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!
New York Times and USA Today
bestselling author Grace Burrowes brings her gorgeous
writing and incredible storytelling abilities to a brand new
series of contemporary romance.
The
sweetest kiss is the one that means a fresh
start
In the second novel of the Sweetest
Kisses series, classical pianist Vera Waltham is quiet,
cautious, and fiercely protective of her young daughter, but
she lets down her guard enough to strike up an unlikely
friendship with business law expert James Knightley. James's
past comes between them when Vera learns exactly how big a
tomcat he has been, but when she and her daughter are in
danger, it's to James she turns...
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