A Thousand Boy Kisses, by Tillie Cole

As Mamaw lay dying, she gave her granddaughter Poppy a mason jar filled with a thousand pink paper hearts.  Some kisses in life, she explained, were particularly special and she wanted Poppy to memorialize the ones that were by recording them down on a heart.  By the end of her life, with the jar full of completed hearts, Poppy could look back and remember her life of a thousand memorable boy kisses.

For Poppy, there really is only one boy:  Rune, the Norwegian kid who lives next door.  She is his "Poppymin" and he is hers to infinity.  They remained inseparable for years until, at age fifteen Rune and his family returned to Oslo.  Heartbroken, they kept in close touch until suddenly Poppy stopped writing altogether.  Bereft and desperate, Rune's grief tears him apart and makes him angry and violent.  When he and his family returned, he searches her out and demands to know why she broke contact.  The reason breaks his heart.

I gather that some people like psychopathic obsessive relationships and consider them romantic.  But for me, a relationship that is based on possession and self-destruction is not only unhealthy but scary.  The appeal is completely lost.  Add that the story is very slow moving and repetitive (how many times can the heart break and tears rend you in pieces?) and the thing becomes boring.  These kids needed serious psychological help from a trained counselor to sort out their insecurity and clinginess.  Rune's penchant for violence (towards himself and others) was a big turn off and a serious red flag.  Touting this as romance is actually pretty sick.

I'd give this a no-star rating because I hate the message it sends to young readers by glorifying a totally unhealthy relationship, but the author writes beautifully and I really enjoyed the story before it got all creepy.