It Felt Like a Kiss by Sarra Manning

About the book

It Felt Like A Kiss is a contemporary novel by Sarra Manning. The book was published by Corgi on 13^th February and it is 576 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

Plot Synopsis

Ellie Cohen has a pretty good life. She works in a lovely Mayfair art gallery, has great mates and a fantastic family. Problem is, she has a tendency to fall for the totally wrong guy. She believes she can fix their problems but her friends see them for what they really are – losers!

When a vengeful ex sells Ellie’s biggest secret to the press, her whole world turns upside down. Her life falls to pieces around her and she has no idea how to make things better again. David Gold, lawyer, is there to sort it all out for her… but only because he works for her secret, famous father. David immediately thinks that Ellie is a gold-digger, wanting a piece of her father’s fame but she thinks he’s a shark in a nice suit.

With her life in a mess, surely falling in love again is the last thing she Ellie needs.

What I thought

While a fan of Sarra Manning’s young adult novels but this is the first of her adult novels that I have read.

Manning begins by letting the reader really get to know protagonist Ellie. We learn that she is a bit of a party girl, falls for the wrong guys that her flatmates hate but she also has a family that she’s really close to. Immediately, I could imagine the kind of woman that Ellie was and I could picture her doing certain things like going for a night out. Manning has a great way of writing her characters and there is always so much development written into the story as well.

Unfortunately for Ellie, she has picked the wrong man… again and after a break-up, he steals evidence from Ellie and sells her story to the press. Ellie actually has a pretty famous father but she has never spoken to him. While she knows who he is, she has never wanted anything much to do with him. So, when the press come knocking on her door, everyone instantly believes her to be a gold-digger, including her dad’s lawyer. As mean as it may sound, I did enjoy watching Ellie struggle with what was happening around her. Not because I’m cold-hearted, but it really showed how strong she could be at times.

While the majority of the plot was enjoyable, the book does have a long, drawn out beginning. There were a few times where I wanted to give up because I was quickly losing interest. It takes roughly a third of the book before all of the exciting things happen. While I liked getting to know Ellie and her life, I think this aspect of the book could have been shortened a little so that the plot could move on. However, once Ellie and David are forced to spend more time together, I decided that it was worth carrying on to see what happens.

Ellie and David are completely different people and that’s why they were so great together. David is so straight-laced and concentrates only on his job while Ellie knows how to get the most out of working and having a social life. I really enjoyed seeing these two characters together and seeing how they challenged each other. Due to something that happens quite early on in the book, there is a great amount of chemistry between them which was a huge bonus.

What was also nice about this book was that it wasn’t just about the romance. There is a solid, entertaining plot running throughout the book and the romance aspect was really just a nice bonus. Compared with contemporary young adult books, where romance normally takes the forefront, it was nice to have quite a few things going and not to be bombarded with multiple kissing scenes.

Even though it took me a few goes to get into this book, I really did enjoy it in the end.