Jossilynn

K Is for Karin is the final book in my author friend, Jossilynn’s Book Convention Romance series. It was a satisfying denouement in that it wrapped up all the loose ends from the previous books, but I felt that the romance itself in this one simply wasn’t as strong as the other couples’ stories were. Not to mention, I had very mixed feelings about the epilogue. In the time that I’ve been friends with Jossilynn and have read this series, I’ve discovered that she doesn’t really tell her stories in a traditional romance format. Past series’ characters get their own POV scenes, while she also occasionally does things that most romance authors wouldn’t dare to do. Depending on your perspective, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I like to give authors credit sometimes for creativity and writing outside the box, but at the same time, these things might not resonate with many seasoned romance readers like myself in the same way that more traditionally written romances do. Such was the case with this particular book. So while I enjoyed visiting with these characters who’ve become a close-knit family of friends, I found myself wishing that the romanticism of this book had been stronger to really make this series go out with a bang instead of what IMHO was more of a whimper.

The other thing I’ve discovered through my friendship with Jossilynn is that she and I have very different tastes in men. Despite that being the case, I’ve still liked all the heroes of the series and had no major issues with any of them – until now. Mine and the author’s disparate opinions on the opposite gender came to light when she read one of my books and my hero completely rubbed her the wrong way. Well, now I can say the same of one of her heroes, so we’re even. LOL!;-)

To call Mike the hero of this story would be overly generous, I think. He’s, without a doubt, one of the biggest jerk heroes I’ve ever read in a romance novel. He’s a total man whore, which under other circumstances I might have been able to live with, except that, when it comes to sex, he acts more like a college freshman than a mature thirty-something father who’s been married before and is dealing with the aftermath of his crazy ex-wife murdering his mother and trying to kill their daughter, too. Far from seeming to be grieving, the guy has a different woman in his bed every week, and even the heroine of the story doesn’t seem to be able to entirely tame him. I was having a very hard time believing that he was even capable of having a monogamous relationship, especially since the sex with his wife was apparently terrible the entire time they were married. This also called into question his ability to be with one woman (the heroine) at all in the future, even if their sex was off the charts. I also might not have been bothered by his behavior if he was only acting this way before Karin came along, but one thing I can’t abide in a romance is the hero sleeping with someone else after meeting – or at the very least after becoming more seriously involved with – the heroine. Right at the point where Mike appears to be ready to make some kind of commitment to Karin, he suddenly gets upset about her saying she doesn’t want kids, but instead of communicating and clarifying what she meant like a mature adult, he simply broke it off instantaneously. However, the real last straw for me with Mike is when he almost immediately brings a new woman home, sleeps with her in the next room (he and Karin live in the same house), and then without Karin knowing he’d done that, he tries to have sex with her without protection, mere minutes later. I’m like “Eww, please tell me he did not just do that!” I wasn’t convinced by his later explanation for why he did this, either. Not to mention, the “other woman” is someone that all of his friends can’t stand because she’s proven herself in the past to be a lying skank. This made me very dubious of Mike’s judgment, as well as his maturity level.

I thought that Mike’s one saving grace was him being a devoted father, and admittedly for the most part he was, but when he brought the “other woman” into the house around his daughter and seriously upset Heather by trying to force her to let the “other woman” take her to school when Karin was already scheduled to do it, I was just done with him. In the end, after a traumatic event, Mike finally realizes he’s been a jerk, but it was too little, too late for me. Regardless of whether Mike and Karin were supposedly soul mates brought together by the ghostly matchmaking Nurse K or not, Mike would have had to do a whole lot more groveling than what he did to get back in my good graces if he ever could’ve after being such an ass.

Although my personality is very different from Karin’s, making it a little difficult to relate to some of her choices, I did mostly like her. She’s the long-lost sister of Molly (K Is for Kismet). The two women are reunited in this book and fall into a sisters relationship fairly easily. After losing her adopted mom and later finding out her boyfriend was gay, Karin has been feeling pretty alone and like she doesn’t fit in well anywhere. So finally finding Molly after so many years of unsuccessfully searching is like a dream come true. Molly, her husband, Kade, and their large group of close-knit friends give Karin the place to belong that she’s always wanted. When she discovers that Mike, a guy she had a one-night stand with in Vegas, is a part of this group of friends, it’s a little awkward at first. The sex had been off-the-charts hot that night and she soon finds out it still is, but she barely even likes the guy and with good reason if you ask me.:-) (Having crazy hot sex with someone you don’t even like has always been pretty antithetical to me, but that’s just my opinion.) The one person Karin does like, once she gets to know her, is Mike’s daughter, Heather. Karin is somewhat uncomfortable being alone with Heather, because a child she was babysitting as a teenager drowned in the family pool on her watch. It was nothing more than a tragic accident that no one ever blamed her for, but Karin can’t stop blaming herself. However, that doesn’t stop her from treating Heather kindly, which is why I never understood Mike getting all bent out of shape and jumping to false conclusions over Karin’s comment about not wanting to have kids.

The romantic relationship (if you can even call it that, since there are no real romantic interludes) between Mike and Karin didn’t really do much for me. They start off with what was supposed to be nothing but a one-night stand, but Mike enjoyed it enough to leave Karin a note asking her to meet him again the next day. He got called home on the emergency involving his crazy ex, so Karin thought he’d stood her up, and that was that. Even after they find out that they have friends and relatives in common and they start things up again, it’s still just sex with no emotional connection and no commitment at all. In this instance, it’s not just me saying this subjectively, because the characters themselves admit as much. They argue all the time. Some of their banter could be mildly amusing, but even that wore thin after a while. They refuse to even say they like, much less love, one another, and it’s months before Mike kind of makes his quickly rescinded offer of a deeper commitment. During that time, they engaged in unprotected sex at least once or twice, which made me very uncomfortable, especially considering what a womanizer Mike is. He could have been carrying all kinds of diseases but miraculously isn’t, not to mention the pregnancy risk since Karin isn’t on the pill. Eventually, after STD tests and her getting birth control, they agree to a monogamous sexual relationship, only because Mike still wants to do it unprotected and she rightly won’t allow it otherwise. But then he has his lame-brained moment. The sex wasn’t even all that sexy to me this time, either. Sure they shared some fun, kinky times, and if that’s what floats your boat, then you’ll probably enjoy these scenes more than I did, but there’s little to no foreplay or post-coital bliss involved. They pretty much always just get down to business (even anal without lube – ouch!), and then when it’s over, that’s it, aside from sleeping next to one another. They don’t even kiss until about 2/3 of the way into the story, and even then I think I could count on one hand the number of times they kissed total. Normally having a paranormal element like the whole Nurse K/soul mates thing would have helped my disbelief a lot, but this time, even that couldn’t overcome the lack of romance and a strong emotional connection for me.

What I did like about the story and why I was able to give it three stars is the secondary characters. As has been the case with all the previous books, we get to revisit the hero and heroine of the last book. In this case, it was Molly and Kade getting several of their own POV scenes. They’re moving into a new house and awaiting the birth of their first child. They helped bring a little bit of romance into the story, because they exhibit the love connection that the main hero/heroine pairing lacked. We also get treated to Randy and Oscar’s wedding, which was nice, too. In fact, all the past heroes and heroines were present, supporting one another through the difficulties that life has handed them. Heather was a breath of fresh air as well. She breathes life into every scene she’s in, and I love that she acts like a pretty normal five-year-old, except for the fact that she can see dead people and animals. I was a little surprised, though, that she made it through the death of her mother and grandmother, as well as nearly being killed herself, relatively unscathed from an emotional standpoint. There is also one other supporting character who’s been there throughout the series and who was involved in that epilogue I mentioned that left me with mixed feelings. What Jossilynn did with him was kind of romantic in a way, but if she was going to write it that way, I wish she hadn’t previously paired him romantically with another secondary character. If not for that, I probably would have been OK with it, but because of that, the ending was very bittersweet for me.

I’ve liked all of the characters in this series, with the exception of Mike, so the opportunity to visit with them more in K Is for Karin definitely made it worth the read. The author tied up all the lose ends involving the past characters, so that I could easily see the whole group living their HEAs together. In the past books, Nurse K was a minor enough part of the story that I was still comfortable classifying them all as contemporary, but I felt the paranormal element in this one was much more prevalent. As I mentioned, Heather sees dead people and animals all the time and can communicate with them. Not to mention, we’ve now had several characters, both human and animal, who’ve been reincarnated, so I feel like I need to categorize this one as paranormal as well. Aside from some repetition (the characters do way too much smirking, shrugging, and eye rolling:-)), the writing itself is solid, so it was an easy read. If only Mike had been a more likable person and his relationship with Karin had been an actual romance instead of just sex, I know I would have liked this one just as much as the others in the series. As is, it’s still a decent wrap-up, just not one that I would likely revisit again.

Note: This book contains explicit language and sexual situations, including anal sex, light bondage, use of sex toys, and public sex acts, which some readers may find offensive.… (mehr)

In her Book Convention Romance series, my author friend, JossiLynn, has created a broad palette of characters with whom I could see myself being friends. Being the misfit that I am, I can’t help thinking I would fit in quite well with this unusual bunch, and that if they were real, they’d wholeheartedly welcome me into their “family of friends.” All of the heroes and heroines have sympathetic backstories that never fail to tug at my heartstrings, and I’ve come to care about each one in turn. That said, however, the author doesn’t usually dig quite deep enough to suit me when it comes to the characters’ internal conflicts. Sometimes there isn’t much internal conflict to speak of, even though their backstories are ripe for that type of exploration. Instead, it’s more about the external conflicts. Four books into the series, I’ve come to the conclusion that JossiLynn is more of a plot-driven author, who focuses primarily on the things that happen to her characters, but despite being a reader who prefers more character-driven stories, I’ve still enjoyed reading her books thus far.

In K Is for Kismet, Kade and Molly are the “main” hero and heroine. Kade has been lurking in the background since the beginning of the series. He’s an FBI agent, who was also a reservist in the special forces. He was called up for duty and went to Afghanistan, where he was gravely wounded in battle, losing a leg. Upon returning home and finding out that his future with both the military and the FBI were basically over, he became suicidal, but he was stopped from killing himself by a nurse named Karin, who he later found out was a ghost who had appeared to several other characters in the series, always portending a soul mate match. Since then he’s been living and working on a ranch next-door to his long-time best friend, Blake (K Is for Kissed), and sharing a house with his new best friends, Randy and Oscar (K Is for Kindred). Blake hires Kade to provide security for his convention and there he meets Molly. Because of his knowledge of the near-legendary ghost of Karin Cross, he’s also quite open to the idea that Molly is indeed his soul mate.

Molly is a New York Times best-selling author and regular attendee of the convention, who first appeared in the previous book, K Is for Kindred. She was previously in an abusive relationship and was nearly beaten to death by her ex. As a result, she suffers from epilepsy and has a service dog named Maggie who can predict when Molly is about to have an episode so that she can get to a safe place to ride it out. Because of a self-consciousness associated with her disability, Molly hasn’t really dated in recent history, but during a couple of her episodes, she was also attended by the ghostly Karin. She only learns about the history of this apparition when she meets Kade, and at first, she isn’t quite sure what to think. But it’s not long before she becomes a believer too.

I liked both Molly and Kade, but I felt like things were a little too easy for them as a couple. It’s pretty much insta-love and everything falls into place for them with little fanfare. Their relationship also moves at light-speed with them meeting, falling in love, getting married, and being prepared to start a family, all within a week’s time. They perhaps took a little more time to get to know one another than some of the previous couples in the series did, but they were still falling into bed within a day or two of meeting. Nothing really happened that posed any kind of genuine threat to their relationship either. They even discover that they share the same “kink” of enjoying role-play. For the most part, their love scenes didn’t seem quite as hot as some of the previous couples. I also have to admit that their first love scene was a little jarring for me too, because they’re role-playing, but it’s all playing out in Molly’s mind. Even though they were using their real names, this made it seem like more of a story within a story, involving different characters. Another thing that annoyed me a bit about this scene is that even though Kade did the right thing by trying to put on a condom, Molly refuses to use protection even though she admits she isn’t on birth control. Kade then offered to pull out, but coitus interruptus is a notoriously unreliable form of birth control, not to mention wild assumptions were made about them being STD-free. I simply have a pet peeve about couples in contemporary romance engaging in unprotected sex when they aren’t in a committed relationship or haven’t had an adult conversation about it. However, given where things go later in the story it might not have been such a big deal for me except that Molly’s excuse was that condoms didn’t exist in the forties and it was ruining her role-play scenario. I assume she meant the 1940’s, and condoms most certainly did exist back then. In fact, the first rubber condoms were manufactured in the 1850’s and even long before that, there were other types of condoms available. So her argument didn’t hold water for me. OK, history lesson and mini-rant over.;-) Even though the stakes in Kade and Molly’s relationship weren’t high enough IMHO, I did like them as a couple, and I’m willing to accept that they’re soul mates like all the other couples in the series have been.

As with the other books in the series (except the first one, of course), the hero and heroine (or in this case two heroes) of the previous book, play a huge role in the present book. They probably get close to fifty percent of the POV scenes, which as usual is a double-edged sword for me. I always enjoy visiting with them again, but sometimes I can’t help feeling that they’re taking away valuable page time from the “main” hero and heroine. In K Is for Kismet, to be quite honest, Randy and Oscar really stole the show. They’re the ones who are having conflicts in their relationship, both internal and external. Internally, they’re both struggling with their past sexual relationships and what that means for their future. Randy has a BDSM fetish and used to go to sex clubs for his fix but doesn’t really engage in that sort of sex play with Oscar. For his part, Oscar is wondering if he can permanently give up having sex with women, since the only sex partners he had before Randy were female. While in Vegas, they both agree to feed each other’s sexual needs. Oscar will accompany Randy to a sex club where he can play the dominant with another man, while Randy will engage in a menage with Oscar and a woman of his choosing. Of course, both men experience some feelings of jealousy in the process. I ended up having very mixed feelings about all of this. It was great to see the characters have some internal conflicts, but at the same time, I felt like this was something they should have worked out before making a commitment to each other and getting their supposed HEA in the previous book. For me, it all called into question their true feelings for one another. Admittedly, though, that all kind of paled in light of the climactic events near the end of the book involving both of their crazy estranged family members that leads to a lot of heartache and that made me sad for this couple, but at the same time, very much solidified their relationship once and for all.

In addition to Randy and Oscar, there are lots of other supporting characters. We get to see a little more of Samantha and James (K Is for Kink), and Blake and Lily (K Is for Kissed), who are both happy and settled in their marriages with kids who are growing like weeds. Samantha’s dad, Dan, and Blake’s mom, Luciana, are also happy together and playing the doting grandparents. Oscar’s best friend, Pete, and his boyfriend, Mario, are still together as well. Oscar’s sister, Janel, is as bitchy as ever, but she takes things a step too far in this book and finally gets what’s coming to her. We’re introduced to Kade’s friend, Mike, who works security with him at the convention and also has FBI ties, as well as his young daughter, Heather. Mike, along with a mysterious woman who keeps turning up in Randy’s and Oscar’s lives but whose identity we don’t know until the final lines of the book, become the hero and heroine of the fifth and final book of the series, K Is for Karin. Then there is the ghostly apparition of Karin Cross who continues to work her magic. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the wonderful animal characters, particularly Molly’s dog, Maggie, who seems to have ties to Karin, and Lily’s horse, Bonnie. Both of these animals become major heroes of the book, but the ending for one of them left me very sad.

Overall, K Is for Kismet was a good read that I enjoyed. I may have had issues with a few things, but in the end, I didn’t feel like they warranted knocking off more than one star. Deeper character and relationship development for Kade and Molly would have been nice, but I guess, despite my mixed feelings on the matter, Randy and Oscar, pretty much made up for it. I hated the things that happened to them, but they did add a lot of excitement to the story. I’m sufficiently intrigued by Mike, Heather, and Mike’s mysterious lady love that I’m looking forward to reading their book soon.

Note: This book contains explicit language and sexual situations, including role-play, anal sex, some BDSM, and a menage a quatre that includes M/M, F/F, M/F/F, and M/M/F/F interactions, which some readers may find offensive.… (mehr)

I’m still pretty much a novice to M/M romance. Compared to other readers, I’ve barely dipped my toe into the genre. I do enjoy them as much as any other romances, but for some reason, I typically only read maybe two or three per year. That’s why K Is for Kindred marks the first time I’ve read a “gay for you” romance. Now, I have to admit that I’ve been aware of this theme and its popularity for quite some time, but when I first heard of it, it raised my eyebrows. Doesn’t this somehow play into the belief that many people still harbor that being gay is a choice, I thought. Perhaps because of that feeling, I think I might have been avoiding this theme. Well, when my friend, JossiLynn, released her Book Convention Romance series, I couldn’t ignore it anymore if I was going to read the series in its entirety, which of course, I wanted to do. I approached it with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity as to how a (supposedly) straight man would turn gay, but I can’t say that I was disappointed. It was very obvious that Oscar and Randy were well-suited for one another and loved each other very much. The nerd in me, though, needed to research this “gay for you” phenomena, and I found a very good article written in part by Damon Suede, a gay author of M/M romance, who called the term outdated and that the theme would be more aptly named “out for you,” a term coined by author Marie Sexton. I like that phrase much better too, because especially after reading Mr. Seude’s remarks, it makes much more sense. So that’s what I’m going with.:-)

It also started me thinking about “gay for you” versus “out for you,” specifically in regards to how events play out in K Is for Kindred, and I realized again that “out for you” (or at the very least, bisexual) made a lot more sense. Everyone may have initially thought that Oscar was straight, but his best friend and roommate, Pete, is gay. He also doesn’t hesitate to strike up a close friendship with Randy, who as the other hero, is obviously also gay. Oscar has no trouble talking about sex, including gay sex. He’s extremely outgoing and flirtatious right from the opening pages, flirting like crazy with quiet, reserved Randy, and teasing him about the possibility of hooking up. He isn’t the least bit averse to sleeping naked with another naked man close beside him in the same tent, and he realizes that he isn’t particularly disinclined to something of a sexual nature happening between them. Since no fully hetero guy I know would do any of those things, yeah, I think Oscar falling for Randy was definitely a case of “out for you” or at the very least, him discovering that he’s bisexual. Now that I’ve satisfied my need to get all that off my chest, on with my review of the book.:-)

Randy is a shy guy who barely strings two words together most of the time, but I love how he instantly feels at ease with Oscar and is comfortable talking with him on a deeper level. Randy has worked for Lily (K Is for Kissed) for quite a while, helping her take care of her little ranch and her horses. He was her best friend and roommate through all of the pain and suffering she went through, following the rape, and was always there to wake her up from her nightmares. Now that Lily is so much better and in a strong relationship with Blake, it’s time for Randy to find someone of his own. There are a few things we discover about Randy in this book that were in turn intriguing and heartbreaking, but that I thought could have been developed a little more fully than they were. In the opening chapters, we find out that quiet Randy loves to play the dominant and usually goes to sex clubs to get his fix. However, the dominant side of him doesn’t really end up playing much of a part in his relationship with Oscar. Then we find out more about his background growing up, which explains his need for control. It’s a sad tale of prejudiced parents who never really cared for him and couldn’t stand him after he came out. Randy says his own father would do him bodily harm if he knew about his annual secret trips home ostensibly to see his mother. Randy’s love for his dog warmed my heart and broke it all at the same time, but I felt like there was a lot of fodder here for building his character in a deeper way that didn’t quite materialize. In spite of that, though, I loved Randy and was so happy that he finally found his own happiness with Oscar.

Oscar is a model and bartender who’s worked at Blake’s convention and always shows everyone a good time. He’s the outgoing charmer, a playboy who quite simply loves sex. But since he’s limited his sexual encounters to women so far, he’s a little surprised by how attracted he is to Randy. His and Randy’s friendship is pretty much like any two guys would be, regardless of sexual orientation. They genuinely get each other and love one another’s company, so I really enjoyed the friends to lovers aspect of the story, which is a favorite trope of mine. Oscar has his own troubled background, with the sister from hell, and now a stepsister with whom he had an ill-advised sexual relationship and who has teamed up with said sister to cause him grief. His father is a pretty wealthy businessman, who intends to pass his fortune on to Oscar, but his family would not look kindly upon him having a relationship with another man. I really like that Oscar cared far more about Randy and the friends whom he thinks of as his real family than he did about his inheritance. All that said, though, much like Randy, I would have liked to be inside his head a little more. The whole idea of merely being attracted to another man, much less being in a committed relationship with one, is very new to Oscar, but we aren’t really privy to his thought processes on how he comes to terms with all that. Otherwise, he’s a great guy who I couldn’t help but like too.

Much like how Samantha and James (K Is for Kink) played a big role in their story, Blake and Lily play a big role in Randy and Oscar’s story. They get many of their own POV scenes, which are probably about equal to Randy and Oscar’s. I find this to be a double-edged sword, though. On the one hand, if Blake and Lily’s perspectives weren’t included, it might have given space to more fully develop Randy and Oscar’s characters. On the other hand, in my review of the previous book, I was actually wishing for this to be the case, so I can’t say that I’m disappointed either. I did very much enjoy seeing Blake and Lily taking that next step in their relationship and other happy events in their lives as well as the roles they play in helping to get Randy and Oscar together. So I guess I can’t complain about this. If the trend continues, I’ll be seeing more of Randy and Oscar in the next book of the series anyway.

Other than craving a little deeper understanding of the characters, I very much enjoyed K Is for Kindred. The story moves along at a good pace with lots happening for our heroes and their friends. I love the characters JossiLynn has created. I could see myself being friends with them, and that isn’t surprising since I’m friends with her. She gets a few extra points for creating this close-knit group who are more like family to each other than most of their own families are. I enjoyed seeing something good happen for Pete. Even though I knew he wasn’t the right person for Randy, I didn’t want him to get left out in the cold. Blake’s friend, Kade, who was working for the FBI but was a reservist called up for active duty in Iraq, comes back a changed man, but Randy and the rest of the gang help him start to put his life back together. He becomes the hero of the next book, K Is for Kismet, paired with Molly Wood, an author at Blake’s convention that we briefly get to meet. And of course, Samantha and James were there too, along with Samantha’s dad and more heartwarming sightings of her ghostly mom, whose appearance always seems to portend a soul mate match. So overall, there was a lot to like in this book, and I look forward to continuing the series soon.… (mehr)

Full disclosure here, I’m friends with JossiLynn, but it doesn’t in any way affect how I felt about this book, nor did she give me a free copy. However, because of our friendship, I did read K Is for Kink, the first book of her Book Convention Romance series, as a beta reader, and I very much enjoyed it, even in its raw, unedited form. I loved Samantha and James and all their spicy sexual adventures at the romance book convention, but I was somewhat more taken by the secondary characters of Blake and Lily. Even without having talked with JossiLynn about which other characters she was writing stories for, I knew on instinct alone that their book would be next, so I was practically begging to read it ASAP. Unfortunately life got in the way and I never did get to do another beta read, but when the author released the entire series a few months ago, I picked up a copy of K Is for Kissed. I’m excited that I finally got around to reading it, and while not completely perfect, it was a very enjoyable read.

Lily is the sister of James (K Is for Kink) and as we learned about her in his book, she was brutally beaten and raped by her own father when she was only sixteen, and in that same book, her father tried to kill her. She’s spent the last seven years trying to overcome the physical and emotional scars that were left by that horrific experience. This story picks up exactly one year after the events of the first book. As the maid of honor for James and Samantha’s wedding, Lily is one of the co-organizers of their combined bachelor/bachelorette party that will be taking place at the romance book convention where they met. Believing it will be easier than having to reveal her entire history to someone in a relationship, Lily thinks that she might finally be ready to act like the twenty-three-year-old that she is and try a little fling. Since the convention is held in Las Vegas, she also thinks it could be the perfect place for a one-night stand. As luck would have it, she gets stuck in an elevator with a hot guy and throws caution to the wind, propositioning him to have sex with her right then and there, not knowing that he’s Samantha’s best friend and the best man. Lily is a sweet girl who hasn’t really lived life much until this book begins. Instead she’s been mostly isolated on her little Colorado ranch with only her horses and her gay roommate, Randy, for company. She tends to be pretty direct in expressing what she wants, and once her mind is set on a path, she doesn’t deviate from it. A part of me was applauding her for being strong and taking charge of her life, particularly her sex life, but another part of me wanted to understand on a deeper level how the rape had affected her. She has nightmares and anxiety from it, but I kind of wanted to be inside her head a little more. Otherwise I really like Lily and think she found the perfect partner in Blake.

Blake is a romance novel cover model who is the CEO of his own book convention. Pretty much everyone loves him and he never lacks for female attention, but he’s a hopeless romantic who’s looking for The One. He thought he’d found his mythical unicorn when Samantha showed up at his convention in the last book, and while they shared a few sexy times, she ended up choosing to be with James. He’s fine with that and they’ve since become great friends. That’s why they asked him to be the best man at their upcoming nuptials. But their solid relationship leaves Blake pining for someone special of his own. As he’s pulling into the parking lot of the hotel, he spots a gorgeous red-head, but she’s gone before he’s able to pick his tongue up off the floor. That’s why when he chances to see her again in the elevator, he’s happy to oblige her artless proposition when they get stuck there together. Of course he doesn’t realize that she’s James’s sister until later, but once he knows who she is, he’s more than ready to pursue her. Blake is a real sweetheart. I love that he was willing to take things at Lily’s pace and do everything he could to make her comfortable with their relationship and where it was going. I also loved him for being willing to uproot his entire life to move to Colorado to be with her as soon as she gave him the go ahead. Blake was just an all-around great guy who would be impossible not to fall for.

Samantha and James still play a large role in K Is for Kissed, getting quite a number of their own POV scenes. At first, I was jealous of their page time that seemed to be almost equal with Blake and Lily’s scenes. I couldn’t help feeling like they were taking away precious moments that Blake and Lily could have been building their relationship. But after a while I got used to it. Although I don’t recall them getting their own POVs, Blake and Lily had played significant roles in Samantha and James’s story plus all the characters are very close, so I realized that it was pretty natural that the reverse would be true as well. When it came right down to it, I can’t deny that I enjoyed Samantha and James too, as well as their wedding planning adventures and plenty of other events involving them.

There are a couple of things that made this a four-star read, the main one being that Blake and Lily’s initial interactions didn’t contain as much of an emotional connection as I would have liked. Lily goes into it, thinking that having sex with Blake is going to be a one-time thing and not even knowing his name, which in general isn’t my favorite way to start a romance. It’s also pretty much an insta-love story, which can go either way for me. In this case, Blake declares his love for Lily after only knowing her for a few days. I know he’s a hopeless romantic and all, but I wanted to be a little more in his head to know exactly what about Lily had made him fall in love with her so quickly. Lily is a little slower to give in, but even she comes around in fairly short order in spite of having a lot of fears and misgivings. So again, being inside her head a little more to understand how she changed her mind wouldn’t have gone amiss. However, after their first couple of sexy encounters that were a little shaky for me, I could feel the deep emotion between them during the love scenes, so that was a plus in helping me to feel that all-important connection and buying into them making a commitment to one another by the end even though they hadn't known each other all that long. The only other thing that bugged me a little was when Lily tells Samantha about what happened the night her father raped her. I reread the passage, so I don’t think I was misunderstanding her, and at one point she pretty much says flat-out that she practically begged her father to f*ck her so that he would stop sodomizing her with a baseball bat. Now I could understand her wanting that stop, but what I couldn’t quite make sense of is why she wouldn’t just beg him to stop period rather than begging him to rape her in a different way. I can buy into a lot of unusual scenarios in fiction, but I think this one needed a little more explanation for me to fully understand it.

Otherwise, I very much enjoyed K Is for Kissed. The characters are likeable and pretty relatable for me and for the most part, the romance is sweet and heartfelt with lots of spicy encounters. There’s definitely a decent plot here too and the writing itself is pretty solid, which is more than I’ve gotten with some erotic romances I’ve read. There’s a nice touch of the supernatural when the ghost of Samantha’s mother appears again, playing matchmaker and helping to protect someone from harm. We get to visit with several of the secondary characters from the previous book, some of whom will get their own stories in the series. Kade, Blake’s friend and an FBI agent, is seen briefly. He becomes the hero of Book #4, K Is for Kismet. I’ve always liked Lily’s quiet roommate, Randy. He gets paired with Oscar, another of Blake’s model friends, in the next book K Is for Kindred. To the best of my recollection, I’d always gotten the impression that Oscar was straight. But I do like the idea of this pairing, so I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading their book soon. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that maybe Blake and Lily will play as big a role in their book as James and Samantha did in this one. But either way, I’ve enjoyed reading the first two books in the series enough that I feel confident I’ll like the next one too.

Note: This book contains explicit language and sexual situations, including a little spanking, use of sex toys, and anal sex, which some readers may find offensive. It also contains graphic descriptions of rape that could be disturbing to some readers.… (mehr)