virgin lips--a defense against memory loss

Back in 2004, Jodi gave me Blackfor Christmas. As far as I can remember, that was the first Ted Dekker book I read. (I think I maybe started Blink before that, but I know I didn't finish it.) After that, I couldn't get my hands on Dekker books quickly enough. I enjoyed House, which he cowrote with Frank Peretti, but it seemed to be lacking something. So I was a little cautious of Kiss, cowritten with Erin Healy.

I began reading last night while Nate & Steph were watching the Super Bowl episode of The Office, so my mind wasn't completely on the book right away. After they left, though, I really got sucked in, and I finished it before going to bed (albeit much later than usual!).

Kiss is the story of Shauna McAllister. Her father is running for president when she and her brother are in a terrible accident, and she spends six weeks in a coma. When she wakes up, she can't remember the last six months of her life. As she tries to figure out what is going on, she discovers that she can steal memories from others by--you guessed it--kissing them. (Sometimes, just a touch will work, too . . . but Shauna most often goes for the kiss.)

I don't want to give too much away here, but I will say that I had the "bad guys" pegged from the beginning. Also, I expected it to be much more of a romance, considering the title and the back cover, which proclaims it's "packed with romance." Not hardly! Publisher's Weekly states that the book also "shines light into black-market child trafficking"--well, it does list a couple of human trafficking websites, and one of the characters had a child sold on the black market, but it's hardly the focus of the book. When things finally get wrapped up and the reason for Shauna's amnesia --which does involve human trafficking--comes to light, it feels rushed. For the first two thirds of the book, the reader learns things as Shauna does, but at the end, the reader is left in the dark--perhaps to build suspense leading up to the climax? I felt cheated, and in the deluge of information, the end lacks the punch I'm sure the authors intended.

This was a quick (3 hour) and enjoyable read, but I still prefer Dekker's solo works, especially the Circle trilogy (or quartet?--there's a Green scheduled for release in September) and Skin.