Author: Jill ShalvisSeries: Heartbreaker Bay #5
Audience: +18
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: January 23rd 2018
My Rating: 4 Cups
Source: Publisher
Blurb (from Goodreads):
When love drives you crazy . . .*Disclaimer: I received an eARC from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my ranting or the content of my review in any way.
When sexy Joe Malone never calls after their explosive kiss, Kylie shoves him out of her mind. Until she needs a favor, and it’s a doozy. Something precious to her has been stolen and there’s only one person with unique finder-and-fixer skills that can help—Joe. It means swallowing her pride and somehow trying to avoid the temptation to throttle him—or seduce him.
the best thing to do . . .
No, Joe didn’t call after the kiss. He’s the fun time guy, not the forever guy. And Kylie, after all she’s been through, deserves a good man who will stay. But everything about Kylie makes it damned hard to focus, and though his brain knows what he has to do, his heart isn’t getting the memo.
… is enjoy the ride.
As Kylie and Joe go on the scavenger hunt of their lives, they discover surprising things about each other. Now, the best way for them to get over “that kiss” might just be to replace it with a hundred more.
**Disclaimer: This book contains mature content. As such, my review may also contain references to mature content.
I've been dying to read another Jill Shalvis book for a while now and I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed.
About That Kiss is the story of Kylie and Joe as they go on a scavenger hunt for a childhood trinket, and along the way they stumble on some pesky feelings, as well as some personal discoveries. Kylie is someone who isn't looking for love with someone like Joe, someone fun, with a touch of danger attached to him. Scared of repeating her mother's mistakes, Kylie swore to keep her relationships on the safe side, even if they might not be exactly what her soul needs. She's determined not to repeat her mother's mistakes and to not let herself become her mother. At the same time, Kylie is hurt and lonely, living with a sense of guilt for something she's convinced she did. And that guilt is keeping her away from everybody, even if she might not come out and say it. It was clear to me that the guilt she was carrying was influencing not just her personality and her conscience, but also her relationships. I like how this scavenger hunt, however big or small it is, forces her not only to face her fears, but also to voice those fears, especially regarding her guilt. She finds out some surprising things along the way as well, but mostly she learn to fight those fears of hers.
Joe is a fun hero to read about. I liked how even though he was angry at his dad, he still helped him out and he didn't abandon him. He's a pretty honorable guy. He also agrees to help out Kylie, even though he's not very convinced in the beginning it's not all just a big, innocent prank. The most charming thing about Joe, however, is what he does at the end. I'm not going to spoil anything for you, don't worry, but just now that what he did for Kylie warmed my heart and made me love him.
I have to say, this book surprised me a little. I had my eye on one character for the role of the villain, but it turned out that I was suspicious of the wrong person. I liked that, to be honest. I also liked the pace of the story. I read it pretty fast and I had fun doing it.
I had fun reading this book and I honestly can't wait to read the next story in the Heartbreaker Bay series.
EXCERPT
Joe studied her. “I asked you once before, but now I’m going to ask you again. Is there something going on between you two?”
She tossed up her hands. “Why do you both keep asking me that about each other?”
His eyes narrowed. “I thought nothing was going on.”
“And before today, I could’ve passed a lie detector test on that,” she said.
“What happened today?”
She paused. Not because she had anything to be ashamed of, but because she wasn’t quite sure what had happened.
“Kylie.”
She sighed. “It’s nothing.”
“Try again,” Joe said and gave her the very male universal go on gesture.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. He . . . finally made a move on me.”
Joe didn’t budge. Not a blink, not a muscle twitch, nothing, but she could’ve popped corn off the electric tension coming off him.
“Describe ‘made a move,’ ” he finally said.
She crossed her arms. “And again, how is this relevant to my case?”
He just gave her that careful stare again and she thought wow, those eyes of his should be registered as a lethal weapon, because she found herself opening her mouth and spilling her guts. “He kissed me.”
“He kissed you.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Do you know that you often repeat what I say?”
“What kind of a kiss?” he asked.
She was momentarily bewildered. “I don’t know. It was a kiss. A normal kiss. A nice kiss.” She cocked her head at him. “How many kinds of kisses are there?”
He just looked at her for a long moment before coming toward her. He backed her to the wall and pressed his big hands on either side of her head.
“There are many kinds of kisses,” he said.
Her breath had backed up in her throat, where her heart had lodged, pounding wildly. “S-s-such as?”
“Such as this one.” And then he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.
At the touch of Joe’s mouth, Kylie’s brain stopped being capable of rational thought. His tongue gave a knee-weakening stroke against hers and she let out a shockingly needy moan as she clutched at him, fisting her hands in the material of his shirt at his chest. Only when he’d thoroughly plundered and pillaged and left her boneless did he lift his head and look into her eyes.
“Wow,” she whispered, fully aware she was still holding on to him like he was a lifeline, but the bones in her legs had liquefied. “I mean . . .” She shook her head. “Wow.”
He nodded. “Yeah. So to be clear, that wasn’t ‘a normal kiss’ or even ‘a nice kiss.’ It was a ‘wow’ kiss. Any questions?”
“Just one,” she said softly. “Can I have another?”
Joe didn’t have to be asked twice. His mouth immediately descended again, his fingers sliding into her hair to change the angle of the kiss to suit him. It was a controlled, alpha thing to do, but she had only one thought—nothing about the usually carefully, purposely leashed Joe was in control at the moment.
And she liked it.
She had no idea how long they went at it because she was in absolute heaven. Who knew that the man could use his preferred silent mode to communicate in a way that she finally approved of?
Only when she was completely breathless and about to strip him down to his birthday suit did she manage to pull back.
“Any more questions?” he asked, also a little bit breathless, which was more than slightly gratifying. Dumbly, she shook her head. His eyes softened and he gently he stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “And FYI? Gib’s an idiot.”
ABOUT JILL SHALVIS
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