BOOK REVIEW: Kiss the Sky (Calloway Sisters #1) by Krista Ritchie & Becca Ritchie

Kiss the Sky

Kiss the Sky (Calloway Sisters #1)
by Becca Ritchie, Krista Ritchie
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Virgin. Sex addict. Daredevil. Alcoholic. Smartass … Jackass. Her five friends are about to be filmed. Reality TV, be prepared.

Rose Calloway thought she had everything under control. At twenty-three, she’s a Princeton graduate, an Academic Bowl champion, a fashion designer and the daughter of a Fortune 500 mogul. But with a sex addict as a sister and roommate, nothing comes easy.

After accepting help from a producer, Rose agrees to have her life filmed for a reality television show. The Hollywood exec is her last chance to revive her struggling fashion line, and boundaries begin to blur as she’s forced to make nice with a man who always has his way.

Twenty-four-year-old Connor Cobalt is a guy who bulldozes weak men. He’s confident, smart-as-hell and lives with his equally ambitious girlfriend, Rose Calloway. Connor has to find a way to protect Rose without ruining the show. Or else the producer will get what Connor has always wanted—Rose’s virginity.

This New Adult Romance can be described as Friends meets The Real World. Expect fist fights, drugs, sex of varying degrees, crude humor and competitive alpha males. Definitely for mature readers audiences only.

People hope to touch the sky. I dream of kissing it.
-Connor

Let’s get this out real fucking quick: This book, this man, this story stole my heart. I know it’s been a lucrative year for me, good book wise, but that’s because I’ve surrounded myself with people who truly know me, my tastes, my obsessions, and, most importantly, my dislikes. And, while this has been on my TBR for probably a couple years, I never took the plunge. Why is that, you ask? All because of the reason I mentioned above-no one I knew loved it enough for me to do so. It’s not enough to have a fandom behind a series, because, let’s face it, that fandom would jump off a cliff for said series, and they just can’t be trusted-sorry. And it’s not because they’re lying about how good the series is-it’s really not that simple, because every opinion is subjective. And herein lies the problem: I have wanted so badly to read this book, but haven’t had enough ammo and found that it went against a number of my rules. Well, and excuse my French here, GR friends, because I’m going to be frank-I ABOUT FUCKING LOST OUT.

I let go of Rose and take a step forward. “We haven’t formally met,” I say, holding out my hand. “I’m Connor Cobalt. The guy whose girlfriend you want to fuck. And just so you understand, the odds don’t look good for you.”

 

If my dear, sweet, Rose-like (haha) Anna hadn’t have read this, I bet this would have sat on my TBR shelf another two years. But, as it is, she made me buy this. She pushed me to give this a try. Her reasoning?? Oh come on, now. Anyone who knows me and reads my reviews enough can probably guess a variation of what I’m about to say, but here it goes anyway: ‘Bu-bu-but…Connor…’ Or wait, am I mistaken? Wasn’t it more like: CONNOR. THAT IS ALL. Either way, it’s fucking clear. She knows me well enough to know that I would see past all the bull shit and drama (honestly it wasn’t what I expected, there wasn’t that much) and fall for the beautiful man that can’t love-Connor Cobalt.

I try to imagine a life without Rose and I see something gray, something motionless-a world without time and a place without color. I see mundane and dreary and lackluster.
I can’t lose her.
Not for anything.

And it’s true, I do have a lot of book pet peeves, and the list seems to become more excessive with each passing month rather than shrinking as I’d hoped it would. But sometimes the barest needs trump the pesky idiosyncracies that come with the territory of reading so many books. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes….the best books are hiding in your worst nightmare.

I had no one before Rose. No true friends. No family, not really.
Now I have her. I have people I care about. People that I want to protect.
Now I have everything.
The only thing about having everything is that you can lose it all.

And that worst nightmare is a fucking reality show type story (says the blurb, but I say hogwash) with a NA label, an addiction label, and a set of flawed characters that have either scared everyone away or drawn them to an inexplicable high that can only be flamed when a new book in the series is released. I chose to give the series a fair chance by starting with the story that appealed to me most, skipping the more depressing predecessors that scared some of my closest and best friends away. I may be taking risks and calling December my ‘fuck it, I need permanent BBF wins’ month and throwing my bookish inhibitions out the window, but I don’t want to commit book suicide and depress the shit out of myself right before the holidays-and my BDAY-AND VACAY-YAY ME. And even though I didn’t get the build up to Connor and Rose’s tentative relationship and battles from previous books, I couldn’t be happier with what I chose to do, because the minute these words were uttered (and if you read the book you know the context and just who he is talking to): “Suck. My. Cock.” I was a goner. I was in deep shit. I was utterly, completely, inexplicably Connor’s…and that was only in the prologue.

I meet those fierce yellow-green eyes. Even in the wake of my pain, she has this resilience that’s more beautiful than words can describe. It’s fire to my water. And I want her to burn me alive.

 

And one would think I was jumping to fangirly conclusions, but to that I say, you know, wait just a second there, Fella. Because, again, inexplicably, my BBF-dar was right on the money as each passing page made my lady boner fill out a little more and become fully erect by chapter two with every new Connor filled page. He had little flaws, sure, things that might have had me running for the hills (ahem, can anyone say diamond collar???) had I not fallen for him before such things arose, but, as it was, it didn’t bother me. In fact, I could have cared less. It certainly didn’t add to the story, but it didn’t deter my ass either. But then here’s the real kicker, and I am not at all shocked to say this, Connor wasn’t the only contributing factor to my bookgasm: Rose was a badass motherfucker as well….and she not only added to the story, but became one of my favorite heroines-say it like it is, Bitch, I got yo’ back.

 

I roll backwards, and he only grins more. This is not a cat-and-mouse game like he believes. I am not a mouse. And he’s not a cat. Or vice versa. I am the fucking shark, and he’s a lame human in my ocean.

Rose and Connor were perfect for one another, and not in the same ways. She’s the bitch to his peacemaker, she’s the cold virgin to his skilled lovemaking, she can love even as he claims love is inconsequential, she’s the business savvy, intelligent, competitive ass to his…well, they are the same on that front, but you get the point.

 

Rose Calloway was different. She was fashionable. But not a sorority girl. She was a genius on paper. But not a team player. She was quick to loathe others. But not against loving.
She was a complicated equation that didn’t need to be solved.

I could maybe understand how people wouldn’t connect with the say-it-like-it-is Rose who gets in people’s faces and snaps her fingers at the drop of a hat, but I did. I loved her. I thought it was comical, her prowess, her knowledge of all things business and things I will never know or understand. But there was an empowering feeling to it, as well, seeing her match word for word with Connor and not backing down on anything…

I hear the criticism already. And I don’t wilt by it. I’m just angry.
So bring it on, motherfuckers. Try to hurt me. Because I won’t let you.

but I think I’m forgetting my favorite part of Connor (they’re all my favorite, but whatever you get it), and all it did was make me love his cockiness on the outside even more.

She holds up a warning finger at me. “Don’t you dare say do you like what you see? I will break up with you right here if you utter those fucking stupid words.”
I laugh into a wider grin and say, “I don’t have to ask you, Rose. I already know you do.”
She pushes me lightly in the chest and tries not to share my smile. “Why am I with you? You’re so conceited, arrogant-“
“Narcissistic,” I add, “attractive, lovable, brilliant.”
“That wasn’t an invitation for you to compliment yourself.”

Connor had a gentleness to him that truly fleshed out his character and made him into such a circumvent character that my poor little heart had no chance whatsoever. His dedication, loyalty, and adoration for Rose stole my heart, and in those moments when people weren’t looking-and better yet, even when they were-he became someone who would die for the woman he….well….adores. Controlled, arrogant, intelligent, cocky, Connor is the poster child for that guy I’d normally want to strangle, but he just…ugh. I can’t even. You don’t understaaaaandddd. He can’t love, or rather, he was raised to believe love isn’t what matters-However you want to explain it. So you think, okay, no jealousy, right? There can’t be. The cool, calm, collected Connor can’t be jealous if he doesn’t love her…

 

I spent years building barriers and defenses. I could take care of a woman better than any other guy could. But my mother never taught me how to love.

 

but wrong, WrongwrongwrongwrongWRONG. Everything is a game, who can win, who is best, who will get the girl….but it isn’t, not really. Not for Connor. He plays it like it’s not about him loving her, that his goal is only to devirginize her (again, not really, that’s such a small piece of what Connor could be like), but when the cameras stop rolling, when the show airs or he hears things that people say about her or when he thinks Rose is threatened or he might lose her…the real Connor slips, his façade starts to fade, and we begin to see just how deeply he *ahem* adores her, and just how much he’d give up to be by her side. And, I assure you, that was certainly not in the blurb.

I rub her back, the water slowly turning lukewarm. As she rests on my lap, something strong grips my heart. I’ve never been so possessed by another person before. She consumes my body and mind in ways that I can’t articulate.

Speaking of: That is one of the shittiest blurbs I’ve ever read. That blurb doesn’t do this book justice. I won’t elaborate, but just know that there was so much more that should have been said, or maybe even not said, I don’t know.

I near her, cupping her face with large rough hands. I stare down into her yellow-green eyes. “You’re not a pit stop. You’re my finish line. There’s no one after you.” I kiss her powerfully, my tongue parting her lips, and she responds. But not as much as I hoped. So I break apart and add, “I want you for eternity, not for a brief moment in time.”

And yeah, there were parts that might have lagged??? I don’t know, because I’ve been very sick, unfortunately, and it was the kind of sick that drained you and you couldn’t read after the day was over because your eyes just wouldn’t let you. So, yeah, I lost connection at times and it truly broke my heart, because this is one of my absolute favorites and that stunted my enjoyment and maybe even my judgment a little, but it should also say something. Even after reading only two chapters a night for a while, this still got a five. C’mon now, that’s amazing.

I think I hate him now.
“I know you’re glaring and I can’t even see your eyes,” Connor tells me. “Would you call that intuition or magic?”
Well, Connor doesn’t believe in magic. If Hogwarts actually existed I’m sure they’d send an owl to shit on his head.

And, finally, Rose’s addiction: I was kind of obsessed with it, no pun intended. She has a severe case of OCD, needs everything to be spick and span, neat, clean, tidy, organized, you name it. And when something goes wrong, she loses it, and this is where Connor’s adorable sweetness shone through, becoming her knight in shining fucking armor, making all his earlier vulnerabilities that much more endearing. Just…sigh. And yes, I did make something about Rose come full circle back to my boy-shut it.

 
“Rose,” Connor says, half with worry and half with warning.
I don’t listen. Still holding my wine glass, I squat down in front of the tabby cat. She’s a hostile bitch (like me). She has scratched my arms. Hissed at me. And I swear she pissed on my Jimmy Choos, although I can’t confirm that.

So…phew. That’s it. I could keep going but I think I’ve fangirled enough, yes?? I’ve touched on it’s flaws, possibly forgetting to mention, perhaps, the heir of unbelievability at times and maybe a few things I wish hadn’t happened arising. But other than that, I have nothing more to say lest I bore you with my word vomit. I didn’t dislike Lo and Lily, but I do wonder how the first books are so popular. Lo is sexy, admittedly, but he can be very cruel, making me cringe at times. And Lily was a tad whiney and backwards for me, making them my least favorite couple-HOWEVER-if not only because I need to see young adversaries, Connor and Rose, in the background (don’t let me fool you, that’s totally why) I may someday commit book suicide to see why book one is so depressing. I will run out of Calloway sisters spin-off books eventually, likely before January 2016 has passed, and I’ll definitely be craving them. I’m a glutton for punishment and will probably hate it…and I might not ever get to it, but I might someday look into it-It’s just not completely off the table, is all I am saying. Who knows. I certainly don’t. I mean….I’ve tried literally everything outside of my comfort zone this year, maybe 2016 will make me crazy like Ryke and Daisy (wooohoooooooo, wordplay). 😛

 

“Kiss the sky with me,” Connor whispers, a beautiful smile pulling his lips, “and don’t ever come down.”

 

 

 

*******************

“Kiss the sky with me,” Connor whispers, a beautiful smile pulling his lips, “and don’t ever come down.”

INSTANT.

BOOK.

BOYFRIEND.

INSTANT.

FAVORITE.

‘Nuff said.

Oh, and review to come, if I can!!! I HAVE TO TRY FOR CONNOR!!!!

View all my reviews

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