Briarwood High #5
Published by: Indie
Release Date: July 1st 2018
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 175
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Beat the Backlist Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:

Blurb:

When a mean girl kisses a nice guy, someone is going to get hurt. Or fall in love. Or...maybe both.

Tina Withers doesn't do nice. When she kisses Julian-the-emo-songwriter-freak to make his cheating ex-girlfriend jealous it's absolutely not out of the kindness of her heart. She's only evening the score since he'd not only let her cry on his shoulder after her latest breakup with her jerk of an ex, but he'd kept the whole humiliating incident a secret. Her frenemies would have leaped at the chance to take her down a notch by spilling the gory details of her stockroom meltdown.

So yeah, she owed him one. Besides, a good guy like Julian deserves better than his manipulative, selfish ex. And no matter how hot his kisses might be, he deserves better than her, too. She's spent a lifetime creating her reputation as the biggest baddie at school, and her crowning glory is in sight as she prepares to claim her throne as Briarwood's reigning prom queen. It's too late to change now...isn't it? Or maybe Julian is right. Maybe a little nice goes a long way when you're known for being mean.

My Review:

4.5 stars — Dudes!  This was so a Lenore book!  I just ended it with the stupidest goofy grin on my face, I can’t even tell you!!  Ms. Dallen definitely has a formula for this series, but this one worked PERFECTLY for me from start to finish.  The difference between this one and the other two I’ve read so far is that in this one we got to see more deeply into why Tina is the way that she is, and unlike the other popular MCs, she *knew* she was being mean.  That’s what I was missing from those other ones.

Tina was a SUPER intriguing heroine, because she didn’t make excuses for her behaviour really.  BUT there was a lot that went into turning her into the queen bee mean girl of the school.  Like A LOT A LOT.  And most of it stemmed from her home life and her horrible relationship with her mother.  I can truly understand how she developed this persona as a coping mechanism, as a way to protect herself.  And I loved that she was only mean to people who played the game…she didn’t bully innocents.  I appreciated that aspect.  I mean, she wasn’t nice necessarily, but she tried to make that distinction.  And so much of what I loved about her I saw because of the way Julian saw her.  He recognized that she wasn’t all bad, she was kind of just using her powers for evil instead of good.  I really loved the way he turned that around on her.  She really was ambitious and motivated, and we don’t see enough heroines with those traits reminding us that ambition isn’t a BAD trait, even if it’s not for everyone.  Anyways, I’m getting off track.  Basically, I didn’t expect to love Tina, but I really did.  I saw who she was deep down, and I appreciated that while we were nothing alike, I could still connect with her.

Then there’s Julian.  Julian is *my* kind of hero.  I love me a sweet beta boy, and he was just perfect.  He wasn’t a pushover, he definitely stood his ground with Tina.  The problem is that it wasn’t just that I loved Julian, but I loved the way Julian brought out the goodness in Tina…the way he saw past her facade.

And that’s the thing.  My favourite part of this book was the two of them together.  They made me laugh and giggle and swoon and ache and sigh…you know, all those good things.  The kisses were AMAZING.  Like, holy wow.  But it was also the way they talked and connected and reached across those social boundaries to connect with one another through something truly heartbreaking.  I loved the way they teased each other and bantered, and the way Julian helped Tina not to take herself so seriously.

*sigh*  Yeah, it was just…wonderful.  I have all these other books that I should be reading, but as soon as I read the sneak peek at the end of The Holiday Kiss, I couldn’t help but buy it immediately.  And I have ZERO regrets.  I mean, I’m going to try to put off the rest of the series until the second half of 2020, but this was the book I was wanting from this series.