Review: A Stiff Kiss by Avery Olive

Title: A Stiff Kiss
Author: Avery Olive
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Crescent Moon Press (Feb 12th 2012)
Get it: Amazon | B&N


Goodreads Synopsis
Who knew kissing a corpse would change everything?

Death always hits Xylia Morana too close to home, but she likes it that way. She hangs out with the terminally ill, attends random funerals, and every so often, when the weather is right, she sleeps in open graves.

But after Landon Phoenix, the high school hottie, dies in Xylia's arms, she sneaks into the morgue to say goodbye. How could she know stealing a kiss from his corpse would wake him up?

With Landon returned to the living and suddenly interested in Xylia, life has new meaning. But what Xylia doesn't realize is that by kissing Landon back to life, she's thrown Life and Death off balance. The underworld demands a body, and it might just have to be Xylia's this time.


REVIEW

Xylia Morana has had a crush on Landon Phoenix for awhile now, but he doesn't really even know who she is. During a championship soccer game with which Landon was playing in, in the hopes of attracting the attention of scouts, Landon collapses. Dr. Morana, Xylia's father, is called to the field, and he asks Xylia to help him administer CPR. Despite all their efforts, Landon is pronounced dead on the way to the hospital. Having wished that she'd spoken to Landon when he was alive, Xylia decides to visit him in the morgue so that she can say goodbye. When she places a single kiss on his lips, he awakens ... some 2 1/2 hours after he died.


Dr. Morana tells Xylia not to speak about what happened because it could look bad for the hospital as well as himself. And Landon has been having dreams, since reawakening, of a girl with black hair and green eyes that are haunting him, and he doesn't realize that it's Xylia at first even though he now feels drawn to her. He knows that she knows something about what happened to him, but she's not talking.

This book was very different from the romances that I'm used to reading. You might think that since Xylia secretly had a crush on Landon and was, in a way, given a second chance to make her feelings for him known, she'd take it, but she doesn't. She tries so very hard to push him away even if that means being rude to him. So it takes a great deal of work on both their parts to finally let their feelings be known.

I found myself glued to the book, worrying whether or not they will ever be allowed to be together since there are those who are still after Landon's life to help put the world back in balance. Not to mention, Xylia herself keeps pushing Landon away when all she really wanted to do was pull him close.

I couldn't help finding myself irritated by the way that Xylia kept defying her father. He's all she has left, since the death of her mother when she was twelve, and she's all he has left. He worries about her. I understand that she had her reasons and that it could just be considered teenage rebellion, but I felt bad for Dr. Morana. They have such a close relationship, and Xylia hates to hurt her father, but that's exactly what she does to him by defying him. Despite that I thought the story was great! I love when a book can make me feel even if that means it makes me laugh, cry, worry, or even become irritated with a character. A Stiff Kiss did that. I can definitely see myself reading this book again, and I'm certainly curious as to what other stories Avery Olive comes up with in the future!

** I received a copy of A Stiff Kiss for review as part of the Knights of the Round Table group on Goodreads.**

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