After The Kiss

After the Kiss 

by Lauren Layne

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
This was a book that was worth staying up late for. I kept saying I'd only read a couple more pages before bed, but I just couldn't leave the story.

Julie is a the resident dating expert at Stiletto magazine. She's great with first kisses, first dates, first anythings. But the idea of being in a relationship; having “couples movie night”, is horror inducing for her. Then her boss gives her the assignment to write about what happens after the “firsts”.

Julie decides her best course of action would be to go undercover and pretend. Find a guy that's obviously long-term and just grin and bear it for the sake of her article. Her friend picks out Mitchell and even his name makes Julie grimace. He's a long term guy through and through, but when they meet, she's surprised by their chemistry.

But at the same time, Mitchell just got out of a boring long term relationship and is persuaded to have a fling. It's a bet between him and a coworker and the coworker picks out Julie – knowing that she's always, only looking for a fling.

Mitchell doesn't believe in seeking chemistry and Julie doesn't want to be saddled with someone round the clock or long-term. Mitchell doesn't actually like Julie's made up flirtatiousness, but both of them sort of like who the other is underneath everything. The story reminded me of “How to lose a guy in 10 days or less”. It was a sweet story and fun to see how these two opposites attract.

Julie starts finding that she actually likes being around Mitchell and is surprised to realize that she misses him on days they're not together. It's a first for her and she's not totally sure what to do about it. For the first time, she feels natural with someone. The things they do together seem easy and right.

Each of them start the relationship on the wrong foot and they both have secrets. If their secret reasons come out, it could spell the end. Neither one knows if the other will be able to forgive and when the sh*t hits the fan, there's actually a much bigger explosion than I expected.

Mitchell was sweet and caring, but there were a couple times I was shocked by his misogynistic attitude. Wearing skimpy clothing does not mean someone is “selling something”. He said some pretty nasty things and I thought he could have groveled a bit more to make up for his attitude and lies, but I was still satisfied at the end.

Julie describes herself as a little insubstantial, but she really likes herself. She enjoys her first date lifestyle and isn't looking for anything more than that. Her reasons are eventually revealed, but I liked that she was confident and happy with who she was. It didn't feel like she had to change, so much as see other facets of herself. I started the book thinking that it would be rather insubstantial too, but both characters were well written and had some gumption behind them. I do wish that Julie had told Mitchell off a couple times and forced him to change his attitude a little more, instead of just getting comfortable in her new role of long-term partner.

This was an emotionally fulfilling book. I cried during the sad parts and a couple of the happy parts too. And finished the book feeling like everything worked out in the end. I'm hopeful that this author will write stories for Julie's two friends as well. They deserve their own happily-ever-after too.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.