Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys)

Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) is a YA contemporary novel by Amy Spalding.

Catching her best friend and bandmate Lucy with fellow bandmate Nathan caused a ripple of shock in sixteen-year-old Riley and Reid.

Suddenly painfully aware of their naiveté, lack of experience and romantic prospects, they strike a deal with each other. They will Make Something Happen and document their experience in a shared notebook.

While Reid struggles with insecurity and the moral issue of pretending to want to adopt a dog to spend time with a girl who works at an animal shelter, Riley tries to figure out how to make progress with cute, quiet, possibly slightly nerdy Ted Callahan.

Yet, when Riley is confronted with other cute boy options – how can she turn down the experience?

But is she getting in over her head?

Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) was a modern, fun book with, at times, laugh-out-loud first-person, present tense narration.

Full of awkward brimming high school romance, loads of poor decisions and likable, approachable (so to speak) characters, it was very enjoyable to read – and definitely a quick read!

However, the twist with the notebook near the end, I felt, was pretty predictable from the get-go. I did appreciate the way the characters handled it – certainly more straightforwardly than in past versions of storylines like this.

Yet I still felt like Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) could have done without this particular twist – and kept the whole book more original.

Plus, as swoony and awesome as the end was – I did feel it was too fast and easy. Not to mention, I would have liked more focus on Riley’s fractured friendship with her friend Lucy than 97% romantic entanglements.

Don’t let these quibbles give you the wrong impression, though! Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys) was truly an entertaining, great read – I just felt it may have been able to hit an even higher note, potentially.