Review: Comical but not deep
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2013
Jenna and Luke are mutual friends of their two best friends that are now married. Luke is a total playboy - shying away from any type of commitment because he likes the chase game. Jenna has had a rocky past and just prefers non-committal relationships to avoid rejection. But, the playboy is suddenly looking for more, and he thinks that taming the playgirl is just the thing he needs to do to get more.I think the Kiss Me is one of those "Meh" or "Great!" books. I found the beginning of the book hilarious, but it's because it spoke to me on more of a personal level. You have these two people that are happily married and loving life. Then you have their respective best friends that are out doing whatever with who knows who. So why not try to fix them up? If you've ever been friends with someone you might want more with, or have a friend that really likes to play match-maker, I think you can find the humor in all of this.What's better is that the roles are completely reversed from the traditional nice-girl-tries-to-tame-playboy plot. And so the dialog and actions of the characters are comical...yet show real perspectives between Jenna and Luke. This is where I think some might not like the book though. Jenna, for as much as a career driven and strong independent person that she is, seems to loose her mind and act quite needy around Jake from the start. But, I looked at this from another way and saw Jenna as someone who struggled with the idea that emotional and physical independence are really one of the same. Thus, she tried to have one with out the other and got caught up in her own game.To give you an idea of the writing style, here are some of my favorite lines:...she knew guilt served absolutely no purpose. Guilt sidetracks true feelings and manipulates motivations... - Jenna is very perceptive. Not just a character going with the flow of things.He finished securing the curtain rod. "No, it's better to drill a hold, then screw the brackets in place.""Gotcha. No nailing. Drill, then screw," she said. - There are plenty of these types of lines to build the play between Luke and Jenna. Many are the classic plays on words, but I love it!"All of this man-grill talk is slowing up dinner. I swear, the only thing Nate can cook is a scrambled egg, but get him close to a grill and the man thinks he's Michael Symon." - Haven't we all been there??Kiss Me is a fun read. I enjoyed the plot and the characters and felt that there was good reasoning behind their ways of life. While it doesn't feel rushed at first, in the end you realize that they've been dating a very short period of time...which makes it feel a little off.Don't expect to go into this book with a 5 star character development and conflict/resolution. Go into it with a 4 star expectation of something short and amusing with a little emotional strife and sexy play - Maybe a 3 star if characters that seem to change their lives too quickly really irks you.Ratings:Steam: ****+Characters:  ***+Writing: ****Plot: ****