Love and Kisses

Love and Kisses is one of the many published works of Jean Ure.

Plot
Love and Kisses is a story about young love when Tamsin, a thirteen-year-old girl falls in love with a 17 year-old construction worker named Alex. The two fall in love with each other and plan many secret dates behind Tamsin's parents' back with the reluctant assistance of her best friend Katie, who was hesitant to help. However, when Tamsin goes on a date with Alex and arrives very late at night, she was forced to admit her secret meetings with her older boyfriend to her parents and was fiercely scolded afterwards, later resulting in her father demanding her never to see Alex again. Infuriated and hurt, Tamsin's relationship with her parents become unstable, even resulting in her screaming at her mother and telling her that actors just carelessly dump their kids with anyone (her parents are both actors) before bursting into tears and leaving the room. She was then shipped off to be with her Aunties during the summer with her half-sister Ellie, and she became miserable at the prospect of not seeing Alex for so long that she arranges to run away with him shortly before her birthday. However, during her stay with her aunties, Tamsin experiences odd things happening around the house, like meeting the young ghost of her grandmother's sister Patty that went through a similiar scenario concerning love life in her early years, even to the point of running away. Despite the distractions and the arrival of Patty's granddaughter Maggie, Tamsin could not bear not seeing Alex for so long and agrees happily when Alex asked her via text message whether he could come see her when Ellie, Maggie and her aunties were away. But during her trip around the city with Alex, Tamsin suddenly felt bad about lying to Alex about her age and tells him tearfully that she was actually 13, not 16 as she led him to believe. Despite being tricked, Alex blames himself and informs Tamsin that he could no longer see her and vice versa because he was too old to be her boyfriend. Heartbroken, Tamsin tells Maggie all about her shattered love life with Alex and it turns out she was very sympathetic and even offered advice on the situation. As the story nears the end, Alex has gotten over the break-up and patched things up with Katie, and is even seeing a new boy named Dillon Mackenzie. Despite the new changes in her life, at the very end of the story Tamsin says that she will never forget Alex.