Genre: Contemporary Romance (Harlequin Blaze)
POV: 3rd Person (hero and heroine’s perspectives)
Sensuality: Hot
Violence: N/A
My Grade: C
I read Just Kiss Me by Kathleen O’Reilly as part of Keishon’s monthly TBR Challenge. I bought it as part of the Dear Author Blogger Bundle from eHarlequin, and it was my least favourite of the four books included in the bundle.
Amanda Sedgewick has been the reluctant object of Avery Barrington’s affections since elementary school. She’s a blonde and beautiful lawyer; he’s a handsome and successful surgeon. On the surface, they should be the perfect match, but Amanda has evaded Avery’s pursuit as she thinks they lack chemistry. Chemistry is something she definitely feels for Avery’s younger brother, Joe, whom Avery carelessly dismisses as being beneath her as he is merely an airline mechanic.
In an effort to get Avery to stop proposing and find a woman who will return his devotion, Amanda manipulates Joe into posing as her fiancé for a few months. Joe is exceedingly reluctant to go along with the ruse, not least because he’s harboured a secret tendre for Amanda for years.
Despite finding Amanda attractive, Joe doesn’t think they would make a good couple. Amanda, on the other hand, is bent and determined to turn their fake engagement into a passionate affair. She wants to shed her good girl image for once and for all and embrace her passionate side, and she figures Joe is just the man for the job. Naturally, Joe and Amanda are soon having hot sex and somehow fall in love, in spite of Avery’s best efforts to drive them apart.
While I thought Joe made a good hero, I wished he ended up with a more worthy heroine. I disliked Amanda and I couldn’t understand how she could be so manipulative of Joe on the one hand, yet seemingly incapable of deflecting Avery’s unwanted attentions on the other. I also found Avery creepy. The author did attempt to salvage his character later in the book, but I had already filed him under ‘Stalker’ by that point.
I’ve enjoyed several of Kathleen O’Reilly’s books for Harlequin Blaze but I didn’t feel the love for Just Kiss Me.
{ 1 trackback }