Review: Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor

Summary from Goodreads.com:

Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

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?

Lips Touch Three Times is a collection of three short stories by Laini Taylor along with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo. I thought each story was eerily good. Definitely not happily ever after stories, but each story is original and beautifully written. The language cannot be described as anything less than gorgeous! Not to mention, the illustrations are beautiful (Kudos to Jim).

I don't want to spoil this book for anyone, so I won't say much about it.

The first story, Goblin Fruit, is about a girl who just wants to be with someone and be loved. A goblin tempts her with his delicious fruit that if eaten, she will waste away to nothing.

The second story, Spicy Little Curses, is about the ambassador to Hell being convinced by a demon to curse a baby girl in exchange for saving the lives of some children that would have otherwise died. The girl is cursed with a voice so beautiful, but anyone who hears it will fall dead. How can she ever fall in love?

The third and final story, Hatchling, is about Mab and her daughter, Esme. Mab has been trying to protect Esme her whole life from the evils of her past life, which involved the Druj, an immortal race. However, Mab does not realize how much Esme is connected to the Druj. This is the longest story of the three, and it is just lovely. A little dark at times, though.

I would recommend this book to any mature reader because there are some dark issues in it. Definitely an amazing book.

Rating: 4/5

Once again...

Swords are for fighting,