Quick Summary: An unusual situation romance

My Review: Kiss Me by Samantha Chase is the fifth and final book in the Donovans series.

About the Book: Patrick Donovan has the best assistant in the world in Marissa Barrett. She is dependable. She can anticipate his every need. They have a great working relationship. She is strong and skilled. She lacks nothing, as far as he is concerned. When family drama suddenly overwhelms her, Patrick steps in to be her knight in shining armor. As such, they agree to have a marriage of convenience. Unfortunately, things between them change. Will those changes be for the better or will they be worse?

My Final Say: The Donovan clan was in full force in this installment. Every couple was present. Kate Donovan was back to her matchmaking ways. More Donovans came on the scene. The text chain blew up. A big announcement was made. All was right and ended well with the family. Additionally, this book kicked off a new series - Sweetbriar Ridge.

Readers who adore the Donovan family's antics and who appreciate their special kind of love will like this final story. They will also love the promising new beginning with the Donovan cousins.

Rating: 3.25/5
Recommend: Yes
Audience: A
Series: Yes

Thank you to Samantha Chase and to Valentine PR & Literary Management for granting access to this title via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The words I have shared are my own.

Kiss Me is a wonderful marriage of convenience story. Real estate tycoon Patrick Donovan is the last of matchmaking mama Kate’s untethered children and there are several family weddings looming so when Patrick’s longtime assistant Marissa needs help he proposes a marriage for their mutual assistance. This is a great story about two people who have kept a very tight rein on their personal feelings and readers will delight as they truly begin to discover each other’s true feelings. The book also introduces Uncle Ronan’s disfunctional family and the promise of additional Donovan stories. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Most highly recommend.

Another great book by Samantha Chase about the Donovan family. This time the focus was on Patrick and Marissa. She is his assistant but has some major family issues, mainly her no good brother Daren. She needs a knight in shining armour and Patrick is just that. They decide to have a fake marriage in the hope that this will give Marissa the support and security that she need to fight her brother. However both have feelings for each other that neither will admit to the other. This is ultimately a romance that has good looking characters, a great supportive family and some drama. I found that this was a book that I could just lose myself in and although a bit predictable in places I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to Valentine PR and Netgalley for the ARC

This was a charming, quick and sweet small town, marriage of convenience, workplace romance. I didn't know that this book was part of a series so it was a bit hard to keep up with the names of all the characters tbh. Marissa & Patrick had good chemistry but I really started to enjoy their dynamic around 65% of the book. The beginning was engrossing but then all the ott drama with Marissa's brother started which added nothing to the plot. And how he did not face any legal consequences of his actions until the very end was unrealistic. So overall it was a short read but nothing worth remembering because the plot wasn't solid enough and the story was predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Valentine PR for
providing me the ARC of this book.

Marissa Bennett finds herself in a dangerous situation with her family and needs help. Patrick Donovan would do anything to help his assistant. She has been helping him run his business and holds it together. All his siblings are in relationships and getting married, so his meddling mother puts her focus on setting him up. When Marissa needs some help from Patrick, he comes up with a solution to benefit them both. They marry for a year, and she stays safe from her family, and Patrick's family stops setting him up in dates. What neither counted on were the deep feelings they had buried coming to the surface and complicating things.

I will admit, this book had a bit of a convoluted fake marriage plot. It was a little to convenient that both thought the marriage would solve their problems. However the relationship that developed between Marissa and Patrick was sweet. Both of these people had feelings for each other long before this plot, but buried them so deep that they wouldn't even acknowledge them, because it was "off-limits". Watching them realize their feelings and then acting on them was intense. Patrick was a total protector and wanted to keep Marissa safe and would stop at nothing.

Marissa has had a tough life, but I felt we were missing some of the story. We heard a lot of what happened in Marissa's family, but missed a lot of the "doing" where we saw interactions between her and her mom, or her and her brother.

I liked that this series ender does set up for a new series with the Donovan's Cousins. I look forward to reading other Samantha Chase novels. Thank you to NetGalley and Valentine PR for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% mine.

Unfortunately, this wasn't for me. Way too much useless drama that didn't add anything to the plot.
Her mother, her brother, his frankly suffocating mother who you want to shut up with a sock, the dozens of brothers/sisters/in-laws... way too many people in this book, and none of them were interesting, not even the main characters.
The choices made that brought to the marriage were so ridiculous and flimsy that you lose interest from the beginning.

Unfortunately, this was a total miss.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.