Kimani, $6.25, ISBN 978-0-373-86237-5
Contemporary Romance, 2011
AC Arthur’s Winter Kisses has been in my pile of unread books for over 10 years, and the pages have yellowed with age. Since one of the pages has been dogeared, I guess I must have started reading it ages ago, only to put it down and forgot about it later. I think I know why I did that: the plot is on a very contrived side, and I probably anticipated seeing a train wreck in the pages ahead.
Monica Lakefield’s younger sisters are all married, so now they decide to pull of a stunt to get her and Alexander Bennett, a BFF of one of those sisters’ husbands, together. I don’t know why people would do this in the present day, and a part of me is curious as to how these idiots would react if Alex turned out to be a serial killer and Monica was never seen again.
Fortunately, this is a romance novel, so of course Alex is a sane package of husband material. He and Monica end up unwittingly moving into the same room at a resort for their vacation, and oh dear, there is a blizzard outside that keeps them snowed in. Wait, I didn’t know one of those sisters is Storm that can control the weather.
Anyway, so the story begins. The drama comes from Monica being a “workaholic” so she just can’t—can’t, can’t, CAN’T, CAN’T, CAN’T!!!—commit to a happily ever after.
On the bright side, the train wreck doesn’t really happen. The premise is contrived to a cringe-inducing degree, and Monica spends the first quarter or so of the story believing that “workaholic” is the same thing as a “perpetually whiny and bitchy twit”. Seriously, the heroine constantly throws little mini-tantrums that only underscores how patient Alex can be just to get into her pants.
However, eventually the two start to settle into a comfortable groove, and that’s when this story becomes a good old-fashioned romance with good chemistry, enjoyable banter, and some feels to be had. The late two-thirds of this one are easily the best parts of this story, and a part of me will always wish that the author has allowed Alex and Monica to meet and develop a relationship in a less forced and artificial way.
Then, the author decides to have Monica pull a potential relationship-breaking flounce so late in the story, only to have things become okay again after a four week time jump. What just happened? I feel like this one was meant to be a much longer story, only for the author to abruptly cut short the story and slap on some rushed resolution after there, just in time to send off the manuscript to her editor.
This bizarre turn of events sour my mood considerably, making me feel cheated of a proper sendoff to Monica and Alex. All the goodwill that has been built up for these two up to that point evaporates in light of this, ugh.
I like a big part of Winter Kisses, but frankly, major critical parts of the story—the opening chapters and the ending ones—are a letdown. Talk about the opposite of a sagging middle!
