A modern tale of unexpectedly falling in love and finding your voice, Kiss the Girl is the highly anticipated third installment in the acclaimed and best-selling Meant to Be collection.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Zoraida Córdova’s Kiss the Girl, which is out August 1st!
Ariel del Mar is one of the most famous singers in the world. She and her sisters—together, known as the band Siren Seven—have been a pop culture phenomenon since they were kids. On stage, wearing her iconic red wig and sequined costumes, staring out at a sea of fans, is where she shines. Anyone would think she’s the girl who has everything.
But lately, she wants more. Siren Seven is wrapping up their farewell tour, and Ariel can’t wait to spend the summer just living a normal life—part of a world she’s only ever seen from the outside. But her father, the head of Atlantica Records, has other plans: begin her breakout solo career immediately, starting with a splashy announcement on a morning talk show.
The night before, Ariel and her sisters sneak out of their Manhattan penthouse for a night of incognito fun at a rock concert in Brooklyn. It’s there that Ariel crosses paths with Eric Reyes, dreamy lead singer of an up-and-coming band. Unaware of her true identity, Eric spontaneously invites her on the road for the summer. And for the first time in her life, Ariel disobeys her father—and goes with him.
Caught between the world she longs for and the one she’s left behind, can Ariel follow her dreams, fall in love, and, somehow, find her own voice?
When her attention settled on a group of girls carrying shopping bags and tall cups of bubble tea, Ariel turned to Marilou. “Do you think we’d be the same if we’d grown up as normal girls?”
“We are normal girls,” Marilou told her. “We just happen to be millionaire pop stars who have superhero personas.”
“Yeah,” Ariel chuckled. “That elusive normal pop star.”
An hour later, they were at Aurora’s Grocery, a warehouse that had been around since the eighties. They found Chrissy on the long line snaking around the block and were subject to people grumbling when they cut in with her. One of the guys behind them was wearing a Siren Seven T-shirt with Elektra’s face on it. He looked Ariel dead in the eyes and complained loudly to his friends. Ariel snorted at the irony, but felt bolstered by the fact that Cranky Fanboy hadn’t recognized her.
“I bet if we tell the bouncer we’re with Atlantica Records—”
“Nope.” Ariel shut her sister down. “We’re waiting in line. We’re normal pop stars, remember?”
“I hate waiting,” Marilou whimpered, but conceded.
While Chrissy expertly distracted Marilou by asking about her hair, Ariel’s attention was drawn to the grating skid of tires. An SUV that had seen better days sped right at them. The front wheels hopped the curb, scaring the Cranky Fanboy as the van skidded to a stop.
A side door of the venue swung open, nearly clipping Ariel’s nose, and separating Ariel from Marilou and Chrissy. Before she could protest, a young woman with black-and-purple hair hurried out. She blocked the path as four people leaped out of the SUV like the inside was on fire.
“Cutting it close, Reyes,” the black-and-purple-haired girl said.
The guy in the foursome flashed a crooked smile as he popped open the trunk. “For once I agree with you, Vanessa.”
Reyes.
Eric Reyes.
Ariel recognized him at once. Star Crossed’s front man began unloading the instruments, each member of the band passing them down and into the venue. Ariel winced as she realized how late they must have been for load-in. Once, early on, before Siren Seven had become a well-oiled machine, Sophia had gone off with her assistant exploring the city and showed up minutes before they had to go onstage. Teo del Mar had fired the assistant on the spot and made Sophia sit out the set. No one was ever late after that.
Now Ariel’s stomach tightened as the band hauled out the last pieces of the drum set and slammed the trunk door shut. A tall goth girl hopped into the driver’s seat and adjusted the terrible parking job, moving in front of a heap of garbage bags.
Meanwhile, Eric set his guitar case down and blinked like he’d been startled. Ariel’s belly fluttered as he turned her way, a feeling that was followed by twinge of disappointment when she realized he wasn’t looking at her, but taking in the line of people waiting to go inside Aurora’s Grocery. Ariel recognized the spark in his dark eyes. The understanding that all those people were there to hear him sing.
Eric combed his fingers through his thick black waves. Soft streetlight bronzed his skin, shadowed the sharp lines of his jaw, the swell of his biceps as he picked up a box of what looked like merch. He handed the box down the assembly line. Despite what seemed to be an anxiety-inducing mad dash, his smile was infectious. A tender, fuzzy sensation worked its way from her toes to the corners of her lips, which unfurled into a smile that matched his.
Her reverie was interrupted by a hard jab on her shoulder.
“Um, hello?” Cranky Fanboy behind her said impatiently. “Your friends are calling you.”
Ariel blinked and realized the path was clear, and Marilou and Chrissy had been waving at her to hurry up and close the gap int he line.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, and ran to catch up.
Though she’d see Eric inside, she couldn’t stop her traitorous body from sneaking another glimpse over her shoulder. He was helping his bandmate straighten out the van, while the woman he’d called Vanessa shouted for them to hurry up.
Ariel caught another movement. A man with tufts of green hair sticking out from a hoodie stopped to light a cigarette. He glanced up and down the sidewalk, eyeing everyone on the busy street. Waiting for someone? Rubbernecking the commotion? Then he bent down as if to tie his shoe, but grabbed the guitar case instead.
For the briefest moment, Ariel wondered if he was a handler from the venue. A guitar tech getting the instrument ready. But when the man kept walking in the opposite direction, she understood what was really happening.
“Stop!” she shouted, waving her arms in the air. She pointed, but the street was too crowded, too noisy from the uproar inside the venue. Only the guitar thief heard her. He craned his neck, looking up and down the block, assessing his best point of getaway.
Ignoring every ounce of common sense and self-preservation, Ariel was possessed. Moving. Running. Closing the width of the sidewalk, she tackled the thief as he started to sprint away. The momentum of their collision landed them on the mountain of garbage bags sitting on the curb. Adrenaline made her heart thunder in her ears as she tried to stand on trash that crunched and slipped beneath her feet.
“Get off me, you lunatic!” the thief shouted.
Honestly, the nerve. She hadn’t realized she was trying to get up by using his torso for support until he managed to shove her and she fell backward, landing hard on her tailbone.
As she tried to catch her breath and pushed herself up on her elbows, Ariel was aware of someone kneeling at her side. The tumult allowed her to discern blurry fragments. White shirt. Black hair. Brown eyes, startled and focused on her. Eric Reyes.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, gently adjusting the slightly askew glasses on her nose. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
She chuckled low. “I didn’t think people really asked that.”
Eric smiled wide. He had the kind of smile that was both friendly and mischievous. “It’s a tried-and-true method. Now come on—” He waggled his fingers, narrowing his eyes to read her necklace. “Melody.”
Her belly squeezed when he called her that. It was her first name, but not even her family called her by it. She dusted bits of gravel and a smooshed cigarette butt that were stuck to her palms. Despite the sidewalk sludge blurring one lens, and a fine crack on the other, she saw him perfectly.
“Three.” Ariel shook her head. “But your guitar—”
“Safe. Security’s got it covered,” he assured her, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Holy shit. You were amazing. And incredibly reckless. But mostly amazing.”
She removed her glasses and cleaned them with the hem of her shirt. A warm feeling bubbled in her chest. Amazing and incredibly reckless. She’d been told she was amazing more times than she could count. But “incredibly reckless” was new. And, yes, she should definitely not have put herself in danger that way, or exposed herself to a potential viral video so carelessly, but for the first time in so long, she hadn’t thought. She just did what felt right.
Eric helped her stand, his grip as strong as a lifeline. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, I promise.” She’d experienced worse during Siren Seven’s brutal rehearsals. “My pride and left butt cheek are a little bruised, but I’ll live.”
He pressed his lips together like he was trying not to laugh.
From behind them, someone shouted, “Reyes! Let’s go!”
His attention strayed to the side door, where Vanessa tapped her smart watch. They had a loud exchange of fast expletives in Spanish until she threw her hands up in frustration and trudged back inside.
“Sorry,” Eric told Ariel as he released her, but he wavered between leaving her there and his very time-sensitive show. “We’re—”
“Late. I know.”
All at once Ariel remembered the curious crowd of concertgoers. The thrashing would-be thief who cursed at her as security dragged him away. Camera f lashes blinding Ariel in the dark. If anyone recognized her . . . if her father found out . . . Thankfully, she was as far away from the glamorous Ariel del Mar as she could get.
Marilou and Chrissy slipped past the stern guard shooing everyone back in line, and came to her side. Both women eyed Eric with unadulterated delight.
“Maybe this is a sign that I should have stayed home,” she told them.
“That is definitely not the lesson here,” Marilou said, wrapping her little sister in a bone-crushing hug.
“Exactly,” Eric said to Ariel. “You saved me. I’ve never played without that guitar. Please, let me find some way to thank you.”
Ariel thought about what was waiting for her the next day. The deal she’d struck with her father. She’d come all this way, hadn’t she? She couldn’t turn back now. She took the hand Eric offered. His thumb smoothed across her knuckles in one slow movement she felt right down to her toes. Yeah, there was no way she was going home.
“Well,” Ariel said coyly, “we did lose our place in line.”
He winked. “Lucky for you, I know a guy.”
