ARC Book Review: Just One Kiss – Susan Mallery

Just One Kiss
Author: Susan Mallery
Series: Fool’s Gold #11
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Goodreads | Amazon | TBD

Summary:

 
First Sentence: Patience McGraw couldn’t breathe.

I received an eARC through NetGalley. Thank you!

My Review:

I’m amazed at how fast Susan Mallery writes. I mean, five books a year?! How could she write that fast? Not to mention, the most amazing thing about her books is there are absolutely no plot holes or spelling errors I can find in them every time I read one of her books. It’s amazing. She most either be an amazing writer or have an amazing editor.

When Susan Mallery left us with that sort-of cliffhanger regarding Justice in All Summer Long, which is Charlie’s book, I immediately headed to goodreads, hoping that Susan Mallery would write a book in the future focusing on Justice and whoever he wanted to meet again, but was too afraid to meet. There was. The book was called Just One Kiss and would be focused on Justice and Patience, a character readers met if they had read All Summer Long, the book before Just One Kiss. I was excited to read Just One Kiss, especially when I discovered that Just One Kiss would be on NetGalley. I immediately requested it and after a day of waiting, I got accepted and began to read it.

The Patience he called had been all attitude and blunt talk. It looked as though that hadn’t changed. (ARC 22)

While I was reading Just One Kiss, which alternates between Patience and Justice’s point of views, I was more into reading about the other characters in the book: Felicia, Isabel, Gideon, Ford, etc. Patience and Justice’s story didn’t capture my attention as much as the other characters did. Yes, Patience and Justice’s love story is definitely cute and sweet, but if you compare their story to the other characters’ lives, Patience and Justice’s story definitely pales in comparison.

I feel let down by the major scene towards the ending of the book. I won’t go into the details because it would be a somewhat huge spoiler (although people who’ve read the book could easily guess which scene I’m talking about), but I felt that there wasn’t enough build-up for that particular scene. I was already expecting that particular scene to happen because I’m very good at guessing what would happen next in books, and when what I suspected would happen did happen, it lacked the suspense and terrified feeling that readers were supposed to feel. To me, the scene fell flat; I just wanted it to be over already.

“I don’t understand.”
Patience didn’t know how many times she’d said the words, but they remained the truth. She didn’t understand. How could she? Things like this didn’t happen in real life. (ARC 345)

If Just One Kiss was a decent read, then why did I only give it a rating of three stars out of five stars? Simple. So far, I’ve read every single book in the Fools Gold series, not counting the prequels, and more than five of them have very similar endings: the guy decides to leave or end the relationship for whatever reason and then has a change of heart, going back to the girl. This happened in Just One Kiss too. The endings of Susan Mallery’s Fools Gold series is starting to get very predictable.

He wanted to tell her how he’d been wrong to leave, how he’d been so damned scared of hurting her and Lillie. He wanted to explain he hadn’t had faith. (ARC 373)

I can’t wait to read Two of A Kind, the next book in the Fools Gold series. It focuses on Felicia’s story, a character we met while reading Just One Kiss. To be honest, Felicia was the highlight of Just One Kiss, I loved her funny dialogue and how smart she is. If there was a person like Felicia in real life, I’ll love to befriend her.

Overall, I will recommend Just One Kiss for people who are in the mood for fluffy sweet love stories. In fact, if you love reading fluffy sweet love stories, then you should definitely read the Fools Gold series. The Fools Gold series is a guilty pleasure read for me; it’s fun, sweet, and quick to read about. Some books even tugged on my heartstrings so much that it made me cry.