REVIEW: About That Kiss by Jill Shalvis

In About That Kiss (Heartbreaker Bay #5) by Jill Shalvis, One drunken, earth-shattering kiss later and Kylie Masters can’t get that moment with sexy Joe Malone out of her head. Not that he’s paid her any attention since. Nope. Even though they both hang out with the same group of friends and work in the same neighborhood. So Kylie goes back to life as normal at her woodworking job and spending cuddle time with her pup Vinnie. But when a carved wooden figure is taken, the only thing she has left of her grandpa’s work, she’s beside herself. Kylie begrudgingly asks security expert Joe for help and they work out a deal. She just didn’t realize that smoldering hot looks, even hotter kisses, and a slew of attraction was part of the bargain. Not that she’s going to complain. Especially if Joe can help Kylie locate her prized penguin and have some steamy fun in the meantime.

“It’s been a long time,” he said.
“Since…?”
“Since I’ve had fun on a stakeout.”
She laughed. “I thought you were going to say since you’ve had a woman in your car who you weren’t trying to sleep with.”
“Who says I’m not trying to sleep with you?” he asked.
Note to self: Don’t tease him. He’s better at it than you.

Joe thought Kylie was joking at first when she asked him to help her find a wooden penguin. I mean, he’s former Army, former Special Ops for the government, and now works in security for their mutual friend Archer. But when he realizes how devastated she is to get “ransom” pictures of the carving, well, how can he *not* help her? Joe has to admit that working with Kylie is a trip. He’s never had so much fun on stakeouts or piecing together the clues on a case before. But he’s also never been pulled in so many directions at once. Between watching out for his sister Molly and their father, his dangerous cases at work, and that memorable kiss he had with Kylie, Joe knows he needs to get his head right. He’s just not sure if he’s got what it takes to make a serious relationship work. And he’s not willing to hurt Kylie while he’s trying to figure it out.

‘He’d known almost since that first kiss that she was someone worth going after. He’d been doing his damnedest to keep his emotions out of it, but he’d failed.
Spectacularly.’

Full of laughs, sweet romance, and the hunt for a carved wooden penguin–yep, you read that right–About That Kiss was another winner in Jill Shalvis’s entertaining Heartbreaker Bay series.

She shook her head. “Wow.”
He nodded. “Yeah. So to be clear, that wasn’t a ‘normal kiss’ or even a ‘nice kiss.’ It was a ‘wow’ kiss. Any questions?”
“Just one,” she said softly. “Can I have another?”

Jill Shalvis books are my literary happy place. No matter if it’s contemporary romance or women’s fiction, I know I’ll get a solid story, quirky characters, and a good dose of humor. That was definitely true of About That Kiss. We had sexy former Special Ops guy Joe and feisty woodworker Kylie in a battle of wills as they tried to work together to find her beloved penguin carving *and* ignore the growing attraction between them. A recipe for fun, yeah? Oh, yeah. Stubborn doesn’t come close to describing these two. So it was all kinds of hilarious watching them both get knocked off their feet by love.

Neither Kylie nor Joe had an easy past and it left them, well, to be honest, emotionally stunted. So even though they both knew they were falling for each other, they fought it with all their might. Didn’t work, but it was amusing to watch. But as fun as it was to see the sparks between them, I also adored watching them put their sleuthing skills to good use to find the carved penguin Kylie’s grandpa gave her. I have to say that the evil mind behind the kidnapping, or penguin-napping if you will, was nowhere on my radar. So kudos to Shalvis for sneaking that in so smoothly.

Sort of like a modern blend of the TV shows Cheers and Friends, the Heartbreaker Bay series has a cast of people I’d want to hang out with in real life and plenty of drama, giggles, and romance to keep a reader girl happy. I think Kylie and Joe’s rocky road to a HEA will leave Shalvis fans beyond pleased.
 

Book Info:

Publication: January 23rd 2018 | Avon | Heartbreaker Bay #5

When love drives you crazy . . .

When sexy Joe Malone never calls after their explosive kiss, Kylie shoves him out of her mind. Until she needs a favor, and it’s a doozy. Something precious to her has been stolen and there’s only one person with unique finder-and-fixer skills that can help—Joe. It means swallowing her pride and somehow trying to avoid the temptation to throttle him—or seduce him.

the best thing to do . . .

No, Joe didn’t call after the kiss. He’s the fun time guy, not the forever guy. And Kylie, after all she’s been through, deserves a good man who will stay. But everything about Kylie makes it damned hard to focus, and though his brain knows what he has to do, his heart isn’t getting the memo.

… is enjoy the ride.

As Kylie and Joe go on the scavenger hunt of their lives, they discover surprising things about each other. Now, the best way for them to get over “that kiss” might just be to replace it with a hundred more.