Book Review: Kiss the Girl
Sha la la la la la my oh my.
Ok sorry I couldn’t resist. But really, what other sentence so neatly sums up Zoraida Cordova’s Kiss the Girl, the third book in the Meant To Be series, which retells Disney’s fairy tales in a contemporary setting. As the title suggests, Kiss the Girl takes on a certain little mermaid who wants to be part of another world, and Cordova really takes the source material and molds it in to a story that is sweet, sexy, swoony and powerful all in one.
The story follows Ariel del Mar, the youngest of seven sisters who have spent their whole lives as Siren Seven, who are something like a cross between the Spice Girls and the Olsen Twins back in their heyday. Each has a distinct marketable personality, and the girls have the kind of staggering level of worldwide fame that means they’ve seen it all, done it all, and appear on more merchandise that they can possibly hope to keep track of.
Well, maybe it’s more accurate to say they’ve almost seen and done it all. As part of Atlantica Records, and under the authority of their dad-ager Teo del Mar, the seven of them haven’t had much of a chance to be where the other people are. When their plans for a promised hiatus are suddenly thrown up in the air, the sisters are thrown for a loop.
On the other side of things is Eric Reyes, front man for an up and coming band called Star Crossed. They’re about to embark on their first national tour, with the hopes of signing a deal that will launch their careers in a big way. The night before they leave, Eric meets Ariel in disguise and is so taken with her, he invites her to join the tour as their merch girl. Not being much of a Siren Seven fan, he has no idea who the cute new girl he just met is.
While the music-centric premise is obviously very Little Mermaid, and the Easter eggs will make any fan smile - especially when the less obvious ones click - the story feels like a worthy new entry into the canon rather than a retelling played straight. Rather than events hoping over 1:1 from the movie, Cordova puts a unique spin on them, making this world her own while keeping the spirit of The Little Mermaid fully intact. And of course, there were a few genuine surprises in there that kept the story feeling fresh. Ariel’s sisters, too, get their due (though their baby sister obviously remains the focus), each of them given a distinct characterization outside of the general grouping they’ve been stuck in in the popular imagination.
Ariel and Eric’s romance was simply the most delightful of slow burns, with the friendship really having time to develop before progressing — and probably helped by the fact that Ariel can actually speak the entire time. They help each other learn and grow, and the moments between them alternate from sweet to swoony and everything in between.
Cordova says in the afterword that The Little Mermaid was her favorite movie as a child, and that she has loved it since she first saw it, and that love really shines through. This book is a loving tribute, and a fresh take all in one, the kind of clever story born from true love.
Kiss the Girl is available August 1, 2023. Special thank you to Disney Books for the advance copy for review purposes.
