The Kissing Coach – Mimi Strong

Synopsis

Feather Hilborn is a style and dating coach. Despite what you may have heard, she is not a “kissing coach.”

Devin Nelson is confident and suave, not the kind of guy you’d guess has never kissed a girl. He’s cute, too, which is making it even more difficult for Feather to resist trying to kiss him.

Her first attempt sends him running. The second attempt doesn’t go much better. But you know what they say … third time’s the charm.

Coaching Devin is fun. The only problem is, once Devin “graduates,” some other girl will be benefiting from his new-found kissing skills.

3.5 / 5 stars

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My Review

Feather Hilborn is in no way a ‘kissing coach.’ Her job is a style and dating coach and she does a damn good job at it.

When Devin Nelson gets in contact, the confident and sauve guy has a little problem. He’s never kissed a girl before. And at 22, he wants to rectify his phobia. And he wants Feather to help him out.

It doesn’t help the fact that he’s cute and Feather is attracted to him, but she tries to stay professional and help him out.

Her first attempt makes him run away, the second isn’t that much better, but the third time…well it goes too well.

But what happens when Devin ‘graduates’ and some other girl gets the benefit of kissing him?

The Kissing Coach is a fairly quick and light read. I picked it because I wanted something fun to read and from the synopsis, it sounded like a great short book to pass a few hours with…okay, like an hour and a half, but you know me by now, I get sucked into good books and need to finish them asap.

This is the first book I have read by Mimi Strong and it won’t be the last. I actually have For You on my kindle too, which will be getting a read very soon. Ms. Strong had me laughing, swooning, crying, frustrated and over all enjoying every page of her book. Her writing is easy-going and will have you turning the pages wanting to know more about the story. Never once did I put the book down – I read it straight through, wanting to get to know what was going to happen next.

The Kissing Coach is about Feather Hillborn. She’s a style and dating coach, who gets paid for helping people out who come to her. She gets paid to dish out advice that could be given for free, but you’re more likely to listen to someone if you pay them…right?

Then along comes Devin, her new client and all of a sudden she feels this attraction to him. He’s confident and good looking but he has a phobia. He’s never kissed anyone and he wants to change that. He wants to be able to not be scared to kiss a girl so he comes to Feather for help.

Feather tries to keep her attraction to herself whilst helping Devin. But it’s obvious that there is chemistry between them as well as their fun banter between them both.

Feather has a rule that she won’t start a relationship when coaching a client, although she really wants a relationship or something with Devin.  But she is perfectly find with coaching Devin on kissing, if it means she gets his lips on hers. But as she tries to ease him into the whole kissing situation, things get a little out of hand and he flies.

This happens another time after but the third time is the lucky charm. But then what happens when Devin isn’t so scared to kiss anyone anymore?

Feather is 22, she hasn’t been in a relationship in a long time and this never really bothered her. She was doing well with her job, liked dishing out advice and helping other people get into relationships but then Devin arrived and it changed her whole perception on everything. She wanted a relationship, she wanted a guy to call her own and she wanted to be loved.

Feather to me, seemed old beyond her years, maybe due to what happened in her past (You’ll find out). She was cocky, and knew how to banter along with Devin. But you could see her vulnerable side as well, the side where she is still a 22 year old woman who can be upset, who can make mistakes and sit in front of the TV with ice-cream and your pjs wallowing in self-pity. Despite the shortness of the book, you do see her journey. Journey through keeping her secret from her mother, see her bond with her mother, see her feel all these emotions she has hidden away, see her grow up and fall in love. I really like Feather as a character.

Devin is also 22. He’s a manager at this parent’s hotel. Hes confident, he’s cocky and cheeky but he’ also has a phobia of kissing. He doesn’t know what it’s stemmed from though but he gets anxious over it. This is why he wants Feather to help him. I really liked Devin. You could see just how afraid he was to kiss, how much he really wanted to though, and I could understand his freak-outs the first two times when he ran from Feather, yet he kept coming back. He was determined to get over this fear. Once he kissed Feather, he was like a different man, like a weight had been lifted and he couldn’t stop once he started. Wanting to take it all the way – ahum.

You do find out what made him have this phobia and I felt so sorry for him but I just couldn’t understand why he pushed Feather away. They could have saved the pain of not being together all those months if they had just spoken about it.

But of course, there is a HEA – well they should be or I wouldn’t be reading it haha. It was a great ending, one which had me giggly and pretty much summed up their fun and bantery relationship.

There are some sex scenes involved in this book. They aren’t heavy but they do notch up the steam factor a smidge. Their first time is funny – it was to me. I didn’t know if it was believable though (You’ll understand) but then maybe it was? Oh I don’t know but you can see how much they like one another; their chemistry and need for one another, especially the last sex scene where I was swooning over what Devin was saying to Feather. So sweet!!

Okay, now my favourite scene. I have to say it’s a part where they were role-playing in Feather’s house. When they were helping Devin and they pretended they were on a date and Feather was showing him around the house. Just the start of the role-playing had me chuckling and it was a perfect playing field to make Devin relaxed and kiss Feather whenever he wanted to without feeling anxious.

So if you are looking for a fluffy, fun and funny (Ooo alliteration ;)) book, then The Kissing Coach is definitely the book for you. You will love Devin, you will love Feather and generally, you will love this book too!