rules – Z. Elizabeth

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!

Synopsis

What rules would you break for the one you love? What lies would you tell?

Three weeks before their wedding day, Nicola and Greg discover that they may have the same mother.
They met when Greg joined the San Francisco newspaper where Nicola is the travel editor. After six months, eager to start a life together and raise a family, they decide to marry.
When Nicola finally meets his family in Seattle, and mentions the circumstances of her adoption, Greg’s horrified mother is forced to reveal the shameful secret she has kept for 36 years.
As they struggle to deal with her revelation, their relationship is challenged and strained. If his mother’s suspicions are true, they will be forced into a devastating choice: break all of society’s rules and fight for their love, or break their hearts and give each other up.
It will be the greatest test their newfound love has faced – and their love may not survive.

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My Review

What would you do if the love of your life could somehow be related to you?

Nicola and Greg meet at work. Nicola, after being burnt by her ex-boyfriend, who was also a colleague, has sworn off dating colleagues since then. But then she meets Greg and he proves to her that he would never hurt her and bit by bit he breaks down that wall and they end up falling fast for one another, becoming engaged after just six months.

Three weeks before the wedding and a trip to meet Greg’s family in Seattle, Nicola mentions her circumstances of being adopted after showing a family photo to Greg’s mother. In turn, Greg’s mother Mona is forced to confess and reveal a shameful moment that happened to her 36 years ago; a secret she has kept hidden from everyone. She had a baby and left it, just like the story Nicola told them.

After the revelation, Greg and Nicola’s relationship changes. They both struggle with the fact they could be half-brother and sister, but they try to put it at the back of their mind until the DNA results come back. But it’s harder to forget this situation and it challenges them both. What will happen if they are related? Will they break up and never see each other again or will they break society’s rules and run away together, some place where no one will ever know their secret?

Their love is being tested to the limit and will all these ‘what ifs’ in the way, will their love survive this terrible ordeal?

I came across Too Close on accident really. I was just looking for some books to download on Amazon and this book sprang to my attention. Clicking on it to see what it was about, I knew I had to read it. I had never read a book about a couple maybe being related but from the start I was completely hooked. I wanted to know how the realization that they could be related came to light and how it was dealt with as really, it is such a delicate and emotional issue to deal with but I felt Ms. Krall wrote this book spectacularly. She dealt with the issue in a seriousness matter but also in a way to kind of bring a light release to the issue.

She had me feeling every emotion all the characters’ felt, especially Greg, Nicola, Mona – Greg’s mother and Gwen – Nicola’s adoptive mother. I could see everyone’s side during the waiting for the results, especially both Greg and Nicola’s constant arguments over the whole ‘sibling’ thing because they both had very different views on what to do over it. I was on edge until the DNA results were shown because I just had to know the outcome. I had come to love Greg and Nicola and I hated that it could be over before it truly began for them. I love it when books evoke a whole load of emotions from me because you know it’s a great book when that happens!

As the synopsis mentions, Greg and Nicola meet at a bar one night where everyone from work goes to on a Friday. They seem to really get on and there is an obvious attraction for both of them but Max, a work colleague, tells Greg that Nicola doesn’t go out with work colleagues since her ex-boyfriend cheated on her throughout their relationship with her boss. Greg is determined to make her change her mind about her rule and starts off little, asking her out just as friends. Nicola knows this isn’t true, that it is a date, but somehow she doesn’t seem to care. She likes Greg and after a few more dates, it seems the rule is broken.

They fall for each other fast. Spending nearly every day together and one night, after being together for 6 months, they talk about children and getting married, which leads to them becoming engaged. Although it seems rushed, you can really see the chemistry and the love the both of them have for one another and when you know you’ve found the one, why would you wait? Love has no time limit.

Nicola’s parents and siblings really like Greg, so when it’s her turn to meet Greg’s parents, three weeks before the wedding, shes really nervous. She gets on well with his parents and his sister but when she tells the story of her adoption that is when everything goes pear shaped and secrets from Mona’s past are about to come to the surface and are set to test their relationship and love for one another. Could Greg and Nicola really be brother and sister?

It was so heartbreaking to think that they could be half-brother and sister. It tore my heart apart that Nicola and Greg loved each other so when this revitalisation came to light, it was so hard to watch them both struggle over what to do about that information and how to handle it. Greg seemed to adjust to it, trying to push it to the back of his mind. This was HIS Nicola, and no way could they be related, it just couldn’t be. But Nicola had a hard time dealing with it. She had never wanted to meet her real mother and knowing that the love of her life could be her brother and knowing Mona could be her mother just didn’t feel right to her at all. It was all she could think about.

Greg tried so hard to get her to forget that they could be related. He’d tell her that it’s ‘just me, it’s just us’ and he would do anything for her. For them to spend two weeks not knowing what the results of the DNA test would be was completely harrowing and gripping to read.

Greg has strong religious beliefs and so he knows that incest is a sin. Whereas Nicola isn’t religious and she wants to fight for their relationship if they are related. They fight a lot over this; religion being a main factor over the fights. I also though Greg was being hypercritical over the whole incest fight they had. It seemed he was okay being with Nicola knowing they could be related the past two weeks but when she tells him that there could be a way they could stay together if the results came back positive, he just went off the rails about how incest is a sin.

To love someone so much and find out you may be related, it’s got to be heartbreaking and emotional and such a tough situation to go through. I really understood the way they were acting; biting at one another with their ‘what if’s’ but also needing to be with one another, to support each other throughout the turmoil until they got the results back. I could never imagine myself in this situation, let alone think about what I would do if I was in this position.

I could really feel the emotions pouring from Nicola and Greg. To be put in this position, then having to wait for the results would cause havoc and uncertainty for anyone who goes through results like this or any other results.

You really do root for them not to be brother and sister though, because they truly are meant to be. They have both been badly hurt in the past and to finally meet and fall in love in such a short amount of time seemed like the right thing for them. They loved each other dearly and it’s clear to see they would do anything for one another. Greg fought from the start to breaking down Nicola’s barriers and thank god he was the one to break her rule. It was clear there was an instant attraction between them that going fast was just something that happened and it felt right.

I really don’t want to tell you what happened at the end with the results and I don’t want to write about the end and whether I enjoyed it or not because that would spoil the outcome. Let’s just say I cried at the results and leave it like that.

There are a few scenes I loved reading but I have to say the ‘bondage’ scene at the hotel. That made me completely giggle when I read it because they are both just so comfortable together, they both kind of take the piss out of BDSM, with Greg telling Nicola she would be a rubbish sex slave. I could definitely imagine that scene playing out in my mind, at how at ease they were together and how they could just laugh at the toys in the box that Greg’s sister sent them. It was nice that they could just forget about the situation they were in, even if it was just for a couple of hours. Where they could just be together and not worry about anything.

Gosh, you really do go through the emotions reading Too Close but I am so glad I found this book and got the chance to read it. It was great to see how this situation affected the families and friends they both had and their input and advice into their situation. Each character had something different to input and I loved the friends that Greg and Nicola had, they were with them from the start, supporting them.

Elizabeth Krall has written an amazing book in Too Close and I insist that you all read it!! It is different from other books I read, as I have yet to read a book like this, but boy am I glad. It’s a page turner. It’s about love, a struggle, a journey but most of all fighting for love. I definitely recommend this book to you all!