This book is a little guilty pleasure for me. A fantastic start to the Diary of a Crush series.

Although it's been years since I first read of Edie and Dylan (almost a decade!) I still think back to this book - well, this series - and wonder about the characters and re-imagine the situations.

It's a slightly fluffy story, very teenagery and fun. And frustrating. If there is anything frustrating in this book then it's Edie and Dylan for the majority of this book. He treats her like crap and she lets him, so long as he kisses her again. But it's not as poisonous as it sounds, it actually works. They're both growing up and getting a grip on who they want to love.

Who is your art-boy Dylan? Pictures please!

I have to go and find my own boy now. I need a kiss. ( )

I liked the cover so i wanted to read this book, and the reviews were good enough.. or so i thought. i would give it 0 stars if i could. i didn't like the characters at all, and the story line was plain boring and silly. i wouldn't recomend this book. ( )

New town, new college, new people, Edie's feeling overwhelmed. What if nobody wants to be her friend? But then something happens that turns her life upside down: Edie spots Dylan. Messy-haired, pouty, frustratingly elusive Dylan. It's love at first sight!

Fast forward to the college trip to Paris and things are really hotting up. In between the shopping, the clubbing, the kissing and the making up, something happens between Edie and Dylan that changes both their lives for ever...But do toxic boys like Dylan ever play for keeps? From Amazon UK

Oh, there are no words to describe how much I loved this book! I finished this book yesterday, but I was on too high a buzz to actually form coherent sentences to write the review, so decided to wait until today, but I'm still struggling on how to talk about this book without just repeating "EEEE IT WAS SO GOOD!" in several different ways, and just general unintelligible gushing. But I will try.

I really like the way in which this book was written; there aren't any chapters, it's all diary entries. But these diary entries could be anything from half a page long to several pages long. It
really annoyed me at first, simply because sometimes there were too many breaks after not much being said, and it also left me thinking "just one more chapter" would be pretty hard to judge. But as the story goes on, the diary entries get longer, and become more of what I'd consider an acceptable chapter length, and I actually started to like it! I've read maybe one or two diary-like novels before, but this is the only one where I've actually enjoyed the fact that it was a diary.

Edie was a great character, but she did annoy me a few times. The girl is 16, she's now at college studying her A-levels, so no longer a school girl - yet she seems to have forgotten this. She talks about how "boy shapes" suffer with "boy disease", and I just kept wanting to shake her, and shout "You're not 12!" And a few times she had these angsty, mopey periods over Dylan which I just felt were more the behaviour of a younger teenager, especially when considering all her friends were 19 - surely you would try to act a little more maturer?

I managed to forgive her all that because of Dylan. Who could fail to be all angsty over the gorgeous Dylan? There was so much sexual tension in this novel, you could have cut it with a knife. He's a bit of a bad boy, but not in that he's mean or gets up to no good, just he simply can't make up his mind! He likes Edie, but not enough to to commit to her - yet he can't stay away from her, and always ends up cornering her for a kiss. Talk about mixed signals! The boy wanted to have his cake and eat it, and ohhh, I wanted to slap him so many times! But this is partially why I enjoyed this book so much - it was real. Things like this do happen; girls get angsty, guys can be infuriating, and even though I wanted to slap them both sometimes, when they were together and not arguing, it was just the most sweetest thing!

The other characters in the book were also pretty cool; Nat and Trent, Edie's gay friends, were awesome in that they were always there for her no matter what. They were just lovely! Shona I had trouble working out at first; she was elusive, then she was nice, then she wasn't, then she was. I always thought, until the French trip, that she was up to something. I didn't realise it was actually Mia who wasn't the one to trust. As Edie so nicely puts it, "Mia est une grande vache." (Mia is a big cow). There was one point when even the secondary characters were a little off with Edie, because they thought she went a little far in one argument with Dylan, but I have to say, I was cheering her on so much. Dylan need not have been such a pig at times.

Oh, I really loved this book! It's now official; Sarra Manning is one of my favourite authors. If you haven't read this book yet, you really need to! Now I just have to get my hands on a copy of Kiss and Make Up.

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog ( )

The story of Edie and Dylan portrays the sweetness of adolescent first love. Sarra Manning shows it through a jokey, but effective way and I think Edie's voice reflects lots of teenagers out there. Through the book Edie goes on an emotional adventure through her first year of College where she meets the gorgeous Dylan and falls for him instantly. But she finds out that first love is not all hugs and kisses when Dylan takes her through the right and wrongs of a relationship and while her friend Shona is also having a rocky relationship, she feels like her time at college will all be a living hell, with Dylan's Mood Swings and her sensitive heart. Basically in her time at college through this book, she falls in love, befriends a mean girl, fall out with the mean girl, get a new friend, cries a lot and listens to Belle and Sebastian. I think this book is perfect for girls who love Teen Romances and girls who like Angus, Thong and Full Frontal snogging or The Princess Diaries. The book made me laugh out loud and I highly recommend it! ( )

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

I really like reading books that are in diary form, and author Sarra Manning doesn't disappoint with the diary of Edie (short for Edith) Wheeler, a sixteen-year old college student living in Manchester, England. I will admit that it was sometimes difficult for me to follow along with this book, mostly due to some terms I wasn't familiar with and situations that are different from those in the United States. Once you realize, however, that A-levels in college appear to equal being a Freshman, and that sixteen isn't, in fact, too young to be attending college when college appears to be another word for high school, and that some social situations "across the pond" are very different than you're used to, you'll get into the rhythm of FRENCH KISS quite easily.

Edie has fallen in love at first sight with Dylan, a guy in her Photography class. The problem is that she isn't the only one. Her good friend, Shona, also seems to have a thing for him, and it's driving her crazy. Add to that the fact that Mia, a crazy-popular girl that Edie has been talking with has a thing going with Paul, Dylan's best friend, and it gets a little complicated. But that's not the end of it. Mia is using Edie to get Paul off her back so she can get with Dylan, Shona wants to be with Paul but thinks Edie likes him, and Dylan is kissing with Edie but having intimate conversations with Mia. Yes, it's truly a complicated situation.

As the class gears up to take a trip to Paris, things with Dylan seem to be alternately heating up and cooling off. They can't seem to keep their hands off of each other when they're alone, and yet around anyone else Dylan only treats her like a friend. Even though she's patched things up with Shona, Mia is still in the picture, and Edie is getting tired of it all.

Before these teens leave the most romantic city in the world, some things will have to come to a head. Ultimatums will be made, friendships will be either solidified or ruined, and Edie will learn once and for all if Dylan is the love of her life. FRENCH KISS is a fun, easy read that will have you rooting for this great couple, and hoping that Mia, with her dirty tricks, will be shown for what she really is by the end of the book. ( )