A love story that does not start off that way. Rena has been working at a dive bar to supplement her income until her salon is ready to open. That is going to happen so she is giving her notice. She had hoped that Alex Heller who comes into the bar always would finally notice at least enough to ask her out for a date. Instead, the 6’6” man acts like she does not exist.
When Alex hears that she will no longer be working at the bar he panics and begins talking to her and then asks her out, she wants to agree but she also wants romance. So, Alex starts to romance her by sending her gifts which are sad sometimes but are also funny. He is leading up to valentine’s day but he has no clue in what he is doing.
This story at times makes laugh it’s just that it does not stay that way. I liked the characters but overall, I felt like I was missing something. I like this author so I will read her books again.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

I thought this was a cute story! I enjoyed the characters and loved the plot. It was different then anything I’ve read. I also loved the cover!

I was drawn in by the premise of this story, but I quickly realized this fits within the larger world of characters created by the author. This will likely be enjoyed by fans of the author's previous books.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I haven't decide yet if I loved it if it was just ok.There were things I really enjoyed but I have problem with others that make me not enjoying it as much as I was hoping!It had great potentials but I was expected more.There was a bit of a suspense/hate crime angle in this book .

If there is anything I hate in a book, it’s when the author tells us what the characters are feeling, instead of showing. And The Kissing Game had that in spades.

This book got negative points right at the beginning, when in the very first page, we find out the the hero has still not recovered from the fresh wound of his mother’s death from six months. Then we go on to find out about his feelings about the heroine through his stream of consciousness, and get introduced to more characters than I care about.

Things only continue to go downhill from there. There is no real connection between the hero and the heroine. Unless you count them thinking to themselves or talking to other characters about what they find in attractive in each other. I do not simply know who was more annoying – the hero or heroine. The hero grated on my nerves right off the bat with his arrogant attitude. The heroine was flimsy with her mind changing every minute. One moment she is dazzled by him, and in the next she wants kids and decides he’s not for her.

One main reason I requested the ARC was because of the diversity and POC element. But I felt that this element was introduced to just tick a box, nothing more. Except her skin color, I did not find a single thing about her life that could throw relevance to her heritage. The hero is German, and the author makes him use German words randomly to show for it. Also, the synopsis calls him ‘tall, DARK and handsome’. But he is in actuality a pale blonde guy. Look at the cover? Yeah.

There were too many characters in the book. The main couple talk to them more than with each other. I found out later that on that this is a companion novel of sorts to the author’s books. Maybe if I had not read this as a standalone, I would have disliked it less… On second thought, maybe not.

I had expected to dislike this book and hoped for it to surprise me. It did not. I hate it when that happens!

ratings

If you have read Marie Harte’s McCauley Brothers and Body Shop Bad Boys series, then you know that this book is a long time coming. Readers have been begging for Rena to get a book and now that she finally got one, I couldn’t be happier.

I had some high expectations with this book because I was such a big fan of the original McCauley Brothers series. I really felt like Harte was able to capture a lot of the same elements of that series, but also give Rena her own story that was unique to her.

The hero, Axel, turned out to be a little different than what I expected him to be. He was alpha but also quite gentle at the same time. And in terms of the level of heat compared to the other series, this one seemed a bit more toned down.

There is also something else that I wanted to note. The cover is very different from what we normally see from this author. I guess that the publisher was going for the trend that’s quite popular right now, but I do definitely prefer her original covers. I think it matches the book a bit better. However, I can totally understand that they wanted to give Rena a special cover because of how unique she was.

Nevertheless, it was fun to read this book. I would suggest starting with the McCauley Brothers series if you plan on reading this one, just so you can experience Rena’s story from all angles before you finally read from her POV.

3.5 Stars

1.5 stars

When I read the blurb I was sold, and then I started reading this story... definitely not what I expected.
I got confused by all the characters mentioned and it was only the beginning.
I was trying too hard to connect and to determine who was related to.
It didn't work for me.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was cute. It was a good story, but didn't exceed my expectations. I struggled a bit with the characters in this book. The truly felt fictional to me. I love when my characters feel realistic and these just seem to type casted for me.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

3 Stars
I’ve read several of the McCauley Brothers and Body Shop Bad Boys and was eagerly awaiting Rena and Axel’s story. Whilst it didn’t disappoint exactly, it also didn’t live up to my expectations.
Whilst I found Axel to be kind of awkward, stoic and gruff, he was also quite likeable with his cluelessness. He has a huge hear and means well, even when he gets thing very wrong and is loyal and protective.
I’ve loved Rena in previous books, she always came across as kind, caring and sassy. But unfortunately, I found her to be quite entitled and immature in her thinking and her desire to have a love story that was romance book worthy was a tad unrealistic when added with her other expectations.
A sweet, yet kind of dramatic and awkward romance I struggled to understand the non-traditional cover that screamed romantic comedy and I didn’t find very much humor in this title at all.
Whilst not my favorite of Marie Harte’s work I will be eagerly awaiting future releases.

I struggled with liking the characters in this book. The heros German accent and broken English made him come off as a caricature. I liked the heroine but not with the hero. Their banter came off as immature at times. Same with the other cast of characters. Compared to the authors other books, I liked how this one was shorter in length and not as drawn out

DUMPSTER FIRE TRASH!! Why was this book even released! The author did zero research, had zero cultural sensitivity readers, and is living in a bubble of WHITE PRIVILEGE. I took an entire week to think about what I wanted to say in this review, and I am still speechless by how much I hated this book. Rena and Axel have a secret attraction, but they are both fighting getting together because they feel they are two different from each other.

Video review available in Week 9 Feb 23 – 29 weekly book reviews.

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Unfortunately this one wasn’t a homerun for me there were some final battle plot and characterization issues they got in the way of what I thought would be a really good story I’m not ready to give up on his offer yet but this book was a little lacking.

Marie Harte has written many series that take place in Seatle WA (The McCauley Brothers/Body Shop Bad Boys/The Donnigans/Veteran Movers) and it is common for them to have a bit of overlap with the characters."The Kissing Game" seems to do this to an extreme so if you haven't read those series keeping track of all the side characters might get confusing. If you have read them well then it might still get confusing.

I thought that the main couple was just meh. I couldn't connect with them at all and I didn't feel like they connected well with each other either. The true love story in this book was between Chi-Chi (a half-blind Chihuahua) and Queen (a pregnant cat). I wouldn't mind seeing what comes of Rylan and Smitty though.

I think this book may be more enjoyable for those who are already attached to the larger universe of characters.

An enjoyable read though can be a little confusing/overwhelming if you have not read previous stories in the arc - there were a lot of characters involved with little background information and as a new reader it was difficult to keep track of who was who and this detracted from the experience for me a little. That being said, the writing style was enjoyable and easy to read/take in and I imagine that had I read the previous books I would have enjoyed this story even more.

I have read this book as a standalone ( Without reading any of Marie Hart previous books ) , Maybe that's the reason , I actually didn't enjoy this story at all , I was super confused most of the time.

There weren't many character explanation, even for the main characters .

If you haven't read the previous books in the series , personally , I don't recommend reading this one alone .

Axel and Rena love story was OK , not fascinating , didn't enjoy their scenes that much .
For Me , The best thing about this novel was the writing style of Marie Hart .

I couldn't connect with this book at all .

I thought this was a new series that was unrelated to other series by this author. But no, it's just an extension of two of her previou series. Because of that, there are so many characters with back stories that kept showing up. I felt like I should know them. I was also put off by the very cliche stereotypical way Axel (who is from Germany) was portrayed. Rena and Axel were also so boring. I really didn't care if they got together or not.

I was really excited to pick up The Kissing Game. The premise sounded so fun and like a book that I would enjoy.

But from the first page, it was a struggle for me to read. I didn't love the writing style and I could not connect with the characters. I felt like the author was trying too hard to push diversity in the novel and it just didn't work.

I pushed through for several weeks, hoping it would get better. This book just wasn't for me. I ended up DNFing it around 35%. I wish I could have read more and enjoyed it, but the writing wasn't great and I was thrown into a world where I was expected to know the characters (I guess some of them are from other books) but it was very very confusing, as this is promoted as a stand-alone novel. There were so many characters mentioned upfront but there were no introductions, no explanations. I hoped that as the book went along I'd figure out who everyone was, but that didn't happen by the time I was 35% in.

I knew that Rena wanted to get married and have kids and finally settle down. I knew that Axel had been attracted to her/in love with her for a while. But their whole relationship was a little confusing and not what I expected from the blurb of the book.

This one wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an e-arc of The Kissing Game. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF this book entirly too many characters and I could not keep up with all of them. The romance got lost in the mix!