A Million Kisses in your Lifetime - the story of a birdie and a badboy - by Monica Murphy

 

You know how social media is both a boon and a bane? On the one hand, it helps you research home remedies for a cold but on the other hand, Google also tries its hardest to convince you that you might be suffering from some rare terminal disease. Do you get the picture? Bookstagram is just that. While on the one hand, you discover the most underrated books which are the magic gateway to perfect romance, puzzle fit better halves, toe-curling smut, gut-wrenching situations, and spine-straightening plots, at the same time it’s also the Ultimate Spoiler Pit.

So, when I read a comment about how the male main character is always behaving like some kind of mafia don when in actuality, he is just another high schooler - granted, his family owns the school which gives him a certain degree of…. power? Importance? He is still treated quite normally. At least normally as far as his situation goes. Either way, the comment made me wary and extra alert of Crew’s character. I dissected each and every one of his actions when I read him from Wren’s POV.

Wanna know what I think of our MMC? Keep reading, you story gobbling folks!

 

First off, the genres in this standalone book are high school romance, young adult fiction, and a true coming-of-age story. The tropes are opposites attract, rivals to lovers and bad boy x good girl romance. As far as age rating goes this one is definitely 18+ babes!

 

The male lead, Crew Lancaster is rich. Rich as in millionaire rich. His family literally owns the school he attends along with the other hundreds of teens from various other rich families. That is what Lancaster Prep School is. A school for the rich. Or rather, a school for snobs. And I’d like to add that as far I am concerned everyone introduced in this story was a snob to a certain degree. *raises hand in surrender*

The female lead is Wren Beaumont. She is the mollycoddled, overprotected only daughter of a rich art-collecting couple. She is studious, quiet, well-behaved, innocent, and a teacher’s pet. But she is also a bit arrogant, prim, definitely preachy, naïve, prejudiced, and judgemental. Oh, and she is also the only virgin in her entire school. Felt I should mention that since it’s kind of integral to the story and all. Ahem, I mean.

One thing I love above all about this novel is that out of the books I have read so far, this is the first that captures what it feels like to have s3x as an absolute virgin. One who’s only recently become aware of the hormonal turbulence, the needs and wants and feels. The one who’s only recently been introduced to a topic that not everyone would willingly tell you about. The one who thinks of s3x as something weird or adult-ish. That’s Wren and that is why I said in the beginning that this is a true coming-of-age story. She is truly discovering not just s3x but herself too. Wren discovers herself, her wants, desires, dreams, and opinions. She learns to be her own person, whereas, in the beginning, she was just this colourless person whose only defining characteristic was her virginity. But toward the end, she learns to stand up to everyone who’s ever written her off as pitiful or helpless, or dumb. And that includes her own father.

Oh yeah, heads up guys, the Dad is just about A-class Disgusting.

Crew has the best character growth which is probably the reason why I love him and completely disagree with the Bookstagram comment. As I mentioned earlier, I read his actions and thoughts with extra scrutiny so it’s with confidence I say that no, unlike Wren whose entire personality revolves around her virginity (bruh!), Crew’s does not revolve around his mafia don antics. If I had to pick, he is mostly focused on helping Wren. He is obsessed with her at first, sexually maybe but later on truly does fall headlong in love with her. It’s one of those books where it is something like ‘He fell first, and he fell hard’. Crew at the end of the book contrasts with the Crew in the beginning only in terms of how whipped he is for Wren and how intense his feelings for her are.

The side characters are mostly their families and friends. Not a single word about either Crew’s or Wren’s friends. I hate Wren’s dad too (with reason *huff*). And although I had the same thoughts about Wren’s mom, she turned out to be a different case. Crew’s parents are described by Crew himself as uncaring and he’s absolutely right about that. Crew being the youngest of all his siblings, is the Baby of the family, and although he doesn’t get away with everything, for the most part, his brothers cover up and protect and help him and his Dad has significantly less interest in him. His mom just….exists. Uh. His brothers are a whole vibe though. There’s also his eldest brother’s girlfriend who’s part of the gang and they have so much fun teasing and prodding and provoking him about Wren. Additionally, his brothers help him to surprise Wren on various occasions. They’re also pretty cool and welcoming to her. Especially Alyssa, girlfriend of Grant, eldest Lancaster is enthusiastic about her, maybe because she found a kindred spirit in Wren. According to Crew, she has it hard because she is the lover of the heir of the family but she also seems to take all the jibes and attacks of his parents in her stride and march forward. Crew also has a world of respect for her because she’s the only one who speaks the way she does to Grant. His other brother, Finn is not romantic but he was definitely a comic character for the most part. There's also Charlotte, the unintroduced married-off sister of Crew who he loves the most out of all his siblings. She’s got a book of her own I believe.

 

A small issue that I do have with Crew however is how he dealt with one of his professors who had an unhealthy obsession with young girls – minors to be exact. From Crew’s POV, it is apparent that the issue has been going on for quite some time yet he chooses to act on it, only and only when the prof came for his girl. Like dude, what about the god knows how many girls before her who went through the same thing? He knew and he chose not to report it. So that’s the only issue I have with Crew Lancaster. Same with how he dealt with another minor character – Larsen (There’s Rhys Larsen and then there’s the piece of trash *huff*).

 

Wren Beaumont was a fresh change from the usual virgins in books who are new to s3x but somehow seem to know everything about it and how to go about it. Like hello? I thought you were a virgin ma'am? But Wren is that virgin who has zero clue as to what she is supposed to do in bed. Which is why, I suppose, it strikes the reader extra sickly sweet, how patient Crew is with Wren. Wren at the start is a stark contrast when compared to Wren at the end. She has confidence in herself which she completely lacked due to her father’s overprotective stance in her life. Her trust in her own decisions also gets boosted the more time she spends with Crew. In fact the more time she spends with Crew the more she seemed to grow as her own person. With him, encouraged by him, she made choices for herself, a first in her life that had always been controlled by her father.

A very satisfactory part of the novel for readers who very early on pick up the bad vibes emitted by Mr Beaumont, Wren’s father, is when Wren finally sees her father for what he really is. How low he has bent. How much of a hypocrite he is. My my, the vindictive satisfaction I felt here!

Even Crew’s Don’t Care Dad was way better than him. He also has a fitting end. Compared to him, Crew’s mother-in-law is much more impressionable. Probably because like Crew states both of their worlds revolve around Wren and Wren alone.

All in all, it was definitely a good read. 10/10 for the plot although the trope was the overly used good girl falls for the bad boy. But even if it is quite the overused one, the author did a fantabulous job at making the story feel most original. It was most definitely an immersive read, capturing the reader completely and hypnotizing them with the tantalizing visuals and scenes and the mesmerizing romance. Their cute moments were as cute as Crew’s nickname for Wren.

Safe to say my copy of the book looks like a centipede’s legs with all the tape flags sticking out. It’s literally a field of annotations. But ugh, can you blame me? Crew Lancaster was so hell-bent on freeing his little Birdy from the golden cage her father had put her in.

One thing that makes me laugh, however, is that when I looked at the cover for the first time, I remember thinking, Wow, looks dark! Definitely a dark romance. Except nope. LOL. Compared to the usual dark romances we get, this is actually quite a fluffy one with lovers' trials that were easily overcome by the main characters. Most of the misunderstandings were solved quickly and directly and the only slight hint at OW (Other Woman) and cheating turned out to be a lie.

So if you are in the mood for a not-too-fluffy-but-still-fluffy story where a bad boy falls for a good girl, you know you can pick A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime by Monica Murphy and lose yourself in there.

 

(TMI - After you read this book, you'll never be able to look at a lollipop the same way)