Kiss Chase

by Fiona Walker

Felix Sylvian looks like the Angel Gabriel in a sulk and is as irresistible to women as melted chocolate on a ripe strawberry. But he has one nasty habit he can't seem to a sadistic tendency to ride rough-shod over any girl foolish enough to fall for him.

Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, British Literature, Humor

600 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Barbara Elsborg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do so love this book. It has everything I like. Damaged bad boy Felix Sylvian. Heroine Phoebe who gets drawn into a nasty piece of revenge against her wishes but she still does it - driven by guilt. The relationship between Felix and Phoebe is fantastic. I have to admit it's inspired me in many ways. I wish wish wish I'd written this book. The cast of characters is long and varied. The final denouement is toe curlingly painful as you wait for disaster to strike. I wish Fiona Walker would write more like this and less of the later type of stories. This is one of my all time favourite books. It makes me cry, laugh, groan and I love it.

[Sugar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review:

820 pages, an army of relevant/irrelevant character thrown at you from first couple of pages, all the uncountable character relationship connections, a hero that doesn't make his appearance until well into the book... at first glance a book that needs a lot of patience and good memory capacity to get through. But despite all this or actually because of these details this is my all time favorite romance! And has stayed on the nr 1 pedestal from since I was seventeen.

The ridiculous to be reality plot is what drew me in, I love reluctant romance and the angst that most definitely comes with it! I also love a book with good banter between the main characters that you basically memorize because it’s just that good. Moreover the book and main characters are witty, sexy and so quirky, sometimes embarrassingly so (eg. the Snoopy tattoo), but everything fits perfectly. And being located in Britain with British characters at least for me is always a plus.

The whole idea for Saskia to ask Phoebe to seduce Felix to have revenge is weird, desperate and stupid. But that the catalyst for all the awesomeness to come. It takes time for the story to start taking speed but when it does you won’t know what hit you. All the characters and details that might have annoyed you fall to the far background and you can only focus on Phoebe and Felix dancing around each other trying to bring the other down, but they end up hitting each other, hard. The aftermath a love that neither of them thought they wanted but both desperately needed.

Characters:

Phoebe is just so sympathetic and adorable, she gets herself into crazy situations, doesn't really care what people might think about her but at the same time let's herself be used like a doormat by people that should actually care about her. She hasn't really found her place in life and seems lost. I also wasn’t really fond of some relationships she had, but her not being your typical heroine made her unique and more relatable. I love that she is extremely witty, funnily awkward at times and her ability to get out of sticky situations, which happen a lot, is just pure comedy gold. The Swedish bar waiter, the bar in Paris, etc- I have a post it on all the pages these scenes start. Her subconscious and at times deliberate attempts to rebel and ruin her chances with Felix make for some hilarious banter and unbelievably funny circumstances. Unfortunately for Phoebe, all this wackiness makes Felix like her more and more. And well, Phoebe isn't far behind in liking Felix back.

Oh Felix, alone the description Fiona Walker was able to write for Felix made my mouth drool long before he was actually introduced in person. I didn’t help that I was a teenager when I first read the book and he is like a boy band beauty to a young girl. The guy isn't even in the story yet, but everything revolved around him and how inhumanly gorgeous, charming and an absolute dream he is. At the same time he is also described as being the lowest of the low regarding women and attitude so overall you are presented him as a conceited nasty angel face. He is so much more than that. I don't really always like the "because of my childhood and relationship with my parents" card excuse for men to act like total jerks, and Felix really is bratty, spoiled, moody and slightly tortured. But FW manages to make everything work in his favor and you just have to adore him. He’s the type of guy you have to hate but in the end can’t, maybe I’m masochistic but I know I’m not the only one who thought what if I can find my own Felix. I don’t think that would ever actually work out in reality with a guy with his personality so it’s all good that this is only a book! He truly is gorgeous, charming and an absolute dream and even his shortages make him more endearing when he finds the right person to love. And he and Phoebe are perfect, they are so similar but at the same time they compensate for each others weaknesses. End result: squeal-worthy romance!

As mentioned before the book is bustling with all variety of characters to hate, to love, to root for, to be curious about, to think “do you even have a purpose here?”, etc. Some honorable mentions: Dylan - the true as a dog BF of Felix, Saskia - who you just love to hate but also sympathies with, Mungo - Felix's naughty brother, ... - Friend of Phoebe you just want to know more about, etc. The list is endless. The side characters are quite clichéd but, honestly, in the end I didn’t even care because there was so much hilarity in the story to make up for it.

Overall:

Among all the awesome things I just have to compliment Fiona Walker for her talent to write lots of detailed but never boring descriptions. The characters and situations just come alive with so many references to pop culture, British life, what was trendy at the time the book was written, etc. Her wide use of imaginative, colorful and detailed vocabulary is just a joy to read.

I reread it constantly, am a fan of Fiona Walker because if this book and it just doesn't get old for me even though I read it 10 years ago. A definite keeper!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felix Sylvian is a charming, silken-tongued dilettante, he has the sex-appeal of a school-girl's day-dream and the soul of a poet. But he has one nasty habit he can't seem to break: a sadistic tendency to ride rough-shod over any girl foolish enough to fall for him. Saskia Seaton is Felix's latest victim. Once a beautiful, precocious aspiring actress, she is now a suicidal wreck after a whirlwind affair with Felix and a force ten finale. Retreating to lick her wounded pride, she decides she wants poetic justice. And her friend Phoebe's the one to get it. With Saskia's help, Phoebe will become Felix's dream woman. She will pursue him across his London playground and seduce him until he falls in love with her and then she'll drop him just as he has so many women in the past. But Phoebe doesn't realise that when she tries to break Felix's nasty habit, she'll find herself breaking her own heart...

Well, let's not beat around the bush here - the plot to Kiss Chase (originally published in 1995) is downright ludicrous, even taking the genre into account. The idea that a person would be so heartbroken as to take revenge *that* far is just not realistic at all.

Taking this into account, the book is very, very readable. It is a big sprawling mess, which could have done with an edit and perhaps several fewer erroneous characters (who seemed to be added whenever Fiona Walker needed an additional person to walk into a scene), and yet I found myself compulsively turning pages and absolutely gripped by the tale of Phoebe and Felix.

Even though the plot is tiresome and most of the character motivations are extremely suspect, at its heart this is a novel about finding the absolute right person and falling in love when you never expected to. The best part of the novel are the exchanges between Felix and Phoebe, when it is easy to identify with the stomach-churning, free-falling emotion of lust and then love.

"Then it happened. That sticky, quivering moment where any vestige of conversation is rendered impossible as a great yawning pause stretches out between two people whose eyes are hopelessly locked in one another's gaze. The pause becomes an aching, tension-loaded silence and the silence becomes a desperately embarrassing, thoroughly enjoyable suspension of all around as hormones, pheromones, moisture and adrenalin drench two mutually attracted bodies."

The dialogue between all the characters crackles with great humour and spiky attitude - sometimes it is a little too self-consciously clever and I howled at times with the expectation that I was supposed to believe real people would say what these characters did. For instance:

" 'This Bank Holiday weekend party,' she said slowly, 'is going to be a wine, dine and minefield.' "

I also adored some of Fiona Walker's random references and similes - a couple of them had me Googling exactly what she meant, so that I could enjoy them all the more.

"She was reasonably good at dramatic exits, but this was getting close to Turandot flinging herself off the battlements only to find that the stage crew had replaced the air cushion with a trampoline."

The book is unfortunately horrifically dated, with mentions of Concorde and French francs (certainly my edition was - I don't know if this has been changed and updated for more recent prints). It doesn't affect the story at all, but occasionally you feel a little jarred out of the prose because of these occurrences.

Walker has a fabulous way with words, especially in terms of describing characters: usually I find this boring and unnecessary, but she paints beautiful pictures which enable me to visualise them exactly. In addition to this, I love the way that Walker will show a character like Phoebe both from her perspective (e.g. how she imagines herself to look) and then from the point of view of another character looking at her - this is so realistic (I suspect we all think that we're less attractive than other people think we are!) and also presents the idea that beauty is only really in the eye of the beholder.

Anyone who has read the exploits of Rupert Campbell-Black in Jilly Cooper's celebrated bonkbusters will devour Kiss Chase and find that Felix Sylvian takes a place in their hearts. Altogether, this is a wonderful book for bath or beach - breathlessly sexy, very clever and unexpectedly heart-warming.

[Robyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

My literary tastes are wide and varied, and I am a fan of the unfortunately named “chick lit” as much as the next girl in search of a mindless, trashy read. But there’s chick lit and there’s chick lit. It’s a term which, unfairly, widely encompasses pretty much every novel written by women, for women, including wonderful authors such as Marian Keyes and Joanne Harris, right through to the pitiful offerings from ex-page 3 girls and the archaic Mills & Boon. Reading the worst of it is like eating a McDonalds whilst staggering home from a night out on the tiles. At first it seems like the only thing that will satisfy your craving. After a few tasty mouthfuls, the flavour dulls and the juice leaks out. Half way through, it’s only the fact that you’ve made it this far that forces you to persevere and finish the blasted thing. Five minutes after forcing the final crumbs into your protesting body, you feel utterly empty and wonder why you even bothered. Still, at least you can blame the booze.



I was travelling around New Zealand in 2007 and searching for a read which would require minimum brain power and still provide a few laughs when I found Fiona Walker’s depressingly awful offering lingering on a stand outside a charity shop. Costing the equivalent of about 40p, it seemed bad manners not to give it a go, so I parted with my cash and eagerly set about starting. It didn’t take long before I was weary of Walker’s repetitive writing style and uninspiring characters, predictable scenes and tired relationships. You can’t feel empathy for the character of Saskia, who deserves a good slapping, nor for Phoebe, her bizarrely long-suffering “friend”. Rather than coming across as loyal, she appears spineless, dull and stupid, causing me to lose interest in her before the main plot line had even kicked off. It also irritated me profusely that Walker continually referenced the fact that Saskia was fat, as if this in itself was evidence of her emotional problems, and implying that once she had lost the weight she would be magically cured. Never mind the depression or the fact that she is a psychotic bitch, Saskia’s a size 16! Holy mother of god, it’s a national crisis! Do only beautiful people have happy lives in Walker’s plastic world? Why is it that those who do not possess supernatural beauty (apart from Saskia in her “Mental Period”, only peripheral characters with little impact or relevance) are deeply unattractive, sad, grey creatures who paw after the blissful, fabulous, beautiful, adored brilliance of the two central characters, Phoebe and the interminable Felix, but can never hope to achieve their greatness? Apparently if you don’t have legs as long as a redwood and cheekbones that could shave a dormouse, you don’t deserve happiness or a loving relationship; and more to the point, nobody would care even if you did.



Hello, Fiona? Remember Bridget Jones? Helen Fielding’s characters aren’t exactly realistic but they’re a damn sight more down-to-earth than these ones; and when their experiences and reactions are over the top, unlikely and ridiculous, we know full well that Fielding has her tongue lodged firmly in her cheek. Walker, however, seems to take herself far too seriously, which is probably her downfall. She needs to lighten up – at the appropriate moments – and try having a heroine with dodgy hair, or a hero whose six-pack is more likely to be kept in the fridge.



Why is it that so many chick lit authors feel the need to have a heroine who doesn’t think she’s that special to look at, but according to the rest of the world, is stunningly beautiful? Why are they inspired to make her act like someone with special needs? A decent author should be able to create comedy out of any situation, without needing to have a character fall tit over arse down some stairs and wind up with a pair of knickers on her head. Why does every book end “happily ever after” when they get their man? What happened to female emancipation?



Fiona Walker wanders blindly into all of these literary chick-lit clichés, and adds a few of her own for good measure. It should be a stone-carved rule that if an author insists on using slang terms, they must be varied regularly. Once a colloquialism has been used once, it is far more noticeable the second time; and by the fourth or fifth, the reader is begging for a thesaurus. The phrase which springs to mind is the use of “tight” for “drunk”. Although the deliberate misinterpretation of this word is ruminated upon at one point, that is no excuse to use it EVERY SINGLE TIME someone is tipsy, rat-arsed, or three sheets to the wind. For god’s sake, being drunk is surely a phrase with more euphemisms than any other in the English language (except, perhaps, sex). If she’d simply said “drunk” without variation, I doubt I would have noticed. But a little bit of slang goes a long, long way; especially something as old-fashioned as “tight”, which now serves simply as a regular milestone for Walker’s lack of range and cringingly dates the novel. A little imagination please, I beg of you! The same goes for espadrilles; a shoe in which, according to Walker, every woman in the UK encases her warm-weather tootsies. Whenever there’s a mention of shoes, they’re always bloody espadrilles! Ok, so it’s the summer, and Phoebe’s a casual, breezy kook: WE GET IT. But couldn’t she please slip her feet into a pair of sandals? Find some flats? Stagger in stilettos? Fling on some flip-flops? Whack on some wedges? It may be a petty complaint, but it sums up the rest of the novel, and was largely responsible for my increasing desire to chuck the dreary tome at the wall.



Walker’s characters are two-dimensional, ridiculous stereotypes, underdeveloped and, honestly, quite boring. The book is far too long and clearly has an incompetent editor. The language is limited and the storyline reeks of desperation. I anticipated that this bumper novel would be an enjoyable holiday read. It wasn’t. I persevered with it in the naïve, optimistic hope that it would get better towards the end. It didn’t. It leaves me with no question as to why this genre is viewed with such contempt when authors like Fiona Walker are championed in its ranks as literary royalty. Excuse me, but I’d like my 40p back.

[Dangermousie · Rating 5 out of 5]

KC gets set in motion when used-to-men-swooning Saskia gets horribly dumped by her gorgeous, seemingly very devoted and ideal fiance, Felix. Devastated both by the breakup and its manner, Saskia goes a little suicidal and a little nuts and guilts her frenemy, Phoebe, into being involved in an insane plan - she will tutor Phoebe how to get Felix's heart by teaching her his likes and dislikes, in order for Phoebe to dump him in a manner as horrible as Felix dumped Saskia.

The set-up is insane but I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THE WAY THIS UNFOLDS! This is a not a typical 'sweet girl gets icy but nice guy'. Our protagonists, Phoebe and Felix, are both damaged, damaged, self-destructive people. In fact, I spent a decent chunk of the early part of the book loathing Felix and wondering how on earth I was ever going to find him worthy of anyone but by the end, I both loved and pitied him and was desperate for him and Phoebe to get together. One of the things I love is that this book explains but does not really excuse - both Phoebe and Felix had truly horrifying childhoods (even if his was worse) and that is why they can connect on a level they can't with other 'normal' people, but they choose to react to trauma differently. Phoebe locks it all up and wants relationships that are meaningless and won't ever last or become serious. Felix is obsessed with being loved and puts on any mask to get that result but then can't deal with the fact that the person doesn't love the real him. But I love that this is still not an excuse, but an explanation.

And, oh I love Phoebe. Sure, she's damaged and flawed (she is involved in a long-standing affair with a married man and can't keep a job and other things), but she's no clutzy, meek heroine chick lit loves so. She does not swoon in front of the hero or embarass herself or needs rescuing. In fact, my favorite scene is when she tells him off and he points out that if he's such a bastard, perhaps she should give him back his sweater (it must be noted, that due to a series of loony circs, she's only wearing panties underneath it). And she just takes off the sweater - in the middle of the street - and calmly gives it back to him. GO INSANE AWESOME GIRL!!!!! In fact, the reason Felix falls for her is not from any of the tips Saskia tries to give Phoebe. Phoebe never uses any of them, and he falls for her because she's strong and damaged and not impressed and doesn't let him get away with any bullshit. She knows he's a wreck and loves him anyway.

Anyway, it's an awesome awesome read and I recommend. The happy ending made me all sniffly, even if I sincerely hope they never have kids and also get therapy.

Oh, and Saskia is suuuuch a kdrama secondary girl.

[Noël Cades · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiss Chase, written in 1995, is very much “90s chicklit”. Fiona Walker has been described as “the Jilly Cooper of the Cosmo generation” and you can definitely see the influence. Which, for me as a Jilly Cooper fan, is great. I did read some of Walker’s other works but none of them were as good as Kiss Chase.

It features an emotionally damaged, beautiful hero, Felix Sylvian, and a messed up, beautiful heroine, Phoebe, who – after a long process – finally end up together. The basic plot is that Felix has dumped Phoebe’s childhood frenemy, Saskia, and Saskia wants Phoebe to get Felix to fall in love with her and then dump him just as cruelly. But by the time comes, Phoebe has of course fallen genuinely in love with him. There’s a lot of emotional blackmail involved.

It’s a very long book for the genre, and it takes several chapters before the “meet cute”. There’s a lot of drama, angst and gazillions of characters.

I first read Kiss Chase back in the day and re-reading it I did find it somewhat harder to forgive Felix’s early cruelty to various women.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first read this book I was younger I think than the characters, who are mid-20s, and the cultural references were current. I remember finding it amusing and passionate and really liking it. Well, sadly re-reading it as a much older daggy middle-aged person all I could think was "Man, what a bunch of brats, everything could be solved with a bit of good communication and why don't they all get a dang job!"
Haha - so yeah, I guess this book isn't timeless. Look, it's not completely terrible, it is just full of terrible behaviour.

[Kath S · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, esta fue una lectura inesperada y por pura curiosidad. No conocía a la autora, así que no sabía con qué me iba a encontrar. Y aunque me gustó lo que leí, en definitiva no será una historia inolvidable.

Jeez, qué personajes tan jodidos. Los dos son la clase de personajes que NO me gustan en ningún libro, pero que en este los sentí correctos y pude reírme un poco con sus situaciones. Por un lado está Phoebe, una mujer guapa pero con una vida nada nada perfecta: no tiene trabajo, no sabe qué hacer con su vida, no tiene una buena relación con sus padres y para colmo de males está enamorada de un hombre casado. Sí, no mi clase de personaje. Y entonces entra Felix y no pude evitar pensar: Jeez, estos están hechos el uno para el otro. Él es cuasi-famoso, modelo, físicamente perfecto y con un trabajo seguro... El problema? Es un maldito imbécil, trata mal a todas las mujeres, es inseguro y no puede comprometerse. TAMPOCO es mi clase de personaje. PERO cuando los dos se empiezan a conocer y las cosas empiezan a darse empezaron a gustarme. Están tan jodidos pero poco a poco su relación crece, ellos crecen y todo parece encajar. Al final terminó gustándome bastante su relación y el final de su historia.

Ahora, el libro en general me parece que no es tan perfecto. No disfruto mucho de una historia cuando hay demasiado personajes secundarios que desvían mi atención de los personajes principales. Sí, hay unos cuantos que eran estrictamente necesarios para el desarrollo de la historia, pero también hubo otros que me parecieron simplemente de relleno y eso me aburrió bastante.

En general, es una historia entretenida, con unos personajes principales nada adorables pero que poco a poco logran tocarte el corazón XD

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book so much! I find Ms. Walker's writing delightfully amusing and I appreciate her careful turn of phrase despite the lighter genre of chick lit, so ever since I read and loved her wonderful Snap Happy, I've been trying to find another book of hers I could appreciate that much. Unfortunately, though, despite high hopes, I found I simply didn't care about any of these characters at all. I found them all superficial and catty and kind of horrible; concerned with nothing but their looks and other people's looks. It got somewhat better in the second half, but only somewhat, and given that this is an 800+ page book, "the second half" is an awfully long wait. Plus, while the writing is still excellent at the level of phrasing, the plot is sprawly and unwieldy and there are countless secondary characters who aren't at all necessary to telling the story. This is the fourth Fiona Walker book that I've read and the third one that's let me down, so I think I'm done with her. I'll keep rereading Snap Happy when I want a fix of funny, sweet chick-lit with sex scenes that manage to be both sexy and funny at the same time.

[Charlotte Brazil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!!!

I wish it hadn't taken me all these years to find this book! Reading it has taken me so by surprise. At first I was thinking how long it was but then I couldn't bear it to end. It's so romantic and funny.I remember London in the nineties and I was around the characters ages then and so all the areas in the book such as Kensington and Notting hill have very nostalgic memories for me..
I loved Felix and Phoebe's romance so much that I couldn't get a grip, I kept re reading passages and thinking about them whilst at work like a teenager!
I can't wait to read more of Fiona Walkers books now, with characters like Felix Sylvian and Hugo Beauchamp I hope there are others waiting to be found.

[Michelle Sallay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things kept me reading this 1-most reviews say it doesn't get good until the middle and 2-I bought the book. Too bad the middle is 300 pages!

I am not going to read another book by this author because she does add way too much detail that I had to skip through. Plus too much character description on characters that don't even move the plot along.

However, when it was good it was WAY good, and I had to see what happened. So I enjoyed the book for the most part.

[Amy Savvides · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than I remembered

I read this when it first came out and loved it. It’s even better now, reading it as an adult who actually lived the 90s and recognises the places and references.

The whole book is such a silly, delightful romp. It makes me feel really nostalgic and wistful - I rather wish I was 23 again and having the time of my life with little to no responsibilities and only wanting to know where my next shag was coming from!

[Roshio · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favourite fiona walker book. really cool one of a kind characters

[Belen (f.k.a. La Mala ✌) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Descubri una nueva autora romantica (nueva para mi , porsupu) .

[Lbtreco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d probably give it a 3.5 if I could. It had an interesting premise but I always get uncomfortable with female characters that let men treat them like dog doo. The Portia character? Why does she work so hard to be in relationships where she’s treated so badly? I mean men she isn’t even emotionally attached to Why do they make her so desperate? She doesn’t want marriage and has her own good lifestyle so shouldn’t fooling around be fun? And sometimes Felix reminds me of an an abuser. Do something awful then apologize abjectly. A common pattern for abusive people. Then somehow he’s suddenly a better person? I wouldn’t want anyone I cared for mixed up with someone like him. But it all seems to work out in the end and other than some really nasty characters, I generally enjoyed the book.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book. It is the one book I will read over and over again! I love the way London is depicted and I love all the characters - even Felix! And I adore him and Pheobe’s relationship. Sure, it’s dated a little bit now in some of the references but I don’t mind that. I love it. My copy has pages falling out of it, but I still keep it for the memories it brings. Delightful romp of a read.

[Lauren White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great fun, I just didn’t realise how Londony it would be. After French Relations, it was a bit disappointing there were no horses in it. Also kept waiting for Tash to turn up! But loved the characters and the story.

[Kate Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book very much loved every thing the book

[S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic chic lit!

Tight, witty writing with loveable characters and a believable plot. Phoebe and Felix sizzle on page loved it from the first word recommend to everyone!

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't really introduce a main character until like halfway through

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t finish this book. Tried so hard but decided it was a load of rubbish and the story so off the wall.

[Rebecca Kodritsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felix is a the best bad boy romantic hero

[Cinnamon]

I can’t believe I read 800 pages of chick lit. Twice. And loved it.

[Harry Tomos · Rating 5 out of 5]

find myself giggling when I should or gasping, again found myself wanting more as I finished

[Hannie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik twijfel tussen twee en drie sterren voor dit boek. Als halve sterren mogelijk zou zijn, zou ik het 2,5 ster geven. Het idee achter dit verhaal is leuk. Saskia haalt Phoebe over om wraak te nemen op Felix, haar ex-verloofde. Alles loopt echter anders dan gepland. De uitwerking vind ik wat minder. Het verhaal is te lang. Je bent al ruim tweehonderd pagina's verder voor het verhaal echt begint. Sommige stukken - vooral in het begin - zijn overbodig. Als die stukken waren weggelaten, had het verhaal veel vlotter gelezen en was het minder langdradig geweest. Ik heb een maand over dit boek gedaan en voor mijn doen is dat lang. Zelfs voor een boek van deze dikte. Het duurt lang voor je echt in het verhaal zit. Tegen het eind ging het lezen wel wat sneller, omdat ik wilde weten hoe het afliep. Dat is dan ook de belangrijkste reden waarom ik het uitgelezen heb. Hoewel ik ook zeker wel genoten heb van dit boek, zal ik het niet aan iedereen aanraden. Je moet wel een beetje een doorbijter zijn om dit boek uit te lezen. Een ander minpunt van dit boek, vind ik, is dat de hoofdstukken over het algemeen aan de lange kant zijn. Ik houd er van om een hoofdstuk in een keer te lezen. Daardoor pakte ik dit boek niet snel op als ik maar weinig tijd had om te lezen. Waardoor het nog langer duurde voor ik het uit had. Voor mijn gevoel was ik al eeuwen in dit boek bezig voordat het verhaal op gang kwam. Wat wel leuk is, is dat in de tijd dat dit boek geschreven is men nog geen mobiele telefoons had. Dat bracht herinneringen naar boven. In de tijd dat dit boek uitkwam, was ik een tiener, dus ik weet nog wel hoe dat was. Een aantal gegevens in Goodreads kloppen overigens niet. Het boek heeft 808 bladzijden en het boek is van 1995, niet 1998.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning of Kiss Chase was very confusing. It's started with so many characters, stories and settings that's hard to keep track. In fact, I just wanted to stop reading all together.  But the good reviews from some sources kept me reading it and after about 200 difficult pages, I starts to follow the plot and enjoy the story. Now I'm so glad I didn't give it up. This book is one of my all time favorit.

Saskia is cruely dumped by Felix, her gorgeous model and fiance. She's been in a wreck since (down to try suicide), and found that this also had been done to some other women. She decided to take revenge and begging her old frenemy Phoebe a.k.a Freddy to seduce and make Felix fall in love and at the end dump him  in a most public, humiliating way. Of course Phoebe and Felix fall in love with each other, deeply. 
The main characters aren't perfect. Freddy is funny, strong, and a little insecure, but she has an affair with and fall for a married man.  Felix is a good match - arrogant, gorgeous, divine and an utter jerk who turns out to be a sweet and insecure guy underneath it all (is this kind of man really exist?!)
I'm quite dislike them at first. But Freddy and Felix are so wonderful together that I can't help falling in love with them. They have an obvious chemistry in an adorable funny way only Fiona Walker can create it. 

It's one of the best romantic comedy I've ever read. I honestly laughed and cried... and I don't do either very easily. I strongly recommend this book to all chicklit lovers. Just keep through the difficult part, then you'll get a very lovely book. 

[Selina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK. This was my first Fiona Walker book and it was such a coincidence as it had been my friend who had picked it up from one of the library shelves, taken a look at the title and said "this looks like your kind of book" jokingly. I decided to read it, not really expecting much, but boy was I blown away.
Before reading Kiss Chase I had never really taken a look at chick-lit before. I think this was the book that got me hooked. The first half of the book or so wasn't exactly eagerly flipped through. I admit I found it somewhat crazy, with all the different characters and scenarios going on. It was only when Phoebe and Felix met that it became a massive page-turner.
I loved Phoebe and Felix together, but had hated them as individual characters. I found Phoebe to be really weak, and Felix to be a complete a*******. Yet it was probably Walker's intention as when we got to know them better I absolutely loved them both to bits - for all their quirks and flaws. I found it impossible to put down after Felix and Phoebe ended up in Paris together, and pretty much finished the whole book in 3-4 hours. It was THAT good.
I found the whole plot really intriguing - gorgeous model (Felix) being taught a lesson by a vengeful ex (Saskia) using a puppet (Phoebe). In fact I wished there was a movie about Kiss Chase. I can't really explain my extreme love for this book and all it's crazy up and down moments but to me it is the ultimate love story and left me with the biggest, goofiest smile on my face after it was done.

[Aimi Tedresalu · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021. aasta lugemismuljed:

Pea 800 lk naistekat võib tunduda ikka liig mis liig ja kuigi ma olen selle raamatu aeg-ajalt üle lugemist juba aegade algusest saati nautinud, siis nüüd ilmselt pean veidi rohkem aastaid vahet.

Juba 2017. aastal arvasin ma raamatu kohta nii ja ega see arvamus oluliselt muutunud ei ole:

"Raamatu tegevus toimub Londoni boheemlaslikes ringkondades. Mitte just väga kaua aega tagasi, aga siiski enne feissareid ja nutikaid. Peategelaseks võib pidada noorukest ja küllaltki metsikut Phoebet, kes ei suuda ühtegi töökohta pidada, pidutseb ohjeldamatult ja suudab end igasugustesse jamadesse mässida, muu hulgas armuromaan endast tunduvalt vanema ja muidugi abielus soliidse advokaadiga. Tõeline tegevus aga läheb lahti siis, kui Phoebe lapsepõlvetuttav Saskia palub tal kättemaksuks võrgutada oma modellist ekskallima Felixi, kes nii mõnegi naise jõhkralt maha jätnud on. Muidugi selgub mingil hetkel, et asjad hakkavad kontrolli alt väljuma. Lõpp on ilmselgelt etteaimatav, aga pärast sellist lugu ka väga tore.

Tüüpiline naistekas see kindlasti pole, vähemalt minu jaoks. Parim osa on kindlasti hea huumor ja kui raamatus toodud stseene reaalsuses ette kujutada, siis ei saa küll naeru pidama. Kogu see boheemlaste, pidude, armukeste, keerukate suhete jms virvarr tundub vaatamata äärmuslikele kirjeldustele täiesti reaalne ja loogiline."

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

At nearly 800 pages Fiona Walker's Kiss Chase is a mammoth chick-lit feast. Don't be put off by the length, with such a great storyline and strong characters you'll devour those pages in no time.
The main plot relates around three main characters - the irresistible Felix Sylvian, his ex fiance Saskia and her best friend Phoebe. Saskia, wanting revenge on Felix develops a plan for Phoebe to make him fall in love with her - and for her then to jilt him in the same cold and heartless manner that she felt she was treated. But as always nothing is quite as simple as it seems and there are many twists and turns in the plot. Plenty of other characters come into play and a few good sub plots but they all ultimately revolve around the fact - will Phoebe go through with it?

[Keris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Often referred to as the "Jilly Cooper of the Cosmo generation", Fiona Walker is renowned for writing novels full of eccentric English characters, twisty plot lines and overt sex scenes. Having previously devoured a couple of her more recent offerings (Lots of Love and Tongue in Cheek), I bought one of her earlier novels, Kiss Chase, to see if it lived up to the others.

Kiss Chase follows the journey of Phoebe "Freddy" Fredericks, an awkward but beautiful twenty-something who is begged by old acquaintance Saskia Seaton to help get revenge

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