a thousand boy kisses by tillie cole

- what to say about this book... -

it begins when a norwegian immigrant named rune kristiansen moves into small town rural georgia at the age 5 and ends up becoming neighbors with the girl nextdoor, poppy litchfield. they become fast friends.

at age 8, poppy's grandma dies and leaves her a creepy jar full of 1000 blank paper hearts so that she can, "fill them up with boy-kisses." this is the legacy gran-gran wanted to leave behind, yes.

rune promises poppy he'll be the one to give her all 1000 of these kisses, but that promise falls apart (at age 15) when his father has to move his family back to oslo for 2 years, fixing a tiny inconsequential glitch in his company's very delicate system.

during those two years, poppy goes no-contact and rune's understandably upset about it. at age 17, he comes back to nowhere, georgia and decides to make it poppy's problem.

- how i came across this book -

i was talking to someone about favorite book genres, and they said they preferred more tragic romances and horror/thrillers. i asked them to give me an example of a tragic romance. here we are.

i personally like tragic romances when done in a way that doesn't feel like it's tragic for the sake of being sad. when i saw this book at target or walmart (i forget), i went into it completely blind, thinking i might like it. the greatest thing about it is that now i have an excuse to over-pinkify this review ♥

- who would i recommend this to -

people who cry to taylor swift songs. people who have an attachment to british pop bands (specifically one direction and little mix). people who are looking for something small town. people who like to read teeny-bopper romances about childhood friends turned lovers turned enemies turned lovers again. people with a really big imagination. if you want the implication of angst without any actual high-stakes conflict. people who want an insular romance that only focuses on two people and two people only and no one else. my worst enemy.