Title: How to Convince a Boy to Kiss You (Aurora Skye #2)
Author: Tara Eglington
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: November 2013
Pages: 446
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis (from goodreads):
The course of true love never did run smooth. For a girl who shares her name with a princess (a.k.a Aurora from Sleeping Beauty) Aurora Skye’s life seem fathoms away from a fairytale. Sure, she’s landed Hayden Paris, Potential Prince extraordinaire. And she got her wish — one first kiss with all the knee-trembling, butterfly-inducing gloriousness she’d hoped for.
But Aurora’s learning that a kiss is just the beginning of a story.
Instead of being the truly transcendent, utterly epic follow up it should be, her second attempt at kissing has literally landed Hayden Paris in the emergency room. If that’s not mortifying enough, the whole school is now referring to her as ‘Lethal Lips’.
Meanwhile it’s all systems go for her best friend Cassie – she and Potential Prince Scott are totally loved up and can’t stop kissing. Jelena (Jefferson High’s answer to Helen of Troy) has moved on from the heinous betrayal by Bad Boy Alex West and has unleashed her plan to rule the world by running for School Captain. Problem is Alex is running too and Jelena’s pulling out all the stops to prevent him from stealing her rightful place as ruler of Jefferson High – including offering Aurora’s Find a Prince/Princess Program as one of her campaign initiatives.
How is Aurora going to prove her program is foolproof and help Jelena win the election when her matchmaking manoeuvres seem to be throwing all the wrong people together – including the NAD and the hippy-dippy Ms Deforest — and she can’t even convince Hayden to kiss her?

My Review:

Aurora Skye is back and she is finding out that even after you have found your prince charming plenty of things can still go wrong. The magic after her first kiss with nemesis-turned-true-love and boy next door, Hayden Paris, starts to fade after their first date ends with a trip to the emergency room. And Aurora has more to worry about than her own romance. Jelena is running for school captain and she has roped Aurora into launching her Find a Prince/Princess program and finding the perfect match for her classmates. Aurora’s New Age Dad has his own relationship revelations and her flighty mother seems to bring drama wherever she goes. Life has never been busier for the young matchmaker.

This series is adorable. With How To Convince A Boy To Keep Kissing You, Tara Eglington has delivered a lovely read about a teen girl with authentic problems. Okay – so you’re probably not going to find a school in Australia where school captains promise their BFF will find them a prince nor school camps organized (and all permission slips signed and returned) in a day. But Aurora faces issues which are common to many people. Her parents are moving on in their relationships but she’s stuck in the middle of their decisions. Aurora’s friends have their own things going on and despite it all, Aurora is there for them as best as she can. And there’s Hayden. Despite considering herself a love and relationship guru, Aurora is learning that being part of a couple is not quite what she expected.

I like Aurora. She’s not trying to save the world but she is trying to be the best person she can be. With Keats’ “Love is My Religion” as her personal motto, Aurora believes that there is love out there for everyone. She uses the resources at hand to help her friends and family find the person that makes them happy – and somehow manages to keep up to date with school politics too. Her budding romance with Hayden is very sweet however is more in the background of this novel than it was in the first. I missed seeing him around but their scenes together were lovely to read and I love them as a couple.

In this book we get to see more of Aurora’s friends and it was great getting to see how their friendship dynamic evolve as they are all getting older and wiser to the word. Jelena’s plans of total school domination were amusing (if not entirely believable all the time) and I enjoyed how the race for school captain played out. Cassie and Lindsay have nice supporting roles too and I enjoyed reading the new characters that popped up in this novel as well.

Overall, this is a fun book to read. If you’re looking for something that is cute, contemporary with romance as a focus – this series is definitely for you. Although be warned: Reading this book had me reading Keats and watching Bright Star!

Thanks to Harper Collins Australia for the review copy.

Purchase the novel from:

Amazon | Booktopia | Book Depository | BookWorld

Also by Tara Eglington:

How to Keep a Boy From Kissing You (click here for my review)