Never Been Kissed: A Novel

Teens and Technology equals trouble!

About the Book: Elise will be starting her junior year of high school in a few weeks, and she is not looking forward to it. Her single mom has taken a new job and she had to move to another town - so she is starting at a new school. The only person she knows is a somewhat geeky freshman, Stacie, that lives in the same apartment building as her.

Going to stay at Grandma's, in her old town, the week before school starts proves somewhat fortuitous. She meets Asher Gordon through an old friend who is dating his cousin. Asher is also a student at Elise's new school. While it is made clear that he has a girlfriend, Elise is just hopeful that he will say hello to her if they run into each other.

Well, Asher does more than that - he befriends Elise on that first day and introduces her to his "A-list" friends - including his girlfriend Brianna. While Elise is avoiding Stacie after school, she runs into Asher who offers her a ride home. They stop off for coffee and Elise thinks her first day couldn't have gone any better. However, the next day at school she gets the big freeze from her new friends. She was seen having coffee with Asher and immediately everyone thinks she is after him. So much for her great first day.

Elise soon gets an email from Asher. He wants her to play that they do not get along so that he can break up with Brianna. He just doesn't want Brianna to blame her and give her a hard time all year. Elise is pretty excited and agrees to play along. As their relationship progresses through email, she become somewhat confused about his behavior towards her at school. While he tells her in email to just play along a little while longer, sometimes he acts at school like he wants to be friends.

Before Elise knows what hit her, she is arrested for something she didn't do and the whole school is laughing at her. Even her mom thinks she is guilty. During her darkest hour, she realizes that the only one she is going to be able to count on to get her through is God, and starts to try to figure out who set her up.

My thoughts: Great book for teens and tweens about the dangers of the internet and cyber bullying - among other things. I don't want to tell you the big twist, but it made me sit down and talk with my teens. I don't think that I have read a Melody Carlson book that didn't have some lesson in it that put things in perspective for teens without preaching at them. Highly recommend for any teen that has a MySpace or Facebook page or spends any amount of time online or texting!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Hey 12to14 year old boys

I a 13 and i have long blond hair and brown eyes . If you want me reply to kelsey

Im singke....

Girl

Friend me

Jaymie999 @ cox .net

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Never been kissed...

Girls. Seriously,if you havent been kissed,good. When you get married,if you have been kissed before,your husband will be major jealous. Not to mention,if youve kissed another guy who happens to be a better kisser... Look its just better not to be kissed untill you are married.Im thirteen. Never been kissed.You wont die if you arent kissed so chill.Your purity is worth the wait. Not to mention,it will be all the more special.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sliverkit(g)

Ran in. Her tears falling down.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

READ ME!!!

I kinda relate to the character. I've never been kissed either. But all my friends have. Im 14 thou, not 16.

I live this book

I love this book

Awesome so far!

Ive only read 10 pages so far and it seems like a GREAT teen book...im a teen and i LOVE it so far!!! :)

This book....

OMG!!!!! This is a MUST READ for teens :]

Good book

Excellent true to life story, maybe A little to graphic for 13-14 year olds.

High praise for melidy carlson's "Never Been Kissed"!!!!!

This book was simply amazing! Kudos melidy for writing such a great book.....this book was so inspiring and so enlightening....i wish every teen girl would read this book!!!!

To Be or Not To Be

Elise Sortesen is not unlike most girls her age-she wants to be accepted. It is what her peers expect of her in order for that acceptance to take place that challenges her. At age sixteen she has yet to experience her first kiss, but is hoping to change that soon.


Her struggle, although similar to many her age and with her values, is not a story that has not been written. It is the manner in which Author Melody Carlson presentation of the young lady's thought processes and actions that makes this worth reading.

Never Been Kissed is not a heavy read, but will give readers young and old meat to chew on.


Book provided courtesy of The Baker Group

A MUST Read for ALL Young Readers!

Melody Carlson is AWESOME! She writes from the heart, and she writes for the teens. I love her work, both her adult books and her YA novels. And, this Never Been Kissed novel is by far the best one by her yet. She takes a combination of YA issues, sexting (child pornography), suicide, trusting in God, lies,being popular, bullying and boys and raps them up into one incredible, major impacting novel that will help ANY young lady through any number of issues.

Meeting Elise was a fun experience. What happened to her-I won't go into major detail for fear of spoilers!- wasn't fun, but seeing the strong, tender hearted young woman who was dealing with MAJOR issues, issues that 16 year olds should NOT have to go through, I felt like her big sister. I prayed for her through this story and became quite up set with some of the other characters in this book. But, through Melody Carlson, she HAD to have those characters along side her or this story wouldn't be worth reading, and wouldn't have the same impact on young adults.

This is a novel that I think should have more than 5 stars for it's powerful, powerful messages. It's PERFECT for EVERY young lady in high school to show how serious the issues I mentioned really are. Reality meets fiction in this HIGHLY recommended young adult novel and if you have a teen aged girl who loves to read in your life, then please, don't hesitate to get this book for her. She will not only learn a lesson, but will fall in love with Melody Carlson's work, as Carlson puts God as the center of EVERY book but yet hits home with real life issues in teens.

Never Been Kissed

Elise Stortsen, has some major changes happen. Her mom has landed a new job that moves Elise into a new school district, so instead of starting her junior year in her old school, where she wasn't very popular anyway, she will be going to Garfield High. She is just about to turn sixteen and having never been kissed hopes to change that by her birthday. When Asher, a popular boy in school starts showing an interest in Elise, she wonders if he might give her that first kiss.
Her first day of school goes great, Asher introduces her to the in-crowd, which includes Asher's girlfriend. So when Elise gets an email from Asher, she soon finds herself caught up in something that soon puts her reputation on the line, and jeopardizes her future, but it also makes her realize what is important, and in the process strengthens her faith in God!
I think this book is a must read for all teen girls. It deals with some pretty heavy subjects, but these are real life problems that are facing teens today.The character of Elise was very well written. She was very down to earth and easy to relate to. I totally understood the reactions of the characters in the story, and while Stacie did something wrong, she didn't do it with malicious intent, but there were still repercussions.
This book moved at a brisk pace and I felt the ending wrapped up the story nicely. There is a spiritual message woven throughout the book, but it isn't preachy or overwhelming.Whether your a teen or not, this book is well worth reading!

A MUST READ INSPIRATIONSL FOR TEENS!

NEVER BEEN KISSED by Melody Carlson is a wonderful inspirational Teen Fiction set in present day Seattle.It is well written with details and depth. It has moving to another high school, peer pressure,text message,e-mailing,phone Pict's,faith,family,new guys,bad choices, new friends and today's issues. It is fast paced involving today's issues for teens of text messaging,phone Pict's,emailing and effects of peer pressure. It has a strong religious conviction but is not preachy. It shows how quickly and innocently our young teens can get caught up in things they know nothing about and the effects that can occur.When Elise, moves to a new town she is looking forward to new friends,meeting new guys,and having a new lease on life.What she encounters she peer pressure,jealousy,and bad choices that could ruin her life. This is a must read for all teenagers. This book was received for review from the publisher and details can be found at Revell,a division of Baker Publishing and My Book Addiction and More.

A must read for teens

Elise Storton, is fixing to be sixteen and has some major changes going on in her life. A move to a new school district has her worried all summer about the new school. Then there is the major fact that she is fixing to be sixteen years old and has never been kissed. This worries her, a lot!

While on a visit to her grandmother's the last week of the summer, Elise runs into an old school friend who is dating the cousin of a guy from her new school, they meet up and Elise is introduced to Asher Gordon. What a dreamboat! She should have known things were going to be all wrong, when the first day of school she found herself among the "elite" of the new school's social group.

Yes she should have known. Finding emails from Asher, she starts on a whirlwind that is going to end up with her being totally humilated, but it also will cause Elise to grow up and realize the important things in life. This book is a great read for teen girls! Addressing issues facing girls today, and teens in general Melody Carlson, once again shows us that her writing skills are superb!

216 pages US $9.99 4 stars! Don't miss this book!


Available January 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

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