LOVED IT! This heartbreaking, amazingly beautiful love story is about stop doing and start being. That's what this book taught me. That's why I loved this book so much.

I really liked the plot and I could see where it was heading, but this wasn't the book to find out the ending. I felt that the romance between the two main characters, Rian and Parker were forced and lacked any truly lovable qualities. In turn, this book just didn't captivate me and I had to stop a little over the 50% mark. I wish I had more interest in finding out the ending, but sadly I didn't.

*ARC courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. I want to express a thank you to the valued author, the publisher who took a chance on the author, and Netgalley for providing a copy.*

I didn't enjoy reading this. I even gave up halfway through. The plot definitely has potential, but it feels as if it fell through. I was pretty bored, so I didn't feel the need to continue reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn't the best read I've had. I didn't even finish it. There's definitely potential, but I just feel like the plot fell through. I didn't feel the urge to keep reading as I was pretty bored.

I truly am frustrated by this book. I immediately inhaled the first half of this book with very little issue. It felt like a slow burn of an Older man who’s trying to heal from a past experience and wrap his head around his current attraction to a 19 year old yoga instructor. I really enjoyed Rian’s relationship with Zoe and Eve, and I loved the brotherhood that was developed between Parker, Tyler, and Niall. Then I realized I was about half way through this story.

Complaints in no particular order:

1. The story doesn’t end. There were multiple chapters that felt like an ending, and it would’ve made sense for the epilogue to be next except for THE ACTUAL last chapter and epilogue which didn’t feel like an ending.
2. The first half of this story felt like a slow burn; whereas, the second half felt like an experiment. Let’s try everything to see what works: grand stand with words, near death experience, dickhead example to show you’re not worthy, stalking. You name it; it was there.
3. This story felt traumatic. One chapter he’s leading her own; the next chapter he’s throwing everything at her. It felt like a very unstable start to a relationship.
4. Their love felt very forced. Literally, every third chapter someone is trying to convince Parker that he loves her, and I just can’t get behind that. It wasn’t in the normal, “you haven’t named your feelings” way. It felt very, “you have to love her.” Meanwhile, we all just kinda knew he wanted a free babysitter and sex. Honestly, the side characters felt way more developed and in love than the actual main characters.
5. Parker is the legitimate definition of someone who is in needed of therapy. He definitely wasn’t ready to embark on that relationship which is very ironic as that’s this whole catch up.
6. I also don’t like how they broke the fourth wall. It just didn’t work. It also added to the many unnecessary aspects of this book that made this book impossibly convoluted.
7, There’s entirely too much going on in general. I was over the long drawn out narrative of their first instance; it just made him more creepy. I was over the tension between Rian and Niall. With this as my first book of this series, I wasn’t bought into it, and this storyline also felt entirely too drawn out for what it was.

All in all, the premise of this story was great. The first half of this story did a decent job. The second half is where it all went wrong. The story never found its identity; hence, it never truly felt closed.

This is going to be a rant. I REALLY had issues with this story...and I only read 21% (plus a few scenes that I searched for just to see). You have been warned. Maybe some slight spoilers also, but like I said I stopped at 21% and read one or two scenes that were a bit later in the story.

The main issue with this story? Our love interest is a creepy as fuck predatory 41 year old. Like super fucking creepy older man. Like made me throw up in my mouth when I read some scenes creepy. It was so fucked up and no. Just no. I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of large age gap stories, but 25 and 41 is MUCH different than 19 and 41. MUCH different. They are in different stages of their lives. They are not still teenagers!!! This is basically a child and a grown-ass adult. Like seriously I can't even. I am almost 41 myself and the thought of dating a 19-year-old? Ugh. No. They are babies compared to me! I just can't. So this book really should have alluded to the fact that it was a creepy predatory age gap romance as then I never would have picked it up to read (or just said it was an age gap romance in general as I still would have passed).

So it takes a while to reveal how old Rian is, our main character. When I found out she was only 19 I was creeped out and almost stopped, but they kept referencing something that happened months ago between Rian and Parker, our creepy ass love interest. So I kept reading on a little bit more to see if it is mentioned, as I was sure that would also be wildly inappropriate and I just wanted to see how bad this book really was, but then I got to a different part that made me puke so much I had to stop. What part is that you might ask? Well this is not the first time this guy has creeped on a teenager! Oh no. His ex-wife? The mother of his 6-year-old children? When Parker is talking with his brother the brother references how Parker slept with and impregnated a lady who just turned 18. I mean swoon am I right? A thirty-four-year-old guy sleeping with a just barely legal girl? Totes cool. Not creepy at all. Not that this is not now a pattern that this dude creeps on literal teenagers. It is disgusting. Especially when I then thought back to the scene where Rian shares when her crush started on Parker and it was when she was 14 and he came into her school for a safety presentation or something with work (he is a firefighter) and he called her up to help. I mean...ugh. Thinking about him creeping on her even then is not a big stretch for this guy the way he is written. Oh wait, but he would just wait until she turns 18 and then everything is fine.

So then I went and tried to search for a scene where it is shared what happened months ago between these two and it was somehow even worse than I expected it to be. What happened? Well Rian was in the shower, slipped and dislocated her shoulder and called for help. Parker just had to take the call cause...he is a hella creeper, and when he got there he promised her that she can trust him and he won't look, but then when he has her in his arms he is just so overcome with something that he fucking kisses her! When she is trying not to cry from the immense amount of pain she is in he thinks this is the moment to fucking kiss this teenager that is relying on him for his fucking help. That is supposed to be doing his fucking job, not creeping on her naked in the shower and taking advantage of the situation. Like that is so fucking gross and I would NEVER trust him to be alone with a woman, especially not a teenager, on a call ever again. Like imagine how many girls he has creeped on as this is at least the second. And he is in a position of power. He is supposed to be helping her, being professional, not being a fucking predatory creeper. There is NO WAY he should have this job if he will ever end up in this kind of situation again. He cannot be trusted to do the right fucking thing! What if he is overcome with some 17 year old would that be a problem? Or is that close enough to 18 that it is totes fine? I am so so so so so disgusted by the fact that he is supposed to be our hero. Our love interest.

When Parker is retelling what happened that night to his brother, he starts with how he kissed Rian months ago and the first thing his brother says is "Please, tell me she was over eighteen." Even his brother thinks he would creep on an underage girl so...but I mean I guess since she was technically legal it is fine. His brother breathed a sigh of relief and was like alright, back to joking time cause it is totes cool if she is 18, but serious business if she were not quite 18 yet! Cause that makes sense. I mean that is another huge issue I had - NO ONE thought it was hella creepy that this 41 year old was creeping on a 19 year old. They kept actually trying to push them together! Like her friends were all go for it!! Which...no. Her friends are also older so...they should understand how fucking creepy that is! How he 1,000% took advantage of her, still fantasizes about it, still thinks about holding her in his arms while she was in immense pain and kissing her without her consent in a SUPER inappropriate moment, and everyone is just totes fine with it? I mean this girl needs better friends. I guess they don't know just how shitty of a person he is, but like his brother after listening to the whole thing is all you are a good guy Parker! Everything is totes cool. You should definitely get with Rian!

This book was so fucked up. There are ways that you could write this story that would work, which would still probably not be for me unless you are an amazing writer and can somehow win me over, but this book is not the way to write this story. I cannot stress enough how fucking creepy and predatory Parker was. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets even creepier throughout the story, but it is somehow played off as romantic. Puke. No. Do not want. You would at the very least have to have the older man not show a pattern of chasing barely legal teenagers. That would be a great start. Like can he even have a relationship with someone his own age? If not that is a GIANT red flag. It has been a while since a book had made me as angry as this one has. I honestly don't understand why anyone wouldn't have an issue with this story. It is not written in a way that Parker is sympathetic at all. He is just a predatory creep which is not a love interest. Or shouldn't be. Maybe in a bully romance, something else I don't read, this would work, but not in a contemporary romance.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

One Last Kiss is the third book in the series, but can definitely be read as a standalone. I didn't read the other two and didn't feel like I was missing anything with this book.

This book is an age gap story and while that might bother some readers, I didn't have an issue with it. I found that the love story (slow burn) between the two main characters was realistic, sweet, and the age wasn't something that came to my mind.

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and a good slow burn, small town romance.

Sorry, this is just not the book for me, I DNF´d, I can´t get past the age gap. I find it very troubling, I've read this types of books before, I'm a hopless romantic, but in this case base on the comments I read I wished I had payed more attention before requesting this book.

I thought that this storyline was ok.

The book itself left you wanting more ‘action’ and less detail.

The main storyline was list somewhat which made the book a drag at times to read.

It is 3 stars from me for this one, it wasn’t one for me but this may be one for others

I’ve been really enjoying Kelly’s writing lately. She has the perfect romcoms to get me back into reading. Her characters are loveable and sweet.

It was cute but very repetitive. I think reading about other family members would be fun, so maybe I will try something else by this author.

I had so many laughs with this book and it was an overall adorable read. I just wish I got more out of it and had a connection with it.

Let me start with the good; the hero's daughters and group of friends got my full attention. And that's exactly the point, when a supporting character ends up being your favorite... bad news.

It's not much that I hated the main characters or something, it's just that the writing couldn't convince me to care about them. They felt quite bland to me, and in turn, that made me see the romance as something a bit boring, because there was no chemistry between them at all, besides there was no development of that relationship. Together they just didn't work out for me.

This series and the family dynamic is fun! I can't wait to read the next one. I would love to read them back to back, because I think they would be even better!

Gracias a Netgalley, a la escritora y al equipo detrás de este maravilloso libro.

Tengo que decir que no esperaba que este libro me encantará cómo lo hizo, el romance entre los personajes fue completamente real y me encantó cada interacción entre ellos, estoy deseando poder leer más sobre la Autora.

This was so cute! Perfect read for a rainy day. I have been recommending it to all my reading friends. Thank you for the chance to read this.

This book wasn't for me. The story was just ok and the characters were lacking. I didn't connect with anyone in the story. It was hard to tell between who was talking with how indistinguishable they were. It was pretty much all chatter in the book with zero inner thought. It just wasn't a book for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This story was so difficult for me to read because from page one there is so much dialogue, and I mean pages and pages of it with no break. It's excessive. There is something to be said about less being more. This could have benefitted from more time in the character's heads and would have given them some more depth. All this dialogue was difficult to know whose was talking. Honestly, some of it was so odd like nothing really moving the story forward just making the characters really unlikable.

I did enjoy the relationship between Rian and the girls and thought it was extremely sweet.

Maybe it's just me, but from the cover and the synopsis, I did not get the vibe that this was an age gap, at least not to the extent that it was anyway. And I found that age gap very off-putting, so I really, really struggled with this.

I wish I hadn’t been misled by the cover. It felt like a completely different book than what I expected.

I did not like the age gap in the romance, I found it incredibly uncomfortable and on top of that it was battered over your head over and over as it was mentioned again and again. It didn’t make it believable as much as it made it uncomfortable.

Add to that the consent issues and it made the relationship feel very uneven. I wish the synopsis had made it clearer that this was a romance between a 19 year old and a 40 year old, because I never would have picked it up. That is always uneven, power wise, and unhealthy.

I was so confused when reading because dialogue went on for page after page with little indication of the speaker and virtually indistinguishable “voices”. I should have been aware of that from the synopsis, where both characters sound pretty much the same. It made all of the dialogue feel stiff and rehearsed and juvenile.

Overall it was not a pleasant reading experience and I’m not going to think more about it.