Paisley Hanover Kisses and Tells (a small rant + speedy review)

Okay. Before I can write anything about Paisley Hanover Kisses and Tells, I have to get this one thing out of my system.

The cover. Ugh. The cover. It torments me.

It torments me for a few reasons:

1) I like the book so much. The story. The voice. The characters. All fantastic. And I don’t like the cover. (Except for the paisley background. That I like).

2) Paisley is a redhead. Over and over and over in the story she is described as a redhead. On this cover? Not a redhead.

3) And also? While we’re on the subject of the lovely cover model? Does she look fifteen to you? No? Didn’t think so. She looks 25. Who is she supposed to be? 100% not-even-close-to-convincing as Paisley.

4) The original cover for the first book was Just Right. Perfect balance of quirky / artistic / out-of-the-ordinary. Exhibit A:

Red hair? Check. Adorable paisley-inspired font? Check. Just a little bit different? Check. And then this happened:

At least they sort of tried to give her red highlights. But still not good enough. Not at all. Zero uniqueness.

(I am done).

If you haven’t read the first book in this series (Paisley Hanover Acts Out) you are in for a treat. The first and the second are both treats, fun, light, and with just enough substance to make you feel that you are doing something worthy in reading them. They are thought-provoking in a subtle way. In the first, Paisley Hanover discovers just how uncool it is that so many kids in her school are so focused on being popular, when the popular kids are sort of jerky a lot of the time. She creates a secret alter ego (Miss UnPleasant) and works to expose the “Pops” for what they are. Plus some romance. Plus a lot of laughs. In the second book, Paisley and her crew of UnPop / Pop supporters, work to oust the sophomore class president, who took office in spite of an unfair election. (Plus some more romance. Plus some more laughs). Tuttle can really write humour. There are plenty of hilarious turns of phrase, and characters who are memorable and real. You will laugh out loud. You will remember high school and what was fun and what was miserable. You will wish you could go back and be a lot more like Paisley and her cool crew.

Ignore the cover. The story is so, so much better.

Paisley Hanover Kisses and Tells is published by Dial.

 

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