In this deliciously tempting collection of stories, Laini Taylor and illustrator Jim Di Bartolo, offer fragrant, forbidden fruit that begs to be tasted, relished and devoured.
The stories in Lips Touch are 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. 
In Goblin Fruit, Kizzy is the girl with a fiery spirit and dark, smoldering beauty who is always on the outside, looking in and longing for a normal life. Her aching need is a perfume that draws Hell’s goblins to crave her soul. When an unbelievably gorgeous new guy at school pursues only Kizzy, will her heart succumb to his temptations or will the age-old warnings of her Gypsy ancestors protect her from his spell?
In Spicy Little Curses Such as These, a beautiful English girl in Colonial India lives with the curse of a malevolent demon; if any whisper leaves her lips, any creature that hears the sound will die. She lives a life of quiet desperation until the fateful day when a young English officer finds her diary and pursues her, desperate for her love. Will she break her silence to utter the word “yes” to his plea for her hand? Will the demon’s “spicy little curse” ruin Anamique and her lover?
And finally in the artfully complex novella, Hatchling, Esme’s life changes suddenly just before her 14th birthday. One of her eyes mysteriously turns ice blue, propelling her mother, Mab, to take her and flee to the south of France. Esme and Mab are hunted by wolves and mysterious man who steals Esme into a dark other world of the immortal demon race, the Druj. The backstory of Mab’s imprisonment with the powerful Druj queen, the mystical history of the Druj themselves, and Esme’s role in uniting the shadowy stranger with his one true love are drawn in breathtaking detail and delicious prose, leaving no doubt in the power of love to conquer both time and the judgment of the gods.
Taylor’s lyrical, mesmerizing stories build in complexity and intensity with every page. She creates three distinctly rich fantasy realms and captures the breathless need and aching passion that comes with that first, powerful love of youth. Di Bartolo’s illustrations at the beginning each story provide both a preview of the magic that will unfold and a graphic backstory that is explained as each tale unfolds. The 4 color combination – black, white, grey and smoldery red – is enticing and compliments the tone and feel of the stories perfectly. Lips Touch is tempting fruit that must be tasted again and again, consequences be damned.
- Posted by Cori
1 Comment