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A review by harasnicole
Kiss Me Ever After by Julie Archer
3.0
Lennon Cole has it all mapped out, bright lights, New York and living the high life. Until a shady deal in her father's business world brings everything she knows down around her. With nothing left, Lennon ends up in the one place she doesn't want to be; at her grandparents' holiday home in Ealynn Sands.
Justin Navarro has it all sorted. The bad boy of Ealynn Sands, his reputation precedes him. If there's one thing he can't abide, it's tourists flying into his hometown and leaving again without a backwards glance. Like Lennon Cole. Sure, they've had moments… Near misses and almost kisses, but he could never be interested in a pampered princess like that.
If I can be completely honest with you, based on the first chapter alone, I didn't think that I would enjoy this book at all because the dialogue is the kind of cheesy that I dislike and I almost DNF'd there, but forced myself to keep reading and give it a chance, hoping that it would get better.
And you know what? It did. Kind of. For the most part.
I've always been a sucker for romances that have a perceived "bad boy" love interest with a big heart and Kiss Me Ever After gave me that and then some. I enjoyed the push-and-pull between Lennon and Justin and was really able to feel their steamy chemistry come to life. The way they tried to avoid one another until an incident that happened at a local café one night definitely served me that slow-burn that I've liked to read as of late, and when they finally get together for the first time, it's ... not explosive, but definitely passionate. Like all of their built up sexual tension from the past however many summers revolving around each other finally came to a head.
The things that I didn't like weren't many, but they were pretty big pet peeves of mine when it comes to romance novels, and one of them happens quite frequently throughout the story. Lennon has a tendency to jump to conclusions when it comes to Justin, whether it's something that she's overheard, or just a random conversation they had that she looks back on and suddenly she's second-guessing everything and I'm just like, "Well, that's a stretch," every time it happens.
This is going to sound violent, but the jumping to conclusions annoyed me so much, it got to a point where I wanted to slap Lennon with my Kindle to make her stop. There's also a lack of communication that goes on for several chapters because Justin's ex-girlfriend did what most toxic ex-girlfriends do, and instead of hearing him out or even giving him the chance to to say anything at all, Lennon, again, jumps to conclusions and is suddenly so certain that he's made his choice when he was barely wrapping his head around the bombshell news he had received.
Speaking of Justin's ex-girlfriend -- whose name I've already forgotten -- I did think most of her arc was kind of cheap and cliché and I wasn't a fan of it, but that's most likely a me thing and not the fault of the story. I'm just tired of reading girl-on-girl hate, especially when the reasoning behind the supposed hate is just because she doesn't like Lennon and thinks that she "always gets what she wants."
All in all, I didn't love this book, but I also didn't dislike it either. For me, it falls kind of middle-of-the-road and I struggled with how to rate this because at least one of the issues I had with the story may definitely be a me thing. If you're into slow-burn new adult romance books with a bad boy with a heart of gold love interest and a female protagonist who's down on her luck and trying to find her own way in the world, or if you like stories that take place outside of the United States -- Kiss Me Ever After is set in England -- then this could be a story for you.
Overall Rating: 3 Stars.
Justin Navarro has it all sorted. The bad boy of Ealynn Sands, his reputation precedes him. If there's one thing he can't abide, it's tourists flying into his hometown and leaving again without a backwards glance. Like Lennon Cole. Sure, they've had moments… Near misses and almost kisses, but he could never be interested in a pampered princess like that.
If I can be completely honest with you, based on the first chapter alone, I didn't think that I would enjoy this book at all because the dialogue is the kind of cheesy that I dislike and I almost DNF'd there, but forced myself to keep reading and give it a chance, hoping that it would get better.
And you know what? It did. Kind of. For the most part.
I've always been a sucker for romances that have a perceived "bad boy" love interest with a big heart and Kiss Me Ever After gave me that and then some. I enjoyed the push-and-pull between Lennon and Justin and was really able to feel their steamy chemistry come to life. The way they tried to avoid one another until an incident that happened at a local café one night definitely served me that slow-burn that I've liked to read as of late, and when they finally get together for the first time, it's ... not explosive, but definitely passionate. Like all of their built up sexual tension from the past however many summers revolving around each other finally came to a head.
The things that I didn't like weren't many, but they were pretty big pet peeves of mine when it comes to romance novels, and one of them happens quite frequently throughout the story. Lennon has a tendency to jump to conclusions when it comes to Justin, whether it's something that she's overheard, or just a random conversation they had that she looks back on and suddenly she's second-guessing everything and I'm just like, "Well, that's a stretch," every time it happens.
This is going to sound violent, but the jumping to conclusions annoyed me so much, it got to a point where I wanted to slap Lennon with my Kindle to make her stop. There's also a lack of communication that goes on for several chapters because Justin's ex-girlfriend did what most toxic ex-girlfriends do, and instead of hearing him out or even giving him the chance to to say anything at all, Lennon, again, jumps to conclusions and is suddenly so certain that he's made his choice when he was barely wrapping his head around the bombshell news he had received.
Speaking of Justin's ex-girlfriend -- whose name I've already forgotten -- I did think most of her arc was kind of cheap and cliché and I wasn't a fan of it, but that's most likely a me thing and not the fault of the story. I'm just tired of reading girl-on-girl hate, especially when the reasoning behind the supposed hate is just because she doesn't like Lennon and thinks that she "always gets what she wants."
All in all, I didn't love this book, but I also didn't dislike it either. For me, it falls kind of middle-of-the-road and I struggled with how to rate this because at least one of the issues I had with the story may definitely be a me thing. If you're into slow-burn new adult romance books with a bad boy with a heart of gold love interest and a female protagonist who's down on her luck and trying to find her own way in the world, or if you like stories that take place outside of the United States -- Kiss Me Ever After is set in England -- then this could be a story for you.
Overall Rating: 3 Stars.