I know the author is very popular and I wanted to give her books a try, but this just wasn't for me.

Enemies to lovers, with a bit of political intrigue and mafia drama leads to the Kiss Thief. The women in Francesa's family believe that the person who is their first kiss is their true love, She's 19, and has been saving that kiss for her childhood love, but when she kisses the person wearing his mask, realizes that its 30 year old Senator Wolfe Keaton. In a whirlwind, she ends up taken from her family home and engaged to Wolfe.

As far as the "drama" in this book goes, it was pretty low stakes, but I did enjoy most of it. I usually like epilogues, but they were kind of unnecessary in the book, and seemed to tell more than show how happy they ended up. But, I think that I like LJ Shen's older work, and that's still standing true for me.

L.H. Shen has this special ability to always drop some tropes I absolutely despise into every book of hers. So overall this wasn’t bad, but some parts I really hated.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

This is a very tough book to rate!
While this was so addicting that I breezed through this in a matter of hours, there were certain scenes and events that were very hard to read (I'm guessing everyone that has read this knows what particular moment I'm talking about).
This author definitely loves writing books with, uh, controversial tropes. (Sparrow, I'm looking at you!)

That being said, I went from hating Wolfe to loving him to pieces. Francesca was a great heroine as well, albeit a bit naive.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ out of 5
I have hesitated for so long about reading this book because I knew I would be in for one hell of an emotional ride and it did not disappoint. It was gripping, dark, emotional with all my favourite things- modern arranged marriage, dark romance and a mafia princess. I stayed up all night reading because I physically couldn’t put it down.

Our heroine is mafia royalty and at the age of 19 innocent and very sheltered from the world around her. Her expectation was always an arranged marriage to someone within the “Outfit” to further her father’s power... although she did think it would be to her childhood sweetheart. Enter our hero- a Senator who holds sway over our heroine’s father and to hurt him demands her in marriage. They may be engaged and live in the same house but they both HATE each other (caps letters required) and with the countdown to the wedding both their relationship and the town explodes.

This hero is the alphahole of all alphaholes, I can say nothing less. I’m even still blown away by his alphahole-ness and that’s when you know the redemption is going to be GOOD. The heroine was sheltered, very young and naive (and very much a product of her upbringing) and she definitely irritated me at times because she was almost over emotional but the two together and their dynamic? Absolutely explosive! This is not a light read but if you want to walk on the dark side I 1000% recommend this book.

No I did not like this book. the writing was awful, the characters were dispicable and the love story is portrayed in what I tought was a very bad way…

The Kiss Thief took me a while to get into not because it was slow but just life. Boy am I glad that I finally got the chance to read it. I couldn’t put it down. I felt like throughout the book I just kept thinking “and then what happened?” In The Kiss Thief, we meet Senator Wolfe Keaton and his; unbeknownst to her future bride Francesca. Wolfe needs to settle a score and Francesca is his perfect pawn. He decides that he wants nothing more but for her to be his pretty little trophy wife. Only as their relationship progresses and Wolfe tries his hardest to not break any of his rules, he realizes that his pawn is hindering his future plans. Can Francesca breakdown his hard persona and make Wolfe break all the rules? Wolfe will make you wish you could reach in the book and slap him sometimes and Francesca will have you saying “girl get it together.” But I promise you it’s worth the read. L. J. Shen’s novels are always a sweet treat.
-I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley for in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are that of my own.-

Thanks to Netgalley I was able to receive this book. This book is tough for me to rate. I know this author is very popular just the writing is different than what I'm used to. I did like how Wolfe ended up opening himself.

This book can be to violent for some especially if you suffered rape. For me I understood the abusive parts. Wolfe had a hate/love relationship with Francesca.

5 Stars!!!

This is by far the BEST book from LJ Shen in my opinion because she is able to stir a lot of emotions from me. My heart also goes out for these damaged characters.

It has a complete list of my favorite trope.. all packed in one read.

- Enemies to lovers
- Arranged marriage
- Miscommunication
- somehow forbidden
- Damaged hero
- Enough groveling
- BEST of all, it's angsty!!!

So you can only imagine my reaction before diving in.

What. A. Rollercoaster. Ride!!! I enjoyed (slash that) devoured every single pages of this book. ❤

Wolfe is someone you'll love and hate. He is snobbish and ruthless yet sometimes he is sweet and caring. No wonder Francesca's feelings towards him is puzzled.

There were a scene where some might find degrading. But not to me. In fact, I find her courageous enough in doing so especially after she explained her action pretty well. Francesca for me is not a spineless doormat but feisty and a fighter.


Needless to say, our hero redeemed himself in the end.

Overall, I. LOVED. IT. Highly recommend. ❤❤❤

I know what I’m signing up for when I crack open an LJ Shen book. The H will be an asshole and the h will be missing most of her backbone and every now and again it scratches that “assholes who are redeemed” itch. This one though... The h was soooooo immature and frustrating here. The H was freaking horrible. How he speaks, what he thinks, his actions. Don’t even get me started on the whole taking of the virginity scene. The chemistry was there but I just couldn’t deal with these MCs.

A writing you can't but help but never stop reading until the very end, so that you can finally breath again!

L.J. Sheen really went there with the book, with the premise, with her writing, with the flow that doesn't let you let go! As a person that doesn't reeeally get the romance books a lot, going more to the adventure packed fantasy with lots of magic and all, I can say this heart really went there and stole my breath and heart!

This book was overall an easy read. I didn't fully believe the characters, it felt a little too "fake" to me. however, I did enjoy the interactions between the characters.

There are so many good things to say about this book.

The character development was subtle and the multiple POV added to the dynamic of Francesca and Wolfe. Wolfe is an overbearing alpha male who you want to root for from the very beginning (if you are a villain lover such as I), even when he is being a jerk you feel for him. Francesca is pushed off as a girl who has it all and only has one desire, to be a trophy wife. However, she is so much more than that. Even through poor choices and heartache she is persistent in what she knows she wants and deserves.

The world building is so interesting. Taking place in the current era with cell phones but an old world feel that includes balls and dowry for marriage. The conclusion of the story is exactly what you hope for and the epilogue makes you swoon just as hard.

The only problem I had with it is that I hate the "other woman" situations. Once the characters are situated in their affection for one another I have a really hard time with knee jerk reactions that lead to other woman issues. Obviously, I didn't read through that situation without having the same knee jerk reaction, which was wrong because my reaction was misplaced. However, I still had it so I felt obligated to mention it.

Overall, this book was lovely. I thoroughly enjoy the hate to love trope and this book did not disappoint in that arena. At. All.

Thank you NetGalley for an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

**REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS**

LJ Shen's writing was good in The Kiss Thief. The story was interesting enough to pull me in, despite loads of over-the-top drama, and I especially liked the middle portion of the book where <spoiler>Wolfe started stepping up for Francesca and she started realizing her parents were awful people.</spoiler> But neither the storyline nor the characters were developed enough to give real weight to the emotions here. Adding more of Francesca's background (maybe flashbacks to her childhood?) would've made <spoiler>the split with her father and with Angelo</spoiler> more gut-wrenching for the reader and given context to some of her behavior. The same with Wolfe - we find out near the end of the book WHY he's built his entire life on a revenge plot, but learning some of it earlier (or even just vignettes of <spoiler>his time with Romeo and the Keatons</spoiler>) would've made his character so much more compelling. I also found the interactions with "The Outfit" a bit stereotypical and silly, and part of that is because everything is surface-level.

I love controversial books, especially angsty ones (but always with HEA, I read romance!). The cover and the blurb of The kiss thief were like music for my ears, so I had to read it. But... Well, I wouldn't be fair saying this is a bad book because definitely it isn't, but it's not my cup of tea. And it's not for the plot, which is great, mindblowing and attractive, it's the development of it.
Although I love my romance books with two willing partners, the heroine is forced to get married with a son of a b**** (sorry for my language) that hates her father, so you are hooked since the very beggining. But, oh my, the way their love story goes, the way they fall in love with each other, the way the love/hate plot is resolved is so simple and sometimes so childilsh that made my eyes uncontrollably roll too many times. It was like a movie that starts like The Godfather and ends like some Peppa Pig episode.
However, the idea is great and I was very hooked reading the first part, so I encourage you to read it, maybe you'll like it more than me! I'll read more book written by L.J.Shen, for I think I could find another one that pleases me more.

Did I miss the memo when it became ok to romanticize controlling and abusive relationships?
Because I feel like that is becoming more popular, probably after the fifty shades books became such a big hit. Wolfe literally says he is not her equal, she is beneath him. He places rules like we are in another country that values women as comodoties instead of people.
There is also a lot of vulgar language that seemed to serve no purpose other then the shock value. I am not a prude by any means, I swear a lot myself and plenty of books I read have swear words or dirty innuendo's, but this one did not fit the story. The shock took me away from the story and cheapened it.

I loved the cover, it was beautiful but the story was not my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley for the E-arc copy of #TheKissThief.
The Kiss Thief is a sultry and dark romance for adults that enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey.

Out of the galaxy stars for The Kiss Thief by L.J. Shen
ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review - Opinions expressed are my own.

When I saw this book on NG I jumped at the chance to be able to review ( I had purchased both the book & kindle format upon release)

This author is a To Be Read “for me” ALWAYS

I actually was hooked on this author’s work after reading Dirty Headlines ( Fall 2018 ) & have now pretty much made my way thru her entire backlist of books 📚

The Kiss Thief is a favorite read so far of 2019 it’s SO GOOD & in some cases trying to form logical sentences as to why “escapes me” !!

This book ticks so many of my FAV book box lists 😊 ❤️

Angst & more angst
Arranged marriage
Age difference
Quirky heroine
If I wasn’t happily married “Senator Wolfe Keaton for president” - wouldn’t mind being his First Lady LOL 😝
AMAZING sexy times & chemistry
So many laugh out loud - funny moments ( talking to vegetables anyone )
Nicknames - so loved Nem ( aka Nemesis ) & Narcissus ❤️
Great plot twists

So well written - could not put it down - first book in a very long time where I pulled an all nighter with work the next day !

This author does not disappoint with anything I have read - awesome read !!!

The Kiss Thief is my first lJ Shen read, I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about this author. Definitely did not disappoint. I love it so much.