Kissing the Cotton Clouds (aka Playing on Cotton Clouds) by Michaela O’Brien follows three friends: Livy, Seth and Aidan. The book follows the trio through twenty five years of life, starting when they were teenagers all the way deep into adulthood. Having gone through life and its successes, failures, heartaches, and great loves … they realize that life is rarely what you imagined, or what you hoped for at fifteen – and sometimes things don’t turn out quite like you think. As the author takes us through time, we witness how they each take on their own lives.
The novel is separated by year and I found the transition to be fairly easy to follow. Michela created characters that are well developed and you feel for each of them as they journey through life, but I felt that I was often times distracted from the main story by the backdrop of the issues of the times. While it definitely enhances the story and makes it feel more authentic, I felt like I never really got to know the characters because of it. My other major complaint is that I had a hard time relating to the language in the book because Michela uses a lot of British slang, and although it feels very realistic, it is hard for an outsider like myself to understand. Other than that, the book as a whole was well written (besides these two minor points) and I enjoyed the book a fair amount. However, it did take me quite sometime to get through seeing as how I was often distracted by everything else going on instead of the story itself.
[Rating: 3.5/5]
