I feel very conflicted about this book as, on the one hand, I enjoyed the romance and the idea of the story. But on the other, the age gap was quite a big issue for me.

When requesting this book, I didn’t realise that the characters have an age gap of twenty one years. Rian is nineteen and Parker is forty. If you are able to look past that gap, then the romance is quite cute and worth reading, but it was a struggle for me. I had to pretend that Rian was twenty five and Parker was thirty five in order to read and enjoy this book as it was just too weird for me and made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I personally don’t think Rian acts like a nineteen year old in this book, and I originally thought she was older than me (21). The other characters also don’t seem to be fazed by the age gap and are actively encouraging the relationship, which didn’t seem very realistic to me. I also think Rian’s friends are older than her by a fair amount.

If you look look past the age gap, then the story and romance between the characters is good as there is a decent amount of tension. It’s told from both Rian and Parker’s perspectives and they both appear to be pining for each other, but not acting upon their feelings. There is a lot of back and forth between them, as neither of the characters want to hurt each other and are protecting their own hearts. I did enjoy this book, but I felt very weird whilst reading it, which ruined my experience a fair amount.

This is a tricky one to review. This book has all the things I usually love in a romance novel: slow burn, a sexy firefighter and an adorable ensemble cast with lots of witty banter. But somehow this one missed the mark for me.
The romance was a little too slow burn with a lot of “will they or won’t they?” that was a bit frustrating. There is also a 20 year age gap between Rian and Parker…which normally wouldn’t bother me, but these two are an unlikely pair with nothing in common. Once they do get together it’s still hard to feel any connection between them. Also, the mother of his children was only 18 when they got together and he was 35, which gives the impression that he likes much younger women. Something about that didn’t sit well with me.
Overall, I thought the story was good but there were a few derails I did not like.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to read and review.

Rian Kerry - yoga instructor and Parker Hayes -fireman are dreaming about eachother. They have brothers and friend that spend.lot of.time.tohether. The big age difference is there and it is interesting see how this gap is melt down.. Is there ebough of courage to build a realationship and be a father as the same time?

I think every body dream about last kiss that is memorable and even better if we know that there will be more kisses. Tender, passionate... a trevel of discovering our first love and a second chance

First of all, I would like to thank Netgalley for providing me an e-ARC of the book.

Disclaimers: All my reviews are my thoughts of the book and according to my personal preferences. Even though I had received an e-ARC for review, it does not affect my review and honest thoughts for the book.

Personal Ratings: 2.95/5🌟

An age-gap romance with heavy family influence

I came in not expecting anything from this book, and although I have a few quirks about this book, I loved the family aspects and the friendship in here.

Short Summary
Rian and Parker lives in a town where everybody knows everybody and when an incident that led to Parker literally saving Rian's life, a crush leads to full blown feelings bursting. Its a story of handling trauma, family and a whole load of friendship with a spice of romance in between.

My thoughts
Personally, I had enjoyed the overall idea of the story. I don't have too much of a problem with age gap romance, but I would enjoyed it more if the characters acts more maturely in some sense. This will review will be divided into two parts,
Part 1: Aspects of the book that I love
Part 2: Why I felt it a missed opportunity

Part 1: Aspects of The Book that I Loved

1. Family Bond
I love the family aspects and the friendship in this novel. It was one of the most wholesome things I've ever read. I love Rian's relationship with Parker's daughter. The way that the author wrote the family moments was entirely wholesome and I love the aspects of Rian trying to mend her relationship with her brother. This was what saved the book for me as I loved the banters going on between both pair of siblings and the twins interactions with Rian and Parker. They certainly made a cute family.

2.Friendship
I ABSOLUTELY ADORE Rian's friends. The whole trinity is such a loud bunch and I love the aspects of the town, where although everyone's knows each other business, it has a warmth that I simply love. It makes the story more relatable and I love their friendship moments.

Now, moving on to the aspects of the book that made this book a 3 star.

Part 2: Why I felt it a missed opportunity

1. Writing Style
Why I particularly am okay with the plot in general, I personally felt entirely confused especially when reading dialogues. Never in my life that I had to read multiple times to know who is talking during the whole story. There were times that the dialogues were inconsistent too and it definitely disrupted my reading experience while reading which I felt was a big missed opportunity.

2.Characters
While I personally don't really mind an age-gap romance, for this particular story, I felt that both the main characters are entirely frustrating. While I loved all of the side characters, Rian and Parker are both immature for me. Its understandable for Rian, but what made me frustrated was Parker as he has a tendency to brood for quite awhile which didn't' really suit his age :') Its a missed opportunity for me cause if done right, the age-gap romance can be executed perfectly.

Nonetheless, it was not entirely a bad book. I had enjoyed some instances especially the family and friendship aspects in the book. I might look up more works from the author.

Yikes. I usually love a book with a firefighter and this book had two but just... yikes. I can't say that I am a big fan of big age gaps. Maybe if the characters were both aged up it wouldn't have been so cringey but I believe that 19 years old is a little too young for someone so old with two kids who are not much younger than her. It had its moments for sure which is why I'll give it a 3 out of 5 stars but the age gap was hard to get past.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

this was my first experience with the author, I can't say if I liked it or not because I'm not a fan of the age gap and it made me not enjoy the reading.

I love single dad and nanny books but if it hadn't existed at such an age gap I'm sure I would have loved it.
That said I really liked Rian's scenes with the girls.

I was swayed by the cute cover and your synopsis.

- Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book -

I read this book pretty quickly, but that is not necessarily a good thing and I have a few thoughts. I wasn't initially going to read this book after realizing it is book 3 in a series but I decided since it was just sitting in my kindle library waiting, I would give it a chance.

Things I liked:
- The timeline and the sequence of events that happened worked for me.

- I enjoyed some of the side characters like Niall and the twins. Specifically the back and forth with the twins and other characters was great.

Things I didn’t like:
-The dialogue was hard to follow sometimes. I had to go back in multiple instances to double-check who was saying what. Also in some instances, I couldn’t tell who was talking…. at all

- I wasn’t pulled into our two main characters and I think that was because they were always going in circles. They would never get anywhere in advancing their relationship. Any step forward ended up with them going back a few steps.

- The biggest problem for me was the age gap of 22 years with our two main characters, with Rian being 19 and Parker being 41. I couldn’t get past it throughout the entire book. At one point she mentioned seeing him for the first time when she was 14, she said “I was just a teenager when he came into our school with his father and his brother to give us a lesson about safety. I was fourteen, and he had already met her: the woman who would ruin him forever.” I think there was talk about them being family friends which would make me think they knew each other when she was a teenager… and that’s gross. I don’t know why the author clung so hard to her being 19 when she could’ve been mid-to-late 20s, and the age gap trope could have still been used. Repeatedly they bring up the age gap and how young she is… YES SHE IS YOUNG

- To TOP it off. That “woman who would ruin him forever” was 18 when he met her and he would have been around 34-35. So his relationship with Rian is not the first relationship with a much younger woman.

Based on the bright cute cover and it being a new to me author, I tried to keep at this one. It is a slow burn, age gap romance. It was slow, repetitive, and was hard to push through. With the main man being 40 and the girl being 19, it was a little hard as a social worker to get past that. It didnt help that he had gotten someone else pregnant. Overall, the blurb sounded better than the book.

Thank you to Netgalley, author, and publisher for a digital ARC copy of this story for a honest review!

One Last Kiss is an age gap slow burn romance. And I do mean SLOWWW.
The overall story is sweet and entertaining, the characters are fun and engaging but it just felt too long and dragged out, at times to the point of being a bit frustrating.

The biggest bright point for me was Niall and his antics, which injected some well needed whimsy and sense of fun into the overall feel of the book.

3 stars and a yoga mat.

2.5 stars/5 Stars

I had a lot of hopes for this one going in, unfortunately it didn’t live up to any of those. Normally I’m okay with an age gap romance, however this one didn’t do that trope well. It felt like the characters had nothing in common. This book also felt so repetitive in what the MCs were saying. I found this book dragged on. I didn’t feel much romance. This book was just not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for sharing a digital copy of One Last Kiss by A.S.Kelly it was my first time reading a book by A.S.Kelly and going from the cover and blurb it sounded very much like a me book.

The cover is bright yellow with a couple embracing in the centre, if I was in a book shop this cover would hit you between the eyes and would definitely be something that I would pick up. The story itself was very long and repetitive that made it impossible for me to finish. I read up to chapter 33 but it just seemed very ‘samey’. I also struggled to get pass the age gap, 19 year old girl to a 40 year old man was problematic to me especially as he had gotten a younger girl pregnant previously it just felt creepy.

I think there is a great story somewhere inside but with the age gap and repetitive nature of the story I would not recommend this book unfortunately.

Thanks for the arc of this book netgalley!!

I went into this book kinda blindly I didn’t know much about the book but I liked the cover and the blurb made me feel like it would be a cute NA romance which I legit love. Maybe this book isn’t for me but I legit had to push myself to read it so many times. The first 80% of the book were so boring and repetitive it was the same event happening then the same reaction and they will get over it and the cycle continues. I wanted to DNF it so many times but I pushed through and I was disappointed. I hated the age gap and every time I tried to ignore it or push past it they mentioned it and it was just too much. And Parker was so annoying at ever single point of this book. Like it’s the trope ‘ I hate everyone but you’ but he is a forty year old man who is way to old to be like that.

I just felt so uncomfortable through out the whole book because she is legit a teen and he is a middle aged man. Though to be fair the last 20% of the book weren’t the worst like I did read and kinda enjoyed it but it’s till made me uncomfortable.

That’s just the plot A.S Kelly’s writing wasn’t for me it felt like a very long dialogue and sometimes chapters would just be characters talking and I would get confused who is saying what which would make me have to reread and sometimes I would just give up and guess.

I truly thought I would enjoy this book; the cover was adorable and the premise was pretty interesting. I thought this would be easily be a 4 for 5 star read, but I was left utterly disappointed. My biggest point of contention was the age gap between the two leads; Rian is a 19 year old girl and Parker is a 41 year old man. That really put me off while I was reading this and unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the romantic relationship between them. This age gap really affected the story for me, and honestly I would have preferred if it was reduced and Rian was older than she was. The best part of this story was definitely Niall; only because of him, I was able to finish this book

I enjoyed this story overall, particularly the single-dad trope, which I’m a sucker for. It was cute and the romance was sweet, despite the age gap being such a heavy presence for much of the book. One complaint I have is that I’m not a fan of being spoken to directly as the reader. This might be common in the author’s writing, but I haven’t read anything by this author before. Despite that, I am interested to read the previous two companion books, because of what I learned in this one and I would like to fill in the gaps of the other two couples’ stories.

The premise and cover were both so cute, I was ready to dive right in! The story is the 3rd in a series and could be a standalone, but I felt lost from the beginning. I definitely needed some background info to relate to certain plot points. I also couldn't get past the 22 year age difference.

One Last Kiss follows Rian and Parker. It is told in first person dual POV. Rian is 19 and Parker is 41. Rian had had a crush on Parker for ages, Parker doesn’t want to open himself up to Rian and he is a single dad so has responsibilities. My main problem with the book was the writing and how long it is. For a romance it is far too long and the writing felt clunky and forced. It wasn’t enjoyable to read and felt like a slog to get through. Also this is book 3 in a series and you can read this as a stand-alone but I felt like it was missing character development and key points.

I enjoyed this rom com in book form. While I didn't love I did like it, and it kept my attention till the end. I am glad I read it. And I will recommend to readers who enjoy this genre of book.

I have say I love reading anything taking place in Ireland. Ireland is such a beautiful country that I have had the pleasure to travel there last year with my mom. I had a great time reading One Last Kiss. I read the whole book in one sitting. I was invested in the plot that I couldn’t it down. I loved the relationship and chemistry between Rian and Parker. The age difference didn’t bother me. Rian being 19 and Parker being 41. I loved how Parker being a single father was always there for his twin daughters. I also loved the characters. They were really fun to read and I laughed multiple times through out the book. This was my first A.S Kelly experience and I will continue to read anything she publishes. Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an amazing book.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't really like this book. It started off okay, but age-gap isn't a personal preference, especially since it was more than 20 years between the main leads. It started to become more prominent as the story goes on, creating a conflict in the book which is supposed to feel realistic but somehow it just didn't to me. I have seen real-life 20+ age gap couples on TikTok and they seem to be doing really well and have chemistry, but in this book, the writing just couldn't pull me in. I couldn't relate to the female lead even though we're the same age. I had a hard time finishing this book as it was constantly one step forward and two steps back. The only thing I did like about this book was that the author wrote some parts that engage with the reader. Those parts were really amusing which made the book fun and light and slightly bearable.

This one was a swing and a miss for me. I didn't realize going in that there was such a substantial age gap, 19 and 41 is really just too much for me and made me largely uncomfortable. Also, while I'm not usually a huge fan of a slow burn, I really felt this one moved too quickly and that there wasn't enough buildup and development into the relationship. A little tension can be nice sometimes.

Another thing I felt really could have benefited from some greater editing and greater thought was the character voices. It was oftentimes difficult to differentiate between them and I found myself having to go back, reread, and evaluate who was being spoken about and who was speaking. I also largely found the actions of the friends to be unrealistic and overly tropey. Well, I don't think this is a bad book necessarily. It's just not my cup of tea and unfortunately not the kind of romance I usually go for.

Thank you to Netgalley and A.S Kelly for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.