Sealed with a Kiss
By: Lydia Criss
Published: October 31, 2006 – 368 pages

The book we never thought would come

Some books you just love from the first time you lay your eyes on them. And “Sealed With A Kiss” is one of them. I only buy two copies of a few books that I’m sure I will destroy one copy of because I read them til they fall apart. “Sealed With a Kiss” is one of them.

The first rumours of this book started i the 90′s when Robert Conte was supposed to release the book of Peter Criss ex-wife Lydia Criss about her life. It was one of the books I was really looking forward to seeing. A tale of an insider in the Kiss camp at the beginning. And one who also took a lot of pictures. I already had the pictures she had sold since the early 90′s and the great poster from Bleeker Street Loft in 1973.

As the years went and no more information about the book came I almost gave up on it. Until the news that Lydia would publish it herself surfaced on the net about a year before the book came out. She was also featured in Kiss Kollector and on the Backstage Auctions site at the same time. Backstage Auctions sold a lot of the Kiss/Peter related stuff for her that she had used in her book.

Later before the book came out Lydia started her own site lydiacriss.com to start promotion and take advance orders for the book. She also posted some pictures from the book as teasers leading up to the books release.

So what about the book?

Of course I ordered a signed copy at once when I was able. And the anticipation was more than enormous. So did it deliver? Of course It did, and more than that. The book was all I ever wanted It to be and more. It was so easy to see that for Lydia this was a labour of love. A project she had put a lot of her own money into and really wanted to succeed with.

I would easily say that this is the best Kiss related book ever released (together with Kiss Alive Forever). It is of course not the book that gives the best overview over Kiss career. But then again Lydia was just in the picture during the 70′s.

This book is an amazing collection of Kiss history from a first hand participant in the events that formed this band. And she paints a colorful picture of her life with Peter before Kiss and his career and their life together until their divorce at the end of the 70′s. The book contains an amazing collection of none before published pictures and clippings, that just makes your jaw drop the first time you look through the book. Here you have pictures from all the major early events you just had heard about before, and a lot of candid shots you never would have dreamt of ever seeing.

Some have complained that It’s just a book by a bitter ex-wife that wants to make some money. All I can say is that they probably haven’t looked at the book at all. One can tell that she really cares for Peter and looks back on that period of her life with a lot of affection. Even if the divorce probably was quite hard on her. She really seems to downplay that part of the story also.

I had the pleasure to meet her in Västerås in Sweden in 2010 at a Kiss Expo held by Kiss Army Sweden. Were she signed books and answered questions during a FAQ. She seems like a really cool lady. We didn’t get Sean Delaney’s (the book he wanted released) or Bill Aucoin’s books. But at least we got Lydia’s.

So if you haven’t bought the book. Then please buy it! I know the stock she had that she sold on her site is supposed to be sold out. But this book is so important to a Kiss fan that you really have to track it down one way or the other.

Now I think I have to re-read it myself again.

Verdict: 10/10