3.5 stars--THE KISSING GAME by Marie Harte is a stand alone, contemporary, adult, erotic, romance series focusing on auto body shop owner Axel Heller, and hair stylist / shop owner Rena Jackson. THE KISSING GAME is connected to the author’s McCauley Brothers, and Body Shop Bad Boys series with the inclusion of several characters crossing over for familiarity and history.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Rena and Axel) THE KISSING GAME follows auto body shop owner Axel Heller, and hair stylist / shop owner Rena Jackson. Rena Jackson is a romantic at heart wanting her own happily ever after but there are no available prospects on the horizon, yet the one man that makes her heart flutter, is the one man who struggles in the romance department. Now that she is opening her own beauty salon, Rena has decided to step out on her own, but Axel is hoping to be the man by her side. When their mutual friends place bets on the demise of their building relationship, quiet but determined Axel must step up his romance game in an effort to win the girl of his dreams. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Axel and Rena, and the potential fall-out as Axel struggles with sins of the past.

Axel Heller, of German/Bavarian descent, battles between head and heart knowing his temper could be the destruction of everything he loves but when Rena, a woman of color, is threatened Axel finds himself on the offensive to protect the woman he loves. Rena Jackson’s dreams have come true with the opening of her own beauty salon but threats of violence, and a disruption to her shop find Rena negatively focusing on Axel’s need to protect more than the threats against her life.

Meanwhile the Heller family dynamics will come into play as Axel struggles to move on from the past. From a dysfunctional and abusive family, Axel doesn’t want a repeat of everything that happened when he was a young boy, and in this Axel battles with his own self-doubt.

The relationship between Rena and Axel is a sort of-friends to lovers that has been building for several months. Rena has no idea why Axel has not asked her out, while Axel struggles right from the start. Rena is a woman who likes to read romance books, and Axel is determined to woo the woman who has stolen his heart. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic, language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and energetic secondary and supporting characters, most of whom were introduced in the author’s McCauley Brothers, and Body Shop Bad Boys series. If THE KISSING GAME is part of one of the aforementioned series, I am hoping the author makes a connection one way or the other.

THE KISSING GAME is a story of family, friendships, racism and love. The cover screams romantic comedy but I have to question the choice and direction as there is limited humor throughout the story; as well as the blurb that proclaims our hero to be tall, dark and handsome, who is definitely not dark but Viking blonde-perhaps the darkness is the demons that creep up from the past. The premise is interesting; the characters are animated; the romance struggles with preconceived notions and ideas of romance and love.

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I was immediately sucked into this book with the cute cover, and the synopsis on the book. Unfortunately this book fell flat for me and I had to DNF it. I found the characters to be annoying and the book was very unrealistic. I felt like I started the book in the middle of the story, and was confused from the beginning.

I had high hopes for this book, and I am sad that I did not enjoy it.

I really adored the start of this! It was super cute, but the second half kinda let me down. I was expecting more to the actual kissing game, but it was such a tiny part of the book.

Our heroine, Rena is a romance lover and is dreaming of her happily ever after, so she pushes Axel away because she doesn't think he's serious about her. Axel is this big, scary german guy who is not great at comminicating and has been crushing on the Rena for nearly a year, so he tries to win her over by the kissing game where he kisses her to prove that she can't resist him.

My favourite part was the cute note Axel wrote Rena and all the gifts he sent her, even though his gifts were wierd, the gesture was sweet.

The only complaint I have is that for the amount of problems going on in this book, they all seemed to resolve too easily.
The author did try to add diversity, with the heroine being a POC, but it just felt really forced and like the racism was only there to create drama, and to show that the hero would beat guys up for the heroine.

I would still recommend though if you're after a quick romance read.

Unfortunately, this ended up being a DNF for me. I really didn't like either of the characters and I found the writing to be extremely cringey and unrealistic. This was just very much not for me.

So this was something. I don't usually read romances but, the ones that i like are not like this one unfortunatly. Although the premise of the story seemed nice at first i could get behind it because well... it kind of doesn't occur, like, ever?

The romance between the protagonist, Rena and Axel its just bland. I didn't feel exited or in love or anything. I like my romance to make me feel sorry because i'm single, to long for a partner or wish i was with the protagonist, maybe ship them so hard that i just want them to be super happy and have lots of babies, but with this, it wasn't it. I didn't believe the romance, nor the steamy times and sh0cklinly, not even the descriptions.

Honestly, how is every single man in this town a copy paste of a romance novel model? HOW?

And the characters... oh god. they were annoying. and kind of mean and rude. and scary. i didn't enjoy reading about them, although at the end at least axel shows some kind of character growth. The diversity in this felt forced. And kind of agresive, like, here! I am here! Notice me! It felt strange, and the issues that were tackled weren't about how minorities are treated poorly but focused on how the main character could play the hero and then feel bad about it. I don't really know how to put it in words but it made me feel uncomfortable.

Maybe its because its part of another series i haven't read and the characters weren't as developed as the secondary ones, but i felt like as the book doesn't give you any warnings about it, it isn't fair, not for the characters nor the readers.

The book is entertaining and fast paste, i'll it that. The author knows how to keep you hooked to the page, but apart from that (and the cool family dynamic) i didn't like the book. I feel like, if you are a fan of the other series of the author you may enjoy this.

After reading the McCauley Brothers and the Donnigans series, I'd been looking forward to Rena and Axel's story. Though it was a little anti climactic, it wasn't terrible. I enjoyed of it what it was, thoug I think it could be better.

I definitely understood why Alex did what he did with his family, but still think he was nuts and wasn't thinking about his future children, etc. Though I get why he didn't take it, I think the sacrifice his mother made for him to have it should have been honored. Just me, but could be because I'm currently self employed with little income coming in. LOL...

All that being said, I think the author addressed issues well and with very nice insight and thought. I've read other interracial books which don't address the issues that couples in these perdicaments which don't get addressed. This author did that, and did it well.

I do think I should have read at least some of the Body Shop Bad Boys series because I wasn't familiar with Axel's crew that well and I think some of them were in this book. But I got the gist of who they were.

Again, I liked it. I just thought it could have had much more oomph. Loved little Collin's relationship with Rena. That was great.

Once I read the blurb for this book I was quite excited to read it. However, I'm sorry to say that after I did I was left unsatisfied. In my opinion there were many things in this book didn't mesh with what you would expect/lead to believe or simply really didn't make sense. This was a new to me author so I have no point of reference for comparison to her other works, so maybe this book is just an anomaly or it could just be my own personal preferences. All the cuteness, charm and sizzling chemistry I had anticipated never materialized. I thought that as a whole the book was basically bland and a lot of the story felt forced. I pushed through to finish it but it was a chore. So while this wasn't the worst book I've ever read it certainly wasn't the best either.

First off, the red cover with the dancing people doesn’t fit the story at all. This is a steamy, sexy romance that deals with things like racism and anger management; it’s not some chick lit, easy, light romance. It is a sweet story with some fun times, but the cover is just too saccharine. Also, this book is set in/near Seattle, but the author should’ve just made up a city because the Seattle in this book is very little like Seattle in real life. I’ve lived in Seattle forever, so that was bothering me as I read.

Axel, a German, owns a car body shop and has had a big crush on Rena for about a year. Apparently, he’s a really scary looking guy that others want to fight for some reason, so people are constantly being weird around him. Rena, a black woman, is ready to open her own salon and she’s also had a crush on Axel for a long time. She’s a romance fanatic; which became really annoying at times, and has issues with her mom. They start dating, but insecurities from both parties, racists, and some antics from their friends cause some issues for the new couple.

Loved the passion between Rena and Axel. Love how much he supports her and knows right away that she’s the one. Axel has a difficult past, so he’s dealing with a lot but he is so sweet and loving with Rena. I’m back and forth on Rena, she felt too needy for my liking and overly emotional at times, but she has a good heart. She was pissed at Axel for not asking her out, but when he does, she’s rude to him. Still loved their connection though.

This story features lots of characters from some of the author’s past series; some I’ve read and some I haven’t, so you may want to start with those other books but it’s not absolutely necessary. This story does stand on its own. It’s fun to see what some of the other characters are up to, but it was a bit much. Also, there were times that they were kind of jerks to the new couple.

Overall, an entertaining read with a sweet romance.

The Kissing Game or the Dating Game?

Okay… I can admit that I am a semi-stickler for titles that make sense with a book and for me this title made sense for about two seconds. With a name like The Kissing Game, I expected our hero to be attempting to steal kisses or con the heroine into giving kisses at every turn. That didn’t happen exactly. As for the rest of it, not as horrible as the title gaffe.

For readers of Harte, this book from what I gather, is a long time coming. A lovely matchup between two beloved characters – our hero, an in-the-flesh Viking heartthrob, Axel Heller and our heroine, waitress/hair stylist Rena Jackson. Both characters have been featured in Harte’s, The McCauley Brother’s series, but you don’t have to be in the know to get into this book.

Axel suffers from a bad case of unrequited love. He’s wanted to get to know Rena since the day he met her. Rena is finally ready to open her own salon and put the kibosh on her days as a waitress at the not-so-classy neighborhood bar. Meaning Axel has one last chance to ask Rena out or risk losing the chance of his dreams.

For Rena, Axel’s interest is nice, but suspect. She can’t afford to waste any more time. She wants to find love but is a true romantic and I really enjoyed how Axel tried to become the romantic she needed. From watching Lifetime movies to reading romance, Axel is more than just a traditional guy who works on cars. He is proof that men can do non-traditional things if it means learning how to love their woman the right way. Including giving the heroine a gift every day leading up to Valentine’s day, though some of those gifts are awful and hilarious. Too bad Axel has a load of baggage from his childhood and Rena has her own childhood hang ups as well.

Plot-wise, this is heavy romance, stemming around Axel and Rena coming together. If you’re a fan of Harte then this book is right up your alley as the McCauley’s, the Donnigans, and many more characters from other series make an appearance. What left me salivating is Axel’s brother, Maksim and I hope this almost-Axel twin gets his own book in the future. There are a few side-plot issues, and they fold in well to Axel and Rena overcoming issues from their past to forge a future.

Why only a three? I liked the book, it just wasn’t what I expected. There were elements I wanted included missing and though Rena and Axel coming together was ultimately sweet, I felt like the title and the back-cover blurb gave me one idea while the story delivered another. Secondly, there were some imposing other POV’s that I didn’t believe were necessary and Rena’s reactions to certain situations came off as over-the-top where she’d never acted that way before.

Overall, the book was good. I liked it and read it in under a day. My reading time is a decent indicator of whether I enjoyed a book or not. I do strongly believe titles need to match stories, but while this is my first Harte book it won’t be my last.

~ Landra

Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Neither of them do anything about it for a long time. Then, one day, he finally wagers a "kiss", and things take off. I'm a sucker for romances, and so I expected going in that I was going to like this story about a boy named Axel and a girl named Rena. Unfortunately, I found many parts of the book boring, and it was difficult at times to get into Rena's head and find the context behind her actions/reactions when she spent time with Axel.

The obstacles their budding relationship faces check a lot of boxes I'd usually find interesting, including a mixed race relationship, racism and its impact, and difficulty dealing with strong feelings and past trauma. The way in which these topics were written and how they meshed with Axel and Rena's budding relationship didn't click for me, much as I wanted them to. Long story short, it's unlikely that I'll read this one again, even though there's nothing particularly wrong with the book or its characters. This one just wasn't for me.

Ok so you know things aren't going to bode well when you read the synopsis and are told the hero will be tall, dark and handsome but then when you actually read it, find out he's fair Viking and German!

I have to say that despite this oversight I was semi-okay with this book.....until the hero pulled the heroine's mother onto his lap to comfort her. It was all downhill from there for me unfortunately.

There is a serious mismatch between what the cover and blurb suggest this book is, and what the book actually is. It made it impossible to get into the book. This book would also have benefited from a sensitivity reader or two.

What first drew me to this book was the cover! It's so vibrant and fun that I knew immediately that I needed to read this story. After reading the blurb, I was further intrigued.

Rena and Axel are two characters previously mentioned in Harte's other books but since I haven't read those stories, I began this story without any previous information or backstory. What I liked about this story was that you absolutely don't need to have any backstory to understand the character dynamics; everything is explained and it only takes a couple of chapters to understand the who's who of the side characters. The story itself was also very sweet and I always enjoy a story that begins with a silly bet. However, I unfortunately struggled to connect with the characters and their budding relationship. They were very sweet, lovely people but I just didn't feel a strong connection to either of them.

I think this story had a lot of potential and I would be eager to try more stories from Harte in the future. If you like fluffy, light-hearted romances, give this one a try!

DNF at 36%

I got sucked in by that adorable cover and the synopsis promising a fun sounding, banter filled story. Sadly it didn’t come close to delivering.

I didn’t care for either of the characters. Rena and Axel both waiver so much and often to the extreme. She will be enjoying a conversation with him and then immediate think about how she wants kids and decides he’s not The One. This was on the first date. He’s prone to saying random words in German and storming off. Together there’s absolutely no chemistry. Oh, and he’s often referenced as “tall, dark, and handsome” when it’s stated that he’s blond with fair skin.

Plot wise, it was a hot mess. There are loads and loads and loads of characters and I found out from other reviews that this book is a companion to another series....which is why it made sense that it immediately felt like I was dropped into the middle of the story. Tons of push and pull and an obsession with Valentine’s Day made this a struggle to keep reading.

I did get to 36% and then skipped around, skimming for anything that would interest me. I found some violence, hate slang words, and talks of domestic violence. I didn’t read any of the racism and hate crime scenes, but I’ve seen other reviews mention it.

Overall, it was a cute cover, but the story definitely didn’t match.

**Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Casablanca for providing the arc free of charge**

So, lots of issues at play here.

This is marketed as a standalone, yet around 15 characters from previous novels (I haven't read but I checked) appear and act like I should already know them.

The heroine is a "romantic" because she has stacks of romance books and Valentine's Day is her favorite holiday ever *sigh*. She can't understand why she can't find love, yet she is offended that the hero only asks her for coffee as a first date.

The heroine is also the token POC in a very white town. She is written in a way that is POC in name only and the author chooses to make racism a big conflict. I'm going to come out and say it. This feels like a jumping-on-the-diversity-bandwagon book.

Enter the white-savior hero to brawl with all of the white supremacists on her behalf. He's also German. How do we know this? He frequently tacks on "Ja", "Nein", and "Gut" to every conversation.

There's so many weird choices (Charley Brown porn - I'm not kidding) that it pained me to finish this (I only did so because this was an ARC). Especially since the heroine excuses his rage-filled outbursts and hand-waves a confession about putting his own mother in the hospital.

Great marketing for a really problematic book...

The Kissing Game was a cute, quick read between Rena and Axel, who have been mutually crushing on each other but neither had managed thus far to pluck up the courage to admit it. While I thought it was a quick easy read, I also found it lacking a distinct voice, so to speak. Neither of the main characters felt fully developed and the overall story felt muted and bland. Maybe it was that the writing felt stilted and read like a stage script or that it employed tropes I am not particularly fond of (bilingual people inserting random words of their native language in the middle of a sentence and speaking in their native language and then immediately translating to English, primarily).

The story is decent, but it gets bogged down in extraneous detail that adds nothing to the story and detracts from the main focus. I am sure many would enjoy it, but I found myself unable to focus on the story and uninterested in what was happening. This may come down to me not jiving with the writing style, but I found it overall not capturing my attention and flat.

2.5/5 stars

I had very mixed feelings while reading this story. First, the cover was misleading and seems more rom-com than what it really was which was a biker bar/autoshop/hair stylist story with dirty talk and multiple sex scenes. This can be misleading for some folks. Second, I believe I would have enjoyed this story a whole lot more by reading her previous series and have already formed connections with past characters. It would've bumped up the rating in my estimation at least and increased my enjoyment while reading. There were so many different characters, over fifteen, so it was hard to focus or care about specific ones. Also, every character and couple seemed to have something else going on storyline wise and it almost felt like this book was trying to be a platform for about five other spinoffs - firefighters, Axel's body shop, Del's body shop, hair stylist shop, gangsters, etc. As a reader, I just felt my attention pulled in way too many directions.

I did feel I connected with the main characters, Rena and Axel, on most occasions. Rena was a little bit of a worrier and overthought things entirely too much while Axel wasn't much of a talker and was the ultimate macho guy with a soft heart. There were two things about Axel that bothered me though. One was that he was described as German, spoke German and everyone kept referring to him as a Viking. The second issue was that he didn't talk as much in the beginning, but the more he did throughout the story it was extremely broken English and threw me off a bit reading it.

This story was not a slow burn and seemed to get to the sexy scenes pretty quick. I'd say too quick on one occasion. It generally bothers me when there's a fight or argument, then quick sorry which instantly evolves to sex without a clear discussion of what happened in the first place. It felt very jumbled and rushed in those instances. There were definitely good examples of communication within this story too, although most were towards the end of the book. Overall, the small glimpses of chemistry witnessed here and there as well as the hilariously horrible Valentine presents were the saving grace of this story. These are the main reasons why it gets rounded up to a 3.

This is my first read from this author and I'm always excited by the idea of finding a new author to fangirl over. I really wish that's how I felt by the end of the book. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I felt lost at times with some of the characters. It almost felt like I was missing something, you know? Like maybe this isn't the standalone (or not a very good attempt at one) that I thought it to be. The writing style was a bit confusing for me which made it hard, at times, to keep up with who's POV I was reading. That alone took away from my enjoyment and, honestly, lead to what I can only describe as boredom with the story. I liked the characters but this isn't a light, fun rom-com. Although I never really felt the chemistry, it has some funny parts and I thought the hero was actually kinda cute in all his awkwardness.
Overall, this one didn't really do it for me, but it's a quick read and one that I am sure many will enjoy.

I received a copy via Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca.

My rating: 1.5 stars from 5

UMMM. I had a hard time with this book. The writing jumped from person to person and scene to scene. It was difficult. The author didn't show anything, but had to tell everything that happened. I almost quite reading so many times.

I checked soon after starting this book to see if it was part of a series. It read like book 5 in a series (It's not). Then I was wondering if I somehow started reading this book on chapter 17? (No, I started at the beginning).

I had to highlight a few different sections because I couldn't image the combination of words being immortalized in print. For example ["He shouldn't use his thigh to spread her legs or stroke down her belly and delve under the panties hiding the very heat of her" Those are some impressive thighs! Nor say his mustache one giant massage toy and his facial hair like another set of hands caressing her skin I'm not an expert in facial hair, but that was creepy. (hide spoiler)]

But there was one sentence that I hated above all the others. [But first she had to make him apologize, grovel a little, and communicate like a regular person. (hide spoiler)] Attitudes like this need therapy ASAP.

I really wanted to love this book, but it just fell a bit flat for me.
I enjoyed Rena's drive in succeeding on her own two feet, but her desire for romance felt repetitive over time. I suppose the fact that she reads romance novels is supposed to signify that she is a romantic? It was just told over and over, but not really evident in the story. And the random German words to show that Axel is, in fact, German, felt forced and fake.
There was a plethora of side characters, and I had a hard time keeping track, wondering what each character's purpose was in the story. I read later that this author has other books in which these characters make an appearance, but I think it was too much for this story, unnecessary for 20 additional supporting characters to make an appearance and add nothing to the plot.
I do not believe the synopsis of this story matches what actually made it on to the page, and I felt a bit disappointed.
I suppose if you are into sexy German men, or looking for a Valentine's day romance, this book would be right up your alley.