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A review by mlcarl
About That Kiss: A Heartbreaker Bay Novel by Jill Shalvis
4.0
“Do you realize that every time I’ve tried to protect you, you’ve managed to hold your own? And damn if that’s not sexy as hell, Kylie.”
After kissing Joe Malone and then having him never call her, Kylie’s ready to be done with the smoldering solider-turned-private investigator. Until she discovers she needs his professional services. As a woodworker, Kylie has a lot of carved pieces, but none as important to her as the tiny penguin her grandfather gave her before he died. So when her penguin goes missing and she starts getting ransom notes for it, it’s time to ask the most infuriating man on the planet for some help. Yeah, Joe didn’t call Kylie after that kiss. But that’s not because he wasn’t into it. It’s just because he’s not a long term kind of guy and doesn’t want her to get hurt. But the more Kylie shoves her way into his investigating and the more he sees her strength and courage, even through her ridiculousness, the more he’s finding himself unable to stop himself from loving her.
There’s so many things I loved about this book and so many reasons I’ve recently fallen so in love with Jill Shalvis as an author. She knows how to perfectly balance romance with plot and About That Kiss is no exception. I was so hooked on the plot and the intrigue of the missing penguin that the romance aspect and the development of feelings between Joe and Kylie just felt like perfect icing on an already delicious cake. There was enough romance to keep the plot from getting too heavy, but also just enough mystery to keep things exciting even between the scenes with Joe and Kylie.
Because there was more to the plot than just the romance and because Joe and Kylie each had their own issues they were dealing with, I found both of them to be so much more interesting. Shalvis knows how to write complex characters, especially when it comes to her heroines, and I found this especially true when it came to Kylie. Her career and the way that played into her appearance and attitude was really interesting. Former military turned private investigator/security/professional badass isn’t an uncommon career for a romance novel hero, but Shalvis did an amazing job of making it fresh and exciting. Joe wasn’t just out there protecting and being a hero for Kylie- she absolutely held her own in situations and wasn’t just the damsel in distress. Instead Joe’s skills were used in conjunction with Kylie’s brain and together they made a great and equal team.
The one thing I was less than thrilled with was a sort of love triangle where Kylie couldn’t seem to settle on Joe or her long time boss/friend, Gib. I felt like we were told rather than shown that Kylie was interested in both of them, so I had a lot of moments where I just wanted to shout “pick one already!” at Kylie. But as the friendship and working relationship between Kylie and Joe grew, the plot developed, and Gib sort of fell away to the background, I found it all working so much more for me.
I also loved the side characters and that they were introduced in a way that if you’d read the other books in the series, it was nice to come back and visit them, but if you were new to them, you didn’t feel utterly lost and confused. They filled out the story, but I never felt overwhelmed by the number of them or felt like I’d clearly made a mistake by jumping into a series with the most recent book rather than the first. But now that I’ve discovered how fabulous this series is, I have a feeling I’ll be picking up the books from the very beginning of it…
After kissing Joe Malone and then having him never call her, Kylie’s ready to be done with the smoldering solider-turned-private investigator. Until she discovers she needs his professional services. As a woodworker, Kylie has a lot of carved pieces, but none as important to her as the tiny penguin her grandfather gave her before he died. So when her penguin goes missing and she starts getting ransom notes for it, it’s time to ask the most infuriating man on the planet for some help. Yeah, Joe didn’t call Kylie after that kiss. But that’s not because he wasn’t into it. It’s just because he’s not a long term kind of guy and doesn’t want her to get hurt. But the more Kylie shoves her way into his investigating and the more he sees her strength and courage, even through her ridiculousness, the more he’s finding himself unable to stop himself from loving her.
There’s so many things I loved about this book and so many reasons I’ve recently fallen so in love with Jill Shalvis as an author. She knows how to perfectly balance romance with plot and About That Kiss is no exception. I was so hooked on the plot and the intrigue of the missing penguin that the romance aspect and the development of feelings between Joe and Kylie just felt like perfect icing on an already delicious cake. There was enough romance to keep the plot from getting too heavy, but also just enough mystery to keep things exciting even between the scenes with Joe and Kylie.
Because there was more to the plot than just the romance and because Joe and Kylie each had their own issues they were dealing with, I found both of them to be so much more interesting. Shalvis knows how to write complex characters, especially when it comes to her heroines, and I found this especially true when it came to Kylie. Her career and the way that played into her appearance and attitude was really interesting. Former military turned private investigator/security/professional badass isn’t an uncommon career for a romance novel hero, but Shalvis did an amazing job of making it fresh and exciting. Joe wasn’t just out there protecting and being a hero for Kylie- she absolutely held her own in situations and wasn’t just the damsel in distress. Instead Joe’s skills were used in conjunction with Kylie’s brain and together they made a great and equal team.
The one thing I was less than thrilled with was a sort of love triangle where Kylie couldn’t seem to settle on Joe or her long time boss/friend, Gib. I felt like we were told rather than shown that Kylie was interested in both of them, so I had a lot of moments where I just wanted to shout “pick one already!” at Kylie. But as the friendship and working relationship between Kylie and Joe grew, the plot developed, and Gib sort of fell away to the background, I found it all working so much more for me.
I also loved the side characters and that they were introduced in a way that if you’d read the other books in the series, it was nice to come back and visit them, but if you were new to them, you didn’t feel utterly lost and confused. They filled out the story, but I never felt overwhelmed by the number of them or felt like I’d clearly made a mistake by jumping into a series with the most recent book rather than the first. But now that I’ve discovered how fabulous this series is, I have a feeling I’ll be picking up the books from the very beginning of it…