THE FIRST KISS is book two in the contemporary romance series Sweetest Kisses by Grace Burrowes. I haven't read book one in the series yet, as I was too slow to click the hold button at the library, and so there are six other people ahead of me on the hold waiting list. I typically LOVE Burrowes' work. She has written historical romance, and this is her first foray into the contemporary romance genre. Vera Waltham is a very much a typical Burrowes heroine, and I find that the passive long suffering woman I can happily embrace in a historical heroine is not something I tolerate well in a contemporary character.

I feel Vera is insipid. A famous performance pianist, she has been married twice to two scoundrels who leave quite a bit to be desired. She has a restraining order against the second ex-husband, and is getting threatening phone calls and house break-ins. Her divorce attorney has a handsome and good-looking brother who is a business attorney in the same firm, who turns out to be Vera's close neighbor. Vera is understandably but annoyingly gun shy and determined to stay away from James, who seems to be the town man-floozy. James steps up to "cosset" and protect Vera in the face of her anonymous threats.

There is a slow and sweet relationship that builds between the two, which stays nonsexual for a long time, given Vera's timidity. This is meant to demonstrate James' commitment to Vera, but I found it unbelievable that such a playboy would act as James does. Vera has a daughter (Burrowes' characters usually have a small child or two), who takes immediately to James. While there are occasional childish tantrums, the daughter seems too perfect, as do so many of the family dynamics here.

And the brownies! Oh my god, Vera is making brownies and cookies daily. People are shoveling them down by the handfuls constantly (and not gaining weight?!). I actually got annoyed reading about the continual brownies and cookies. Not that baked goods by themselves are problematic, but they seemed to focus my ire on this book that was not the tour de force that I have come to expect from one of my favorite authors. I will reserve judgment on this series until I have read another, but THE FIRST KISS is not a good start to the series for me. More historicals, please, Ms. Burrowes!