Review: Kiss to Salvage by Anna B. Doe

Kiss to Salvage by Anna B. Doe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via the author, all opinions are my own.

This is the second book in the two part duet featuring Jade and Prescott. You need to start with Kiss To Shatter as this picks up where that leaves off. You can read the duet without having read the other books in the series though. Though it isn't necessary, I would recommend reading Nixon and Yasmin's story in Kiss To Forget as Nixon is a big part of this story and the events of that book shapes Jade in many ways for the events in her own books.

This was pretty emotional and dealt with alot of the topics that I had issues with in the first book. We get all of the answers to those loose ends that were left open at the end of the first book and so much more. Jade suspects she has breast cancer, but she's been ignoring it because after watching her mother go through it she knows what it means for her life. She finally gets herself to the doctor and starts talking treatment options. Her road to recovery isn't easy or pretty, but I think the author did a good job humanizing how brutal treatment is for a cancer patient. Every single day is a fight, and we go through it with Jade on her good days and on her really bad ones. Prescott has his own demons to deal with as he has unresolved family trauma and a nagging knee injury as the football season comes to a close. He not only puts immense pressure on himself to perform on the field and in school and his parents put pressure on him to fill the shoes of someone he can never be. He and Jade try to make things work as the season comes to a close and Jade begins treatment, but they continually hurt each other as a protection mechanism. Fortunately for both of them they have a wonderful group of friends to support them through their darkest hours and challenge them when they are being unreasonable.

I thought the author did a really good job wrapping up the loose threads by the time we got to the end of this book. Jade and Prescott are not the same two people they were when we started this journey at the beginning of Kiss to Shatter. Their characters have come so far and grown so much. We got to see them both hit rock bottom before they were able to ask for the help they needed. We also got to see them achieve great things. There were quite a few angsty moments throughout, but they were necessary to move the character development along and I think that was done nicely to get Jade and Prescott to first fight their own needs then fight for each other.

As with the first book in the duet, I would definitely check trigger warnings for this one. You can find them on the author's page here. This book/duet has a lot going on, so I'd steer clear if you are triggered by these things.

Overall I really enjoyed this duet. It is on the longer side and it deals with some heavy subjects, but it is very engaging and doesn't feel long and has good pacing. I'm very much looking forward to Penny's book and what Anna has instore for the Blairwood crew in the future.

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Review: Kiss To Remember by Anna B. Doe

Kiss To Remember by Anna B. Doe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided and ARC via the author, all opinions are my own.

I highly recommend you read Kiss Before Midnight, the prequel novella before you read this. While not required it certainly sets up the events of this book and explains where we meet Grace at the beginning of this book. Grace Shelton has started her freshman year at Blairwood, she is hoping that this is the fresh start she needs after having her heartbroken at 16. Her first love went missing and she's never really recovered from it, she is determined to put Mason and her feelings behind her and start fresh now that she is in college. She is all set to move forward when she literally runs into Mason's doppleganger Trent Remington. Trent looks exactly like Mason, but he doesn't recognize Grace at all. Needless to say, this brings up all of the emotional turmoil Grace wanted to put behind her. When Trent and his girlfriend seem to pop up everywhere Grace and her friends are, she can't seem to move on and put Mason to rest. The more she gets to know Trent, she sees similarities to Mason but he's not Mason.

Trent has no idea who Grace is, however he is drawn to her despite the fact that he has a girlfriend. There is just something familiar about her, plus they are always running into each other. He enlists Grace to help him pass his French class so he can stay on the basketball team. This of course leads to drama with the girlfriend. It is also unfair to Grace as she sees so much of Mason in him, but he's not the boy she used to know. Their relationship is filled with angst as they try to figure out what they want from each other and who they want to be moving forward. They also have to deal with Trent's constant migraine headaches as he navigates the stress of school, his relationships, and basketball.

I really enjoyed this, and had a hard time putting it down. I was really invested in the story. This has some good twists and turns as well. I do have a few pieces of feedback. I did think that Grace's obsession with Mason was a bit over the top. I did appreciate that she started to stand up for herself at some point, she gets her heart broken a lot in this book. I did feel that the reveal and the ending were a bit rushed. I kind of expected some of the events in the reveal, and I thought the way it was executed was good. The ending wrapped up in about the last 100 pages and given the lead up to the ending I felt it could have had a bit more time to resolve.

I do really enjoy this series and I highly recommend it. All of the books are standalones with interconnected characters. You can read the books in any order, but I do recommend reading any connected prequels associated with the full novel and any bonus epilogues to get the full story.
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Review: Kiss To Defy by Anna B Doe

Kiss To Defy by Anna B. Doe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via the author, all opinions are my own.

Figure staking and women's gymnastics were my favorite sports to watch during the Olympics.  I also love hockey!  I can barely skate forward myself, but I always appreciated those who could make it look so effortless on the ice.  This book combined two unlikely characters from two very different worlds and brought them together.

Rei has decided to attend Blairwood as she trains for the Winter Games in an attempt to shake things up and find some normalcy in her life that is anything but normal.  She has been skating since before she could walk and has won every figure skating title there is except at the Winter Games.  Her dad and coach think college is a bad idea and will distract her from her training.  Zane come crashing into her life, and because he is a hockey player their paths cross pretty regularly at the ice rink.  They also have mutual friends as her roommate is his roommate's sister.  After a rocker start to their friendship, Rei and Zane realize that they have chemistry between them.  It starts out slow but builds into something so much more.

This will get your emotions going for sure.  You want to shake Rei when she's being unreasonable and stubborn.  You want to punch Zane in the arm then give him a hug and tell him "it's not your fault" & " it will be OK".  You just want to punch Alex.  Jade and Grace are great friends that keep Rei grounded and help her have the college experience she was longing for.  The banter between all of the friends in this is great!  I love good banter.  This tackles some heavy issues such as poverty, substance abuse, physical abuse, and racism.  It gets pretty angsty.  To balance out the seriousness of the heavy topics, it also has some pretty steamy parts.    Anna really puts Rei and Zane through their paces in this one.  

You can tell that Anna did a ton of research to write this book.  I loved the combination of a hockey player and an ice skater.  Have you seen The Cutting Edge?  I love that movie.  Every time I read toe pick when Rei was going up for a jump in this I heard Moira Kelly's character saying "Toe pick" to DB Sweeney's character when he falls down.  

I really enjoyed this sports romance.  It has all of the things I want in a romance book: good banter, chemistry between the characters, angst and conflict resolution, great side characters for support, and a happy ending.  I also recommend you check out the bonus epilogue.  The book didn't feel 100% complete until I read it.  Don't miss out on that!

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Review: Kiss Me First by Anna B. Doe

Kiss Me First by Anna B. Doe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This comes out on March 12, 2021.

I really enjoyed this. It is a prequel to the other Blairwood University books and features Emmet and Kate who are a side couple in Kiss To Conquer and Kiss To Forget. They are the established couple mentioned in the friend group from the other books. This is the story of how they met and fell in love. This takes place during their junior year in high school and it is fairly tame when it comes to adult content. There are some mature themes, and there are a few sex scenes but it isn't overly graphic. I would still consider it New Adult/Adult as far as the intended audience.

I really loved the character development in this. Kate is the overprotective big sister, who has not had a good example set for her when it comes to relationships in general. Having moved around alot for her mom's career and selfish whims, Kate was never really able to develop lasting friendships. Her mother never had a stable relationship so Kate and her younger sister Penny never had a male role model to show them what a healthy relationship looks like between a man and a woman, so when Kate meets Emmett on her first day of school after moving in with her Aunt Mabel, she isn't sure what to do with him. Kate doesn't want friends or a boyfriend, she just wants to start fresh and take care of Penny. Fortunately for Kate, Emmett and Becky know what is best for her and immediately take her in and befriend her. I loved that Emmett was willing to wait for Kate to be ready for a relationship and just be friends Kate and Penny have been through a lot and seeing them come through all of that into lovely young women, it definitely made me choke up a few times.

I really loved this! I read most of it in one sitting and just couldn't put it down. It was such a wonderful experience watching Kate and Emmett's relationship develop. If you like more mature high school romances, sports romances (there is a little football in here), and friends to lovers this is the story for you.
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Review: Kiss To Forget by Anna B. Doe

Kiss To Forget by Anna B. Doe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an emotional rollercoaster! This had me tearing up in several places, and I'm not usually one to cry when it comes to books. I would recommend having some tissues on standby, you know just in case you need them. This book is a standalone, but reading book 1 in the series will introduce you to the other characters. I don't think it is 100% necessary to read it to enjoy this as the stories do stand on their own.

If you have read Kiss To Forget, you will remember Nixon and Yasmin as friends of the main characters from book 1. Yasmin is Callie's roommate who is taking a ton of classes, working at the coffee shop, and volunteers at the local community center. She works really hard, rarely has time to sleep, and keeps her free time to a minimum. Like Callie, she has secrets but she isn't ready to confess them just yet. Nixon is the quarterback of the football team and best friends with Hayden. He is relatively happy go lucky, but something is up this semester and he isn't telling anyone his secrets.

Nixon is friendly to everyone and usually everyone likes him back, except Yasmin. She seems to hate football players but no one knows why. Their paths continually cross and Nixon accidentally finds out Yasmin's secret. While her secret at first doesn't seem like that big of a deal, there is more to the story. This is the first of several incidents that forms a bond between the two of them, because it is the first time Yasmin discovers that Nixon might actually have something in common with her and that not all football players are all bad. Nixon ends up on a rescue mission to pick up Yas when her car breaks down, when he has to take a detour on the away home. Yasmin finds herself learning more about Nixon than she expected and their bond grows even stronger. They both are able to let down the walls that they have built and find some much needed support when they are together. When tragedy strikes, their fragile relationship is threatened and they both have to make the choice between fight or flight if they want to be together in the end.

This was a wonderful story about resilience, friendship, love, grief, heartache, and so much more. I think I felt every emotion in the book while reading this. Both of the characters have so many things to deal with in this story. This had just the right amount of steam to balance out the angst. I really loved Yasmin and Nixon's story. I'm looking forward to reading more from the group at Blairwood in the future.

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Review: Kiss To Conquer by Anna B. Doe

Kiss To Conquer by Anna B. Doe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was kindly provided an ARC of this book via the author in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hate to love romance with a little bit of a twist.  In this case, there is no misunderstanding or forbidden reason for the main characters to hate each other.  Our female lead Callie, has actually given our male lead Hayden every reason to hate her.  She did something to him in high school that any reasonable person would find hard to forgive.  Hayden and Callie went to high school together, she was the popular cheerleader from a rich family.  He was the poor, shy, scrawny boy on the football team that happened to be good at math.  Callie was dating the quarterback and pretty had a wonderful life, but she wasn't the best person.  Hayden was a nice guy, had a huge crush on Callie, but didn't have the best home life.  I won't spoil things, but several events take place that upset both of their lives completely.

Fast forward a few years and Hayden has found himself at Blairwood, he's successful on the football field, no longer that scrawny, shy kid of old.  He has a good supportive group of friends around him, but when Callie shows up their roles are reversed.  Callie is basically a hermit only attending classes and hiding in her room or the campus coffee spot.  She is physically and mentally scarred from events in her past, and it takes a good portion of the book to find out what actually happened to her and what happened between her and Hayden.   Hayden spends roughly the first half of the book avoiding her or being harsh with her.  He is angry that his best friend is friendly with her and wants everyone to stay away from her.  Unfortunately their paths keep crossing and he is still attracted to her.  When he finds out what happened to her and realizes that those events have changed her from the girl he knew in high school, he starts to let her in.  

I enjoyed this, but I did feel like it was a bit too long and the pacing was off.   The first half of the book felt like it dragged while the second half felt like everything was happening too fast.  The author did a great job with getting the reader to feel the emotion of the situations.  I went through several different emotional states throughout the book.  I love it when an author can get me to feel what the characters are going through and I'm looking forward to more of that from Anna's work.  There are also some great side characters in this book and I'm hoping they will star in their own books in the series.  Overall, if you like enemies to lovers, and second change romance this is a good one to check out.

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