Kiss Me Like This by Bella Andre

Kiss Me Like ThisNarrated by Eva Kaminsky

Kiss Me Like This is the first in Ms. Andre’s new Morrisons series, which will feature the love stories of the six Morrison siblings, Grant, Olivia, Drew (a rock star), twins Justin and Sean, and the youngest, Madison. The Morrisons are still grieving the loss of their mother, Lisa, to breast cancer three months before the beginning of the story. (I wonder if Mike Morrison, the patriarch will get a story? I’d like that. *hint hint*).

Sean Morrison is a star baseball player for Stanford University and, up until his mother died, a passionate landscape photographer. He’s been numb and self-medicating with alcohol since his mother passed away but one night at a frat party, he sees a beautiful girl who jumpstarts him back to feeling again.

Selena Britten is 19 and has just started as a probationary freshman at Stanford. She has a quarter to prove herself in order to gain full admittance to the college. She loves books and wants a career in them – whether that involves teaching, working as a librarian or even being a writer, she doesn’t yet know. Two weeks earlier, she had told her mother, Genevieve, that she was going to college and giving up the modelling career she had had since the age of three. Genevieve is a stereotypical “momager”. After getting pregnant by accident at age 19, she had to put her own modelling career aside to be a single mother. All of her own career aspirations are now located in the person of Serena.

Only Serena doesn’t want to be a model or an actress. She does want her mother’s love and affection but the only time she hears anything complimentary or affectionate from her mother is when Serena has done well on the modelling circuit, or when she landed a role in a Smith Sullivan movie. That movie has now been indefinitely shelved and Serena has pulled the plug on all other modelling and acting engagements.

Strangely enough, money was never mentioned in the story. It was unclear to me whether Serena had control of what must surely be a reasonable amount of wealth or whether this was in her mother’s hands (and if it was, whether this was a problem for Serena). Genevieve spent most of the book being the “evil-mother-who-is-evil” but there was a glimmer of actual character at the end.

Serena has not had a normal childhood. She never went to a regular school and has been raised by an eagle-eyed mother who is distrustful of men. Serena has never really had friends. She wants to be “normal” in college but is aware that the paparazzi will continue to take her picture and she is often approached by fans on campus. She even has a creepy English professor who appears to take an improper interest in her because of her beauty (another stereotypical character).

When Sean first meets Serena he is initially an ass but he does apologise early and genuinely for that behaviour. They then become friends – even though there is a strong attraction, Serena needs to focus on her studies particularly in her first quarter so she can stay at Stanford. She is, in any event, wary of jumping into a relationship.

Sean and Serena go on a series of weekly “normal” outings and their attraction grows. To get their happy ending, Sean has to open up about his grief and Serena has to deal with her mother in a more definitive way. Otherwise however, their relationship is pretty much a fairy tale. There isn’t much by way of internal conflict and there were times the story felt a bit too saccharine for my taste.

I believe Sean is about 21 (he’s a Junior) and with Serena only being 19, I felt a little uncomfortable about how quickly they progressed to the exchange of “I love you”. Perhaps I am showing my age, but the book covers a span of less than three months and that seems awfully fast to me. Of course, Sean and Serena are Practically Perfect in Every Way (TM Mary Poppins) so maybe that’s what happens when you’re Just. That. Awesome.

Eva Kaminsky narrates most (if not all) of Bella Andre’s books and I’ve previously enjoyed her work. She sounds a lot like Sophie Eastlake or Julia Whelan to my ear – so much they could be sisters. Listeners who enjoy Eastlake or Whelan will be very happy with Ms. Kaminsky’s performance.

The book itself is not particularly ground-breaking but it is entertaining enough if you don’t think about it too much. The narration certainly helps because Ms. Kaminsky’s voice is pleasing to the ear and she delivers emotion with a deft and not heavy-handed touch.

The characters all had distinctly different voices, with the males having pleasing deeper tones. Serena’s character ran the risk of being too much “poor-little-rich-girl” as well as being a Mary Sue – she certainly skated on thin ice toward the latter a few times in the story – but I think Ms. Kaminsky’s narration increased her likeability, so she did not become annoying to me.

The production was crisp and clean. Ms. Kaminsky is a very experienced narrator so listeners need not be concerned it is a self-published work; it is to a very high standard.

Kiss Me Like This is kind of a popcorn listen – enjoyable enough, but not the kind of story that leaves a lasting impression either. But, hey, popcorn is fun every now and then, right?

Kaetrin


Narration: B

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence: Minimal

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Oak Press LLC

Kiss Me Like This was provided to AudioGals for review.

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