Starred Review Look beyond the title and cover art: Taylor's three novellas form a triptych of beautiful fantasy writing reminiscent of Charles de Lint and Neil Gaiman. Kisses are the unifying theme, with each story offering a different sort of locking lips, from giddy seduction to harsh power play. In "Goblin Fruit," misfit Kizzy meets a fascinating new student, an unbelievably gorgeous young man who ignores the popular girls to seek her out. Taylor tantalizingly foreshadows the ambiguous ending, teasing and enticing the reader much as Jack Husk entices Kizzy. "Spicy Little Curses Such as These" is set in India and offers intriguing and culturally respectful glimpses of both Indian religion and British colonialism. "Hatchling" reveals a fully realized world of sometimes malevolent immortals who steal and raise human babies as their pets. Present-day teen sensibilities blend with artful allusions to mythology and magic, pulling the reader into rich fantasy realms. The cover's close-up of a lovely woman's red lips, with red-orange flames licking at the superimposed title, lacks the powerful, delicately structured, and subtle poetry of Taylor's stories. But Di Bartolo, Taylor's husband, provides skillfully detailed pen-and-ink illustrations that are a fine match for the lyrical, romantic text.

Taylor offers a powerful trio of tales, each founded upon the consequences of a kiss. She explores the potentially awkward conceit in three dramatically different fantasies, each featuring a young female protagonist out of place in the world she inhabits: contemporary Kizzy, who so yearns to be a normal, popular teenager that she forgets the rules of her Old Country upbringing and is seduced by a goblin in disguise; Anamique, living in British colonial India, silenced forever due to a spell cast upon her at birth; and Esmé, who at 14 discovers she is host to another—nonhuman—being. The stories build in complexity and intensity, culminating in the breathtaking “Hatchling,” which opens with a spectacularly gripping prologue (“Esmé swayed on her feet. These weren't her memories. This wasn't her eye”). Each is, in vividly distinctive fashion, a mesmerizing love story that comes to a satisfying but never predictable conclusion. Di Bartolo's illustrations provide tantalizing visual preludes to each tale, which are revealed as the stories unfold. Even nonfantasy lovers will find themselves absorbed by Taylor's masterful, elegant work. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

Kisses link these three fairy-tale-cum-horror stories, all crafted with unusual imaginative force. Female "ripeness" for seduction is a prominent theme; sexuality is a dark, dangerous urge, taking girls to the edges of terror. The shapely young women of Di Bartolo's illustrations display comics' conventions of feminine beauty, set in a realm of a sinister, shadowy atmosphere all red and gray.

In this illustrated collection of two short stories and one novella, which borrow elements of folklore, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, a life-altering kiss steers the lives of three teenage girls. Embarrassed by her Old World parents, high-school junior Kizzy knows all the tricks the goblins use to steal girls' souls. But can she resist the charm of handsome new student Jack Husk when she's never been kissed? During the British Empire in India, Anamique, cursed into silence by the Ambassador to Hell, yearns for love—but at what cost? The delectable language of these stories cannot save the sluggish pacing of the final novella, in which Esme wakes to find that one of her dark eyes has turned blue. As she discovers the cause, she also learns her connection to her mother's tortuous past and the forest demons called the Druj. In the midst of these goblins, fiery gods and demons, Taylor reminds readers what makes them human. Holly Black and Melissa Marr fans will find this collection ripe for the tasting. Di Bartolo's illustrations not seen. (author's note) (Supernatural short stories. 13 & up)

Gr 9 Up-Drawing inspiration from Christina Rossetti's "The Goblin Market," the era of the British Raj, and mythology associated with Zarathustra, Taylor has created three novellas in which a kiss precipitates major life-altering, but not necessarily happy, events for the story's heroine. The lurid cover, featuring a young woman whose full red lips may have just a tiny hint of blood at their corners, is sure to attract teens who can't get enough stories featuring vampires or other supernatural creatures. "Goblin Fruit" shares with Rossetti's poem the theme of a young girl saving her sister from a goblin's alluring unseasonal fruit. "Spicy Little Curses Such as These" tells of an English widow in Jaipur whose bargain with the devil at the time of her young husband's death required her to lay a curse of silence on an English baby. When the child grows up, she falls in love with a soldier who has survived the horrors of World War I and is determined not to lose his newfound love to her belief in folk superstition. "Hatchling" tells of the involvement of Esme's mother, Mab, with the shape-changing Druj. Mab, who was kept by their queen as a personal pet until she reached childbearing age, believes she has managed to protect her daughter from the same fate until Esme wakes on the morning of her 14th birthday to the howling of wolves in London. This book will find an audience with fans of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series and of graphic novels. Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA

Three kisses. Three storiesùentangled with the old things of the earth. In Goblin Fruit, outsider Kizzy is perfect prey; her yearning for beauty leaves ôa scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood.ö To ensnare her, the goblins offer everything she wants in the shape of one beautiful boyùand one delicious kiss. In Spicy Little Curses, a demon curses Anamique with a voice transcendent enough to kill anyone who hears it . . . so she remains mute until love stirs her doubts and tempts her to break her silence. In Hatchling, brown-eyed Esme wakes with one blue eye and memories of a life she never livedùand a kiss she never gave. Soon she plunges into a nightmare adventure whose roots stretch back thousands of years through the existence of the cruel and soulless Druj, immortal shape-shifters greedy for the human warmth they can never truly possess. Or can they? In sensuous, entwining prose, Taylor weaves elements of English, Indian, and Zoroastrian mythology into tales to entrap even the most cautious of readers. Although the themes are familiarùthe longing of demons for life, lust, fecundityùTaylorÆs lyrical phrases sing them into compelling new shapes, flavors, colors, and scents. Her characters ache with ancient hungers that consume their common sense, keeping them and the reader always on edge. Di BartoloÆs haunting illustrations, depicting the prequels to each tale, contribute to the dark, dream-twisted atmosphere. Recommend this National Book Award finalist to fans of Margo Lanagan and Robin McKinley.ùRebecca C. Moore. Lips Touch: Three Times is an absolutely wonderful book that is both beautiful and eloquent. I truly enjoyed it. It manages to convey the emotions of a teen without overplaying it or making a drama out of nothing, and also features beautiful pictures without seeming like a picture book. The world could use more books like this one! 5Q 4PùAlisa Billig, Teen Reviewer.