I kissed a girl

Thank you to Netgalley and SourceBooks Casanova for my advanced copy of I Kissed a Girl by Jennet Alexander.

The premise of the book really appealed to me, the idea of learning about your true self and breaking free of the shackles of expectation when it comes to former beauty queen turned B-movie actress Lilah Silver. Noa has lived as herself for sometime and has taken her own risks by not pursuing education in favour of learning hands on instead as a make up artist/special effects creator... There's also the fact that both main characters are Jewish and I liked the way their religion comes into play in their everyday life.

Lilah is a character who comes to life from within the pages of the book, she feels very real and relatable as she navigates her persona versus her reality. She knows she's bisexual but hasn't truly experienced what that means and is aware that appearance is everything within the movie industry even if its battling unrealistically designed dinosaurs!

Noa, however reminds me too much of women I have been initially attracted too myself. She comes across at first as very non-judgemental and accepting of Lilah but that swiftly disappears as Noa tries to justify why she shouldn't pursue a relationship with Lilah and her reasoning is all very superficial and turns her from this appealing, fun and non-judgemental to someone who is unworthy of Lilah's very sweet and kind nature.

There doesn't feel to be any real chemistry between the two that draws you in. Noa makes snap decisions and objectives Lilah and I feel doesn't truly acknowledge that being open about her sexuality isn't easy for Lilah as it's new to her. I wanted to see a real, deep connection between the two - something definitive that makes you believe that they're destined for true happiness and it's not there.

There is a sub-plot that focuses heavily on Lilah and is both historic as well as present and it's that plot within the book that held my attention and was one that was very well done with excellent characters coming out from the shadows and secondary characters who give it depth at first. This too however kind of fizzled out into something farcical which at times had me rolling my eyes in despair.

I wanted something that held my focus from beginning to end but this wasn't it. Lilah was the saving grace of the book, which felt like it dragged on and could have easily been shorter than it was, some of the secondary characters add nothing to either plot in the story and my hopes for what could have been a brilliant LGBTQ represented book were lost early on.

It's HEA, but I cannot fathom why as Noa and Lilah just don't make sense in the end. I think in reality they would have been a brief flirtation before going on with their own lives...