Clearing out my archives and whoops, it has been four years since this was published. Apologies and glad to see the reviews are quite good overall.

Inked with a Kiss is a lighter read that still has some weight. I love the tattoo parlor and the development of the relationship between Jamie and Sierra. It's well written and has a nice progression. My biggest issue is the pacing, it's quite slow especially in the beginning.

I haven't read the first book but I enjoyed this one enough that it'll definitely check it out as well as any subsequent books.

This book was not my cup of tea. I struggled to get into it and didn't really connect with either of the main characters. Perhaps other readers will have more luck with this book than I did.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Inked with a Kiss is the second book in the Thorn and Thistle series that takes place at a tattoo parlor. I really loved the first book so I was excited to read the second one. The book follows Jamie, a single mom who works at the tattoo parlor, and her client Sierra. There is a bit of an age gap which I usually don't like, but I didn't mind so much in this book.

This was an emotional book about how things from a person’s childhood carry over into adulthood and in many cases seriously impact the person that they become as well as their relationships. This was the case for both Sierra and Jamie. Inked with a Kiss was about how they chose to deal with those situations that impacted their developing relationship. Sierra and Jamie both had challenges to overcome and they helped each other grow. 3 stars

I received an ARC from Carina Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Inked with a Kiss knows it has a bit of baggage but instead chooses to focus on the brighter side of things. In other words, it's a 'light' novel that hides it's more depressing background in thick layers that don't really hinder it in terms of character development or obscure the general plot of two individuals learning to understand each other and eventually form a relationship together.

Inked with a Kiss was just an okay read for me. I didn't have any big problems with it, but I also wasn't wowed by it. I read it quickly, had a good enough time with it overall, but in the end it was a bit of a forgettable read once I turned the last page. I'll still try Davids again.

Sharing a kiss is easy. Sharing lunch, a laugh, a look. But sharing your life? All your dirty screts, all your broken dreams, all your failures? Every hope and dream. What happens when you invite someone in close enough to not just hurt you, but destroy what’s left of you? Jamie has failed so many, many times. As a child of alcoholic parents, she raised her little brother, protecting him from their illness even as she covered for them, excused them, and enabled them. It cost her her marriage, and even now it’s costing her money, time, and self respect. Their addiction is wearing her down to the bone.

The one bright moment in Jamie’s life is Sierra, a young woman who comes in for tattoos, and she only sits in Jamie’s chair. Her bright laugh, her irrepressible smile, and the subtle flirtations charm Jamie even as they unsettle her. She’s too old, too bitter, and yet … Sierra keeps coming back. Keeps insinuating herself into Jamie’s thoughts until she isn’t able to say no. And soon Jamie is finding excuses to say yes.

Sierra might look like she’s a kitten, all smiles and sweetness, but she’s a young woman who knows damn well her own worth. As a social worker, Sierra sees people at their worst, at their most tired, at their frightened and angry and scared moments, and all she wants to do is help. To help the kids who will soon age out of the system, to help the ones still in it, and to help Jordan, another young girl who has seen too much of the shitty side of life.

A bright idea painted in bold colors. Friendship between co-workers, ex-lovers, parents, and children — and most importantly, finding out that the person who most needs your love is the one you look at in the mirror every morning.

I loved the first book in the Thorn & Thistle series, which you don’t need to read before you buy this one (but you should), and I think I love this one even more. Is there a score higher than 5? Sometimes a sequel isn’t as good as the first book in a series, but this one is better, in different way. While MJ and Cassie do show up, I mean, it is MJ’s shop after all, they don’t intrude on the story. (I kind of regret that a little since I really do love them, but this is Jamie and Sierra’s story, so I suppose they had to get top billing.)

Jamie is responsible. Mature. Determined to do the right thing, even if it costs her her own happiness. The one time she forgets to unlock the shop, she all but has a panick attack because it’s a failure on her part, a sign that she isn’t capable of handling everything on her own. She’s struggling to be a good parent to her teenage old daughter, who lives with her mother the majority of the time, even as she feels Riley pulling away. Jamie wants a relationship, not a fling, but being in a relationship means she has less attention to spare for the thousand and one details that she has chosen to put on her own shoulders. Jamie is brilliant at denying herself, choosing to climb up onto a cross of her own making because she thinks she deserves it for not being … what, perfect beyond perfection?

Sierra’s mother died when she as young and she was placed into foster care by a grandmother who didn’t want her. If it weren’t for her uncle (gay, and disowned by his own mother for it) coming to claim her, she might have been raised in the same system she now works so hard fix. Sierra knows she’s lucky, has found security in the unyeilding love of her uncle, and she wants to share that love with everyone else. She’s not blind and she knows that the reality is that she can’t save everyone, but sometimes making it better can be enough. Sometimes it’s all you can do.

Jamie sees in Sierra hope, optimism, and — in some ways — a saving grace. Because Sierra is a social worker, Jamie lets her see her mom and dad, drunk and indifferent, and a part of her wants Sierra to magically fix them, and is let down and hurt when she won’t. Because she can’t. She puts the idea of Sierra on a pedastal where it can’t be touched, and where it can’t touch back. For Sierra, Jamie is someone who will always know the way home when Sierra gets lost. She’s a rock, she’s strong and confident, and while she’s not looking at Jamie as a mother figure, she is relying on Jamie to have answers, to be proud of her, to be there for her.

Watching them dance around each other as Sierra and Jamie tried to excuse away what they want — both of them wanting each other, but neither wanting to get too close — and then seeing them fall away as the pedastal crumbled and the perfect mask shattered, to realize there were flesh and blood and flawed people beneath all the perfection they’d placed on one another … well, I loved it. The emotional depth of the characters, the way they spoke, the way they treated each other, and even the way they treated themselves, it felt so damn real.

The writing is amazing, the pacing … it’s the only thing that didn’t quite work for me. The set up is slow and leisurely, giving you a chance to see both Jamie and Sierra and their ideal of the other person, and then the breaking of illusions and the realization that life is hard. And then it raced to the finish line. I would have liked a little more time lingering in the afterglow before the book ended, and maybe that isn’t as much a pacing thing as a me, thing. I love this author. I love her books. I want more, and I have hopes that a third book will show up for me to review so I can gloat over getting to read it first.

While I enjoyed the story it did have some issues. The story itself was well written and flowed in a good direction. I'm interested enough to read more about the secondary characters in future books.

The problems I had with it...it's a little slow. It unfolds progressively, but it seems there are a lot of hang-ups which are never really addressed so I felt like we are giving the reasons for issues in the relationship but not a lot of resolution - just forward movements.

Overall, I liked it and will try more stories by Jennie Davids :)

Jennie Davids showcases the needs of children through Sierra and Jamie’s love story Inked with a Kiss. Children are neglected or get lost in a system for very various and Davids tackles a few of them in Kiss. This book be a trigger for some people as it deals with alcoholism, abandonment, disowning due to being gay, homelessness, and kids in general suffering in system they should not be living in. Davids handles this sensitivity and realism. There is no escaping a harsh truth.

Davids does give us respite by surrounding these circumstances with Sierra and Jamie’s love story. Two people affected by these issues who need to see their own truth before stepping forward.

Don’t worry there is plenty of humor in this story. Life is funny - remember that. Davids does an excellent job of balancing both.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

There were a lot of significant moments in this book. I thought that Jamie and Sierra developed nicely throughout the story and each of their journeys felt very honest and realistic. Although I would have liked a little more depth to the moments they shared during the appointments.

This is the second novel in the ‘Thorn & Thistle’ series is a standalone. The references to the first novel are so minor that there is no need to read them in order. Sierra Clark is having her new tattoo done by her favourite tattoo artist, Jamie Winston. Sierra has tried flirting with her but she’s been shut down each time. Jamie has a hard time tattooing Sierra because she’s wildly attracted to her but struggles with the twelve year age gap. An idea for fundraising for the youth centre she works for brings her into much more contact with Jamie and it’s not long before Jamie really can’t resist her.

While I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the first in the series, it’s still a really good read. Jamie’s parents are alcoholics and she and her brother have pretty much had to raise themselves as well as look after their parents. Jamie feels responsible for them and her journey to releasing herself is well-written but sad. Sierra is interested in playing out her attraction for Jamie, but no so much interested in permanence. Between the two of them there is loads of miscommunication and pushing and pulling.

I like the sense of reality that Davids imbues her characters with, which gives the story a slower pace but I still found it engaging. There was an instance of misunderstanding which really didn’t work for me because the resolution didn’t balance out the initial act. Other than that, if you like angst, tattoos and a good dose of reality, this is a lovely read.

Book received from Netgalley and Carina Press for an honest review.

Inked with a Kiss is my first read by Jennie Davids and the second in a series. That said, the book does stand alone as far as I could tell. At least, I didn't notice any glaring details I felt like I missed as I read Sierra and Jamie's story. On the technical side, the book is well written, and the pacing is pretty steady with no serious lags in the book.
Good pacing aside, I still struggled with parts of this one. I usually enjoy a good age gap romance, and while 12 years can be considered as a pretty big gap, I felt like there was a bit too much emphasis on Jamie's age here. She's 37 - seriously, 37, not ready for retirement, but it gets a lot more attention than necessary. Cutesy jokes aside, once it's established that the age difference isn't a problem, that should've been enough if it's not going to be used as a source of conflict.
The other issue for me lay in Jamie's big turn around. I expect some character growth, especially when it comes to characters who are as gun shy of relationships as these two, but there's one part of Jamie's character that makes a pretty dramatic change, and it just didn't ring true. Not that it wasn't a good thing because this particular change is certainly needed, but it comes way too abruptly. Given the backstory, I suppose it's really a long time coming, but I don't buy it - I found it hard to believe that the change would be so complete, so quickly. Of course, it was needed to give us the big conflict between the characters so we can worry about a happy ending, and that propels us to the big get it together gushy moment, but it just didn't feel right to me. It's kind of like there's no middle ground for Jamie. It's all or nothing with no room for a happy medium, a balance in her life.
Nevertheless, I did find both Sierra and Jamie likable, and there were some great moments between them. The book also touches on some serious topics, and Jennie Davids strikes a pretty good balance between getting too angsty and not angsty enough. In the end, there were things I liked and things I didn't about this one. I didn't love it, but I did like it, and I would check out other books by this author.

Both women in this age-gap Romance have interesting jobs –a tattoo artist, and caseworker at a crisis center. I liked that Jamie has a teenage daughter and a good relationship with her ex-wife, and I found the portrayal of her parents’ alcoholism to be startlingly accurate. But there were more moments that felt ‘off’ to me than enjoyable ones. Mostly, the way they described each other. The general ogling language made me feel increasingly uncomfortable as their mutual crushes come to reality.

I DNFed at 34% when Jamie picks her daughter up from her ex and breaks their usual routine because she wants to see Sierra (who she has had precisely one only-kind-of date with) and ends up missing an important responsibility at work because of it. She says it's a meeting to organize a fundraiser, but she definitely could have planned around it, and it’s clearly really just because she has a crush.

Content Warnings: alcoholic parents, attempted credit fraud, death of a (really cruel, estranged) grandparent

This book started out well, an older tattoo artist heroine falls for one of her customers, who also happens to be younger. But the younger heroine is so stuck on not being seen as young and inexperienced yet in her professional career she behaves immaturely. She organizes a fundraiser but has no experience and it was silly. I know it was used to bring the love interests together but it wasn’t working for me. I think I would try a different story from this author, I just wasn’t loving the plot of this story.

*~~*ARC kindly provided from the publisher/author to me for an honest review *~~*

Full review to come

5 stars

This book features two very different women. Sierra is a young social worker, and Jamie, a hard working tattoo artist. Jamie doesn’t do much of anything other than work and care for her alcoholic parents which is why her wife divorced her and is living with their teenage daughter. Janie’s parents use and abuse her kindness , their relationship is typical as a child of alcoholics.
Jamie meets Sierra when she comes in for a tattoo and a friendship develops. Sierra is attracted to Jamie and the feelings are mutual, but Jamie knows nothing could develop further because of their age difference and that she has nothing to offer. Sierra on the other only sees a woman she is very attracted to, not age. Can these two find a way to be together?

Inked with a Kiss is book 2 in Davids' "Thorn & Thistle" series, but don't let that fool you. This book is easily read as a standalone novel, even if you haven't read the first in the series yet. A few characters from the first story do show up as side characters in this novel, but you won't have any trouble following along even if you haven't read book 1 yet. With that said though, book 1, [book:New Ink on Life|43263029], was a wonderful read and I suggest heading that way to check it out also!

Onto this novel... This story focuses on tattoo artist Jamie and her client, Sierra. Both had a hard childhood, but despite that, each has grown up to become a selfless and kind woman in their own way.

Despite their age gap as well as the abundance of issues that crop up from both of their pasts and present, the two find a way through the push and pull towards each other. There's a lot of deep issues floating around in the background this story, but the author found a way to go at it without making the story itself depressing. Think of it more as a rise above story of sorts.

Personally, I had a bit of trouble connecting to the mains in this story, and the way that one of the mains went on and on about their age difference bothered me as well, but all in all this is still a solid read. 3.75 stars.

**Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

This book was emotionally powerful--it had some heavier topics, but these served to deepen the relationship between Sierra and Jamie as well as make the happy ending that much more satisfying. A beautiful slow burn that took familiar tropes (like May-December romances and work relationships) and gave them a spin that made the story feel wholly unique.