Book Review: It Started With A Kiss by Miranda Dickinson

As the singer in a wedding band, Romily Parker has seen her fair share of happy endings, even though her own love life isn't quite as simple.

On the last Saturday before Christmas, (shortly after disastrously declaring her love for best friend Charlie), Romily has a brief encounter with a handsome stranger whose heart-stopping kiss changes everything.

Determined to find him again, Romily embarks on a yearlong quest, helped (and sometimes hindered) by enthusiastic Uncle Dudley, cake-making Auntie Mags and flamboyant Wren. Will she find the man of her dreams? Or could true love be closer than she thinks?

Somehow, I have managed to not yet read a Miranda Dickinson novel, despite her having released 2 gorgeous books over the past few years. Now I've started my own site, I decided it was time to finally read one of Miranda's books and eagerly decided to read her new book, It Started With A Kiss. Firstly, I have to comment on the cover - gorgeous much?! The pink and wintery scene work perfectly together, and it's definitely one of my favourite book covers of the year. I've read such positive things about Miranda's earlier books that I had a feeling I was going to like this one, but I didn't just like it... I loved it and here's why!

This book follows the character of Romily Parker on her quest to find her "phantom kisser" who unexpectedly kissed her in a local Christmas market. Romily has no idea who the man is, but after a disastrous heart-to-heart with her best friend Charlie, she decides she needs to do something positive with her life and sets about looking for PK (phantom kisser!).Romily is a lovely character, if a little bit barmy with her obsession with PK at first. However, I found her really warm and likeable, and despite the trouble she's having with best friend Charlie over her surprise confession, she's funny and a great lead character for the book. Her relationship with best friend Wren was hilarious, and it was a lovely friendshup to read about. Wren was a source of a lot of the comedy within the book, and she was just great for some funny one liners!

The other characters in the book were mainly made up of the band members - Charlie, Romily's best friend, Tom, Jack and manager D'wayne. They are all really likeable male characters, quite unusual in chick lit I must say, and they all play their part in the story. I really liked that Romily's band were really close, always working hard for the people paying them to perform and actually enjoying themselves in the process. In fact, the weddings and other events that The Pinstripes played at were just as important as the other thread of the story really, because they formed so much of the book, and it was important for Romily to go through various events with her bandmates to keep up her momentum for operation find PK.

I found Dickinson's writing was really easy to read, and a pleasure as well. She writes very descriptively about the locations for the events that take place throughout the book, and some of the weddings she wrote about sounded beautiful, they were written so well you can easily imagine them in your mind. I especially loved a few scenes set in London, Dickinson had really hit the nail on the head with her writing here and I thought it was wonderfully done. Something else I really do have to mention was the fantastic relationship Romily has with her aunt and uncle. Her Uncle Dudley in particular was a fab character, full of life and enthusiasm for Romily's project, and it was great to see such family support, especially as we don't actually meet Romily's own parents in the book apart from one brief phonecall! The relationship between the three was lovely to read, and I really looked forward to the scenes when Romily turned up on their houseboat!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it's certainly made me want to go and read Miranda Dickinson's previous 2 releases as well now, especially now I know what I've been missing! I'm sure you'll be attracted to this book because of its beautiful cover, but let me assure, what's inside is magical too. It's a well written, well constructed tale of love and searching for something that you believe in, no matter what anyone else says or thinks. I did think Romily was quite mad in what she did but I found it great that she was willing to give it a whole year to find PK, if she would ever find him at all of course. I liked the inclusion of Romily's blog posts, it is certainly a modern novel that reflects current times in that respect. If you love romantic novels with a bit of a twist, then It Started With A Kiss is certainly the book for you!

Rating: 5/5

You can buy It Started With A Kiss on Amazon in both paperback and on eBook/Kindle (links go to the products on Amazon).