REVIEW – About That Kiss (Heartbreaker Bay #5) by Jill Shalvis

About That Kiss (Heartbreaker Bay #5)
by Jill Shalvis
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
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Synopsis:

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 the unique finder-and-fixer skills who 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.

Review:

About That Kiss is my new favorite Jill Shalvis book!  The characters captured my heart, the sexual tension between the two of them was scorching hot, and I could not put this book down.  I loved that there was a fabulous group of friends, an intriguing mystery, and scenes that made me have tears in my eyes.  About That Kiss was such a huge win for me!  If you haven’t read this series yet, you can jump in anytime.  Each book can easily be read as a standalone, which is always an added bonus!

“What kiss?”
He gave her a get real look.
“Oh, that kiss.” She shrugged nonchantely as she reached for her water bottle. “I barely remember it.”
“Funny,” he said in a voice of pure sin. “Cuz it rocked my world.”
She chocked on her water, coughing and sputtering. “The mirror’s still not for sale.” she finally managed to wheeze out, wiping her mouth.
I rocked his world?

One night, Joe and Kylie ended up sharing a passionate, smoldering kiss.  But afterwards, Joe never attempted to contact Kylie because he’s not a relationship type of guy.  And Kylie had no plans of letting Joe’s lack of actions hurt her heart.  But when something sentimental got stolen from Kylie, she knew that Joe could track it down. He worked for a security company and this was his area of expertise.  Yet what started off as a simple search, ended up being something more than either one of them could have imagined.

He grinned.  She was teasing him, and for some sick reason he loved it.  “You’re also not all that nice,” he said.  “And I really like nice.”
“Uh-huh. I bet ‘nice’ is right up there on your list next to, let me guess…a good personality?”
He laughed. “So young and yet so cynical.” he tsked, enjoying the hell out of himself. “You’re assuming the worst of me.”

While Joe was the one working the case, and wanted to keep Kylie safe, Kylie embedded herself into every part of the search.  So they ended up spending a lot of time around each other, and I found my heart melting.  I loved that we got to watch them slowly learn more about each other.  But their interactions weren’t always easy, so fireworks were definitely guaranteed!  You see, there was still a lot of tension from that last kiss.  And then there was an intense, sexual chemistry between the two of them.  It was so much fun watching their slow burn romance play out.  And I loved that slowly overtime, a true friendship started to emerge between the two of them.

She was an irresistible dichotomy of sweet charm and heart-stopping sexy, and she threw him off guard with every look, be it a smile or a glare. In fact, he kinda liked when she gave him dirty looks, which meant he was seriously losing his shit. And he never lost his shit.
Never.
Yeah.  He was royally screwed and the thing was even knowing that, he didn’t want to walk away because he enjoyed her so much.  How crazy was that?

I have to let you know that I absolutely loved Kylie and Joe.  Kylie was smart, stubborn, amazing at her job, honest, had the hugest heart ever and was so much fun!  I loved all of her little quirks and she was someone that I would have loved to have as a friend.  But one of my favorite things about her was how she brought Joe out of his shell.  And that’s because Joe was jaded and kept so many parts of himself hidden, because of his past.  Yet he had this loyalty, endurance and trust that was so beautiful.  He was such a hard worker and such a wonderful brother and son.  Ohhhh and I loved that he was very protective of those he loved.  So while the two of them were very different from each other in certain aspects, other times they resonated with one other.  They way they meshed together was breathtaking.

Vinnie trotted off toward the kitchen, stopping just short of the doorway to lift his paw and poke at the air.  When he was sastisfied that he wasn’t going to encounter a glass door, he happily made his way to the water bowl.
“What was that?” Joe asked.
“He has trust issues.”
Joe let out a low laugh.  “Well, at least we know where he gets them from.”

But there was so much more in this story that I fell for.  I Ioved Kylie’s adorable little dog, Vinnie.  He added so much heart and playfulness to the scenes!  And I loved this fabulous group of friends that this series revolves around.  They feel more like family to me and I loved seeing what they were up to!  So now I’m left beyond ecstatic for the next book in this series.  It’s going to be about Joe’s little sister and one of his coworkers, Lucas.  I already like the both of them so much and I can’t wait to read their story!  So yes, I absolutely loved this book and can’t recommend it enough!   

PS When Vinnie finally learned to fetch?!  Oh my gosh, I was laughing SO hard I had tears pouring down my eyes lol!!

*Book was kindly provided by Avon Books in exchange for an honest review*

Buy Links:

Amazon | B&N | GPlay | iBooks | IndieBound | Books-A-Million

 

Excerpt:

[scroll-box]

Joe studied her. “I asked you once before, but now I’m going to ask you again. Is there something going
on between you two?”

She tossed up her hands. “Why do you both keep asking me that about each other?”

His eyes narrowed. “I thought nothing was going on.”

“And before today, I could’ve passed a lie detector test on that,” she said.

“What happened today?”

She paused. Not because she had anything to be ashamed of, but because she wasn’t quite sure what
had happened.

“Kylie.”

She sighed. “It’s nothing.”

“Try again,” Joe said and gave her the very male universal go on gesture.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. He . . . finally made a move on me.”

Joe didn’t budge. Not a blink, not a muscle twitch, nothing, but she could’ve popped corn off the electric tension coming off him.

“Describe ‘made a move,’ ” he finally said.

She crossed her arms. “And again, how is this relevant to my case?”

He just gave her that careful stare again and she thought wow, those eyes of his should be registered as a lethal weapon, because she found herself opening her mouth and spilling her guts. “He kissed me.”

“He kissed you.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you know that you often repeat what I say?”

“What kind of a kiss?” he asked.

She was momentarily bewildered. “I don’t know. It was a kiss. A normal kiss. A nice kiss.” She cocked her head at him. “How many kinds of kisses are there?”

He just looked at her for a long moment before coming toward her. He backed her to the wall and pressed his big hands on either side of her head.

“There are many kinds of kisses,” he said.

Her breath had backed up in her throat, where her heart had lodged, pounding wildly. “S-s-such as?”

“Such as this one.” And then he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.
At the touch of Joe’s mouth, Kylie’s brain stopped being capable of rational thought. His tongue gave a knee-weakening stroke against hers and she let out a shockingly needy moan as she clutched at him, fisting her hands in the material of his shirt at his chest. Only when he’d thoroughly plundered and pillaged and left her boneless did he lift his head and
look into her eyes.

“Wow,” she whispered, fully aware she was still holding on to him like he was a lifeline, but the bones in her legs had liquefied. “I mean . . .” 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?”

Joe didn’t have to be asked twice. His mouth immediately descended again, his fingers sliding into her hair to change the angle of the kiss to suit him. It was a controlled, alpha thing to do, but she had only one thought—nothing about the usually carefully, purposely leashed Joe was in control at the moment.

And she liked it.

She had no idea how long they went at it because she was in absolute heaven. Who knew that the man could use his preferred silent mode to communicate in a way that she finally approved of?

Only when she was completely breathless and about to strip him down to his birthday suit did she manage to pull back.

“Any more questions?” he asked, also a little bit breathless, which was more than slightly gratifying. Dumbly, she shook her head. His eyes softened and he gently he stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “And FYI? Gib’s an idiot.”[/scroll-box]

 

About Jill Shalvis:

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website, www.jillshalvis.com, for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

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