GRR Reviews Kiss Me Kate (Madison Girls Book 1) by Mari Carr

Kiss Me Kate by Mari Karr is about personal growth and healing one's own wounds. However, this novel feels as if it wasn't outlined properly, but there are continuing errors from chapter to chapter as if the author forgot about what was written before, and as a result, the character at times feels schizophrenic, sad in one, but immediately changed to passionate, and so on. There's also some disturbing physical violence near the end that came out of nowhere.

To recap, Kate's husband skipped down with the local hairdresser, leaving her, the tame schoolteacher, as the butt of the town gossip about her inability of "keep her man". Desperate to get a fresh start, Kate took up an offer by two DEA agents to be their housesitter while they go on a long assignment elsewhere. Kate slowly recovered her self-esteem and looks, lost weight, and became a better person... and her emails to Rick, one of the agents, were replied, and both started to secretly lust after each other. When the assignment was finally over, Rick (and his partner Wes) came back, and Rick wanted to pursue Kate in person... But Kate was afraid of getting her heart broken and only wanted NSA sex. Rick struggles to hold his needs in check while getting from Kate what he can while trying to convince her he's in for the long haul... Then Kate's husband came back...

While Kate's personal progress was good, she's STILL not ready for a relationship about almost a YEAR, but she's ready for NSA sex... Uh... weird? Also, this involves a spoiler...

SPOILER AHEAD

I WARNED YOU!

Anyway, when Kate's no good husband came back, he apparently wanted Kate to take him back, even though she's a much better person without him. When she said "no way", he got violent because he's also drunk. Given that we didn't know anything about him before, other than he ran off with the local hairdresser, this tendency to violence really came out of nowhere, and that's NOT good writing. Obviously, she was saved by Rick.

The story's pace was a bit on the slow side too. Overall, I think it rated average, as while the personal growth theme is good, the inconsistencies and odd plots left it mediocre.


Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman whose cheating husband ran off grew out of her shell and fell in love with a DEA agent away on assignment

Tropes: law enforcement, betrayal, coming of age, evil ex

Overall Rating:  3/5