The Kiss Test by Shannon McKelden

Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: 10/11/10
How I got this book: NetGalley

Margo Gentry's life is perfect. She loves her job as a DJ for Manhattan's only country music station, and she has a great boyfriend who accepts her need to avoid marriage and tolerates her Elvis obsession-even the velvet Elvis painting in their bedroom.

But then it all falls apart. The radio station changes formats and fires all the DJs. Margo's boyfriend decides he wants kids and a house in the suburbs and kicks her to the curb. And to top it all off, her Mom is getting married-for the 11th time! -and expects Margo to be there as maid of honor.

With no job and no place to live, Margo has to bunk on the couch of her best friend, Chris, whose revolving bedroom door has played host to half the women in New York-at least, the ones who pass his "kiss test." Worse, he's insisting she attend her mother's wedding, and he's personally driving her cross-country to ensure she shows up.

Forget about surviving the road trip-can their friendship survive The Kiss Test?
*blurb from Goodreads*

So I picked up this book because the blurb sounded amazing, and I am a super sucker for stories of friends who realize they are in love and meant to be together. I really wish that The Kiss Test would have measured up for me, unfortunately, it was not what I was expecting.

Margo is an Elvis-obsessed morning radio DJ who life seems perfect, but quickly falls apart. She loses her job, her boyfriend, her apartment, and her sanity all within a few days. To make up for the crap fest, she sets out on an Elvis extravaganza trip, starting in NY and ending in LA where she will be forced to attend the newest nuptials ceremony of her mother (11th, Yikes!). When an unfortunate accident occurs, her best friend Chris takes it upon himself to make sure she has the trip of her life.

They travel across the country, visiting every single Elvis shrine on the way, and their friendship becomes so much more along the way. But amongst all the insanity, will Margo realize that Chris is meant to be more than her best friends, before it’s too late?

I was definitely expecting a lot more romance than this book had to offer. It felt to me that the romance just wasn’t there, at least not until the very end. All the great feel good in my heart type feelings didn’t set in until the last ten to fifteen pages or so, and I wish there would have been more throughout.

Margo, while a constantly quirky character, she was also somewhat annoying to me. She seemed to have a very “woe is me” attitude towards a lot of things, and absolutely refused to deal with many of the issues that seemed to hold her back from truly living her life. She was constantly running from everything, almost to the point of ridiculousness. I wanted to shake some sense into her, more times than not.

Chris, while a little more likable, had some major issues that were hard for me to reason through. For someone who claimed to have been in love with his best friend forever, he sure had a weird way of showing it, sleeping and kissing around constantly. In my mind, that just isn’t normal behavior. He does however redeem himself by providing chuckles throughout the book, constantly poking fun at Elvis and Margo’s obsession.

Speaking of an Elvis obsession, it was a bit much for me. If I don’t read, hear, or listen to anything Elvis for awhile, I will totally be a-ok with that! The constant Elvis trivia, and homage, and everything else was just a bit overdone for my tastes. Now all you die-hard Elvis fans out there, this is a worthy read!

Thankfully, the end did somewhat redeem itself. The story did have a nice little HEA, and the emotions at the end of the story were beautifully done. Like I said, I just wish it would have been done throughout the entire story, instead of just crammed together in the last chapter.

All in all, I give The Kiss Test 2 out of 5 cross country road trips!