Diary of a Crush: Kiss and Make Up by Sarra Manning

About the book

Diary of a Crush: Kiss and Make Up is the second book in the Diary of a Crush series by Sarra Manning. Although originally published in J17 magazine, Atom have repackaged the series as three books. This one was published on 30^th May and the book is 288 pages long.

Plot Synopsis

Edie finally got the boy of her crushes but things are far from perfect. Her and Dylan aren’t quite the couple she imagined them to be and a lot of their time is either spent snogging, fighting or ignoring each other. When it comes time to get over the guy she has liked for so long, Edie doesn’t do so well but new boy Carter is there to help her try. When the whole gang head off to a music festival, Edie knows it could turn out badly. Stuck in a field with her ex, his new girlfriend and a guy she is only kind of into could never work out well… could it?

What I thought

Sarra Manning is one of my favourite authors and I have wanted to read the Diary of a Crush series for so long now. After finishing the first book, I couldn’t wait to order the second and when it arrived, I started reading straight away.

At the beginning of the book Edie has pretty much everything she wanted in the first book. She and Dylan are now an official couple and she should be the happiest girl in the world but it isn’t quite like that. Dylan doesn’t open up to her like she wants him to and they spend most of the time kissing and nothing else. Their relationship is far from perfect and Edie wants more… but Dylan isn’t prepared to give her that. When the two characters disagree on what should happen, they end up breaking up. The couple share friends and that makes things incredibly awkward for all concerned.

I absolutely loved Edie in the first book and I still loved her in this instalment. Since the beginning of the series she has grown up a lot and become more mature in quite a lot of aspects of her life. She knows what she wants and fights for it which was nice to see. Throughout her diary entries, her quirky personality shines through and she made me laugh quite a lot. What I like about this character the most though is that she knows she makes mistakes and for the most part, she tries to fix that. Character development in this book is extremely strong for not just Edie, but other characters too which was really nice to see.

Even though Edie and Dylan break up quite early on in the book, the chemistry between the two characters is there throughout. These two have been through quite a lot and neither can stop thinking about the other, even if there are new girlfriends and boyfriends along the way. While both Edie and Dylan try to figure out their feelings for each other and why they can’t seem to stay apart even when broken up, there are new (and pretty evil) characters that are introduced. Edie gets a new love interest called Carter who was nearly as mysterious as Dylan, and Dylan gets Veronique who is Carter’s sister. There are plenty of twists in regards to relationships and I really enjoyed this aspect of the book.

Sarra Manning manages to put a great romance story together with a really fun plot. The majority of this book is spent over the course of the summer so there is none of the going to college etc that there was in the previous book. I really liked the summer setting because it allowed Edie to have a lot more fun, make new friends in a new job and for the whole gang to head out on some adventures. It was really great to see such loved characters in different settings because this created a whole new range of problems for them to tackle which wouldn’t have been possible if this book had been mainly set in college again.

Edie and Dylan continue to be a favourite couple of mine in young adult books. Sarra Manning puts in equal amounts of teen angst, relationship problems and a fantastic chemistry between the main characters. Things have been far from plain sailing for Edie and Dylan so far and I can’t wait to see what is in store next for them both.