Title: Kiss Kill Vanish
Author: Jessica Martinez
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary Thriller
Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
Release Date: October 7th 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: eARC received from publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

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Valentina Cruz no longer exists.

One moment, she was wrapped in Emilio’s arms, melting into his kiss. The next, she was witnessing the unthinkable: a murder in cold blood, ordered by her father and carried out by her boyfriend. When Emilio pulled the trigger, Valentina disappeared. She made a split-second decision to shed her identity and flee her life of privilege, leaving the glittering parties and sultry nightlife of Miami far behind.

She doesn’t know how to explain to herself what she saw. All she knows now is that nothing she believed about her family, her heart, or Emilio’s love, was real.

She can change her name and deny her past, but Valentina can’t run from the truth. The lines between right and wrong, and trust and betrayal, will be blurred beyond recognition as she untangles the deceptions of the two men she once loved and races to find her own truth.


I went into this book with no expectations. I just loved the cover more than I have loved any cover of a YA novel. Yes I judged the book by its cover but sometime it leads to great things. Kiss Kill Vanish is a great thriller, one that I have never read before in this genre. I have read many a YA book but I have not read one where a young girl is running away from her family because she witnessed a murder. That was new thing for me and i have to say it made for a fast paced novel.

Valentina was not my favorite character in this book, honestly she was very hard to like. But i think that was part of her appeal. She was quite winy in the beginning, especially when she met someone from her past that told her he would help her get away from her family for good. When he came along it was life everything she had learned on her own disappeared, she became this little helpless girl that kept waiting and waiting for someone to save her. And honestly it drove me nuts. I wanted her to be able to fight for herself and take her own life by the horns. And when that finally happened in the end I was so happy for her character. She stood up for herself and made a stand, something i honestly did not think would happen with her track record.

I also found Valentina's relationships to be a bit of a problem. I found them to e very unhealthy on every level and didn't understand why she gravitated towards the people that she did. She obviously knew better but chose to keep going in the direction she was going and ended up hurt and honestly in the end I did not see enough improvement for me to feel for her.

I loved the mob aspect of the story, it made for great mystery and i honestly had no idea what was going to happen chapter after chapters. The author was great at keeping us guessing. The writing was fast paced and allowed for me to want to keep reading after every chapter finished because I needed to know what was going to happen. There were many twist and turns, especially near the end that surprised me and I loved that. Ultimately I found the end to be a bit too perfect for my taste, especially after everything that happened, but I can be a sucker for a HEA :)