Title: Kiss Me Forever
Series: Dreamspun Beyond: Book 17
Author: M.J. O’Shea
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 200 Pages
Category: Paranormal
At a Glance: Overall, this was a cute and interesting read; though admittedly, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
Reviewed By: Lindsey
Blurb: Forever is too long to be alone.
Professor Avery Cook has spent his career researching the mysterious side of New Orleans. Superstitions, legends, and lore—Avery has an academic explanation for all of them….
Until one night when he walks into a bar and his life changes.
In a sea of impossibly beautiful people, Tyson stands out, and he sweeps Avery off his feet with his old-world charm and romanticism. But there’s a darkness in Tyson too, and Avery discovers Tyson is part of a world he thought existed only in books and stories—the paranormal tales he studies at the university.
Tyson’s been lonely for a long time, and he’s falling in love with Avery. But his past is a long one, and it’s full of enemies and danger. The best way to keep Avery safe is to push him away….
Review: Though ultimately a cute read I really did enjoy, Kiss Me Forever lacked the intrigue and angst I was hoping to find here. Based on the blurb, I had really been looking forward to a focus on the paranormal aspect, and to a more in-depth plotline shadowing Avery and Tyson’s relationship and causing a wee bit more angst. That’s not what I found.
The first half of the book is interesting and has some unique twists on the paranormal ideas. New Orleans is the perfect backdrop, with its history rich in superstitions, myth, and legends. From the bar where Tyson and Avery meet to the street Avery lives on, it set the perfect stage. The relationship development, despite the insta-attraction element, was a nice change of pace. It was like Tyson courted Avery, and their feelings emerged more from emotional and mental connection rather than just the physical. That is always a plus for me, because I am all about connecting to characters as individuals and as a couple—I can’t get down with MCs who are written in a way where I only see the compatibility physically and everything else is underdeveloped.
Between the setting and the blurb, I was all kinds of ready for the paranormal plot to jump in and get down with a little bit of that darkness described in the blurb, and to immerse myself in some angst. The longer the story went on, the more I wondered if there would be anything fleshed out from a paranormal aspect, other than some hints and quick descriptions. See, the story had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out exactly what Tyson was, as Tyson’s particular supernatural talent is strung along, making the reader wonder with excitement. When it is finally revealed what Tyson was it was… anticlimactic; not only the what he was but also the fact that even after all is revealed, everything else about the paranormal community is glossed over. There isn’t really a full focus on any of the types of supernatural creatures, and Tyson’s talent falls within a boring range, to be honest. This was the point where the story, as a whole, started to lose my interest a bit. Up until then, excitement had been building up with all the different directions the story could take. My hopes were soaring high. Once Tyson revealed himself and outed the supernatural community as being real, everything just sort of stalled.
The darkness and past returning to bring conflict to the story wasn’t really developed well. Or at least not to the level I had been expecting. The darkness in Tyson? I didn’t really get any inkling of that at all; he came off as a sweet, sometimes aloof, and mostly lonely person who is finding happiness after so long. His past, which is supposed to be full of enemies? Not so much. It turned out to be more like a vindictive and scorned individual who creates some bumps in the road.
This is one of those cases where I read the blurb and went into the book anticipating something different than what I got. Sometimes that doesn’t bother me and even ends up working better for my personal reading tastes. Unfortunately, in this situation that was not the case. I was looking for something with a little bit of a grittier element than what I got. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the story or that is was poorly written in any way. Quite the opposite, in fact. It just ended up being a rather sweet little romance with a side of paranormal and angst, instead of the tension filled paranormal romance I was anxiously waiting to gobble up.
Though it wasn’t quite what I had hoped, Kiss me Forever is still a charming little read. If you like a mostly sweet romance with a dash of paranormal and sprinkle of angst, this one may be for you.
You can buy Kiss Me Forever here:
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