Anna meets a stranger in a bar while gearing herself up for some time with her parents for the holidays. They speak for a few hours before they have to go and as they part ways the stranger kisses her. When she finally makes it to her parents house though she finds out the alluring stranger is her brother's girlfriend and craziness ensues.
This was an ok read for me. I think the writing was well done but there were a few things I disliked about the plot. I also didn't really like Louise and didn't see why Anna would be drawn to her. Every encounter with the two of them is really just not being able to keep their hands off each other and other than the initial meeting in the bar they don't really talk much. I very much hated Anna's parents and her brother Clay, they were awful and it was hard to understand why she'd subject herself to them or think they would help her in any of the ways she was struggling. I did like Rachel and George seemed nice as well. I think the story was well paced but I just couldn't get into it because of the cheating and the horrible family dominating the plot. The big kerfuffle at 85% was also not fun and I didn't really like all the drama that caused and made me like Louise and Clay even less. I liked the writing style but the characters were a miss for me. Hopefully Greene's next book will include some more likeable characters.

Thank you, Bold Strokes Books, Inc., Spencer Greene, and NetGalley, for the ARC.

This book was great. It is a holiday story. I don't usually go for cheating in romance stories, but the way this one played it was great. Anna and Louise are cute together. Clay was annoying until about halfway through the book. He wanted to please his parents and made Louise feel like she had to please his parents too. Louise dealt with a lot at a young age and closed herself off. Anna is not afraid to be herself even if her parents don't like who she is.

I recommend reading this book. It is a great story and very well written.

I had to DNF this book almost immediately. The dialog was boring and the first few pages are just info dropping. The characters didn't seem likable in any way and I found nothing charming here. I'm going to give the author the benefit of the doubt with a 2 star review, because I fully admit: I am just very hard to please.

Both separately and together, Anna and Louise are such interesting and likable characters despite the circumstances. Louise’s mom is the best fictional mom I’ve ever read, she’s who I want to be for my future kids. In contrast, Anna and Clay’s parents are almost too terrible to believe. Anna’s friendship with Rachel is the healthiest adult friendship I’ve ever read, I loved that Rachel was so honest with Anna and Anna was so receptive to everything Rachel had to say.
I loved how the gang (Anna, Louise, Clay, Rachel and George) all interacted with each other.
This was smutty and angsty and so much fun to read.

I was SO EXCITED for a queer romance. And I just couldn't do it. Sick of cheating tropes. Thank you for the ARC, but it's not gonna work for me.

I pushed through the weak and cringey dialogue that could’ve been better if the author practice showing instead of telling. But then I only made two chapters before there was blatant and unapologetic cheating justified because one of the participants “doesn’t love” her boyfriend.. I won’t be finishing this one, unfortunately.

I’ve read other books on a similar theme and found they were generally quite entertaining to read. This one was OK but I found Louise a bit of a pain. She seemed to be the instigator of all the romantic (if you could call them that) interludes and then kept changing her mind. The renewed relationship between the siblings was good to see. I liked it well enough but would not go out of my way to buy it.

'Stolen Kiss' by Spencer Greene.
Enjoyable romance with plenty of drama. Loved Anna and Louise. Loved Anna's friend Rachel too. Would love to see a continuation of the story.
Thanks to NetGallery UK, the author Spencer Greene and the publisher for letting me read the book in return for an honest review.

A light rom-com. It was a good fun-feeling read. The writing felt a bit off at times, and I wished it had started off on a different base than cheating, but I'll take what I can get.
The main characters were likable enough, and the plot kept going at a good pace.

*this is just my opinion, what might not be for me, might be for you*


Louise tanner is taking a break from her regular life to visit her boyfriends family. She meets Annabelle at a bar while waiting for her boyfriend to pick her up and sparks fly, unbeknownst to her, she’s talking and flirting with her boyfriend’s sister.

This is gonna be one of those reviews…

Characters

I didn’t like any of them. Genuinely not a single character in this book that I liked. Now you’re probably thinking “damn, out of all those characters you didn’t click with a single one” well, it’s not that hard when they’re all the same characters in different fonts. I can’t think of any other way to say that.

There was little behavioral personalization of characters leaving the only differences to be their names and backstories.

Maybe Rachel did have some kind of gen z slang type thing going on but it just felt very out of place when you remember they’re a grow adult. Which also follows the other characters around as well but that’s also partially a writing issue.

One problem that arises with the characters is lack of introspection, or at least, without the help of heavily conversational interactions with other characters. There isn’t any “what’s the problem” it’s more telling other people the problem and finding out how our characters feel based on those interactions. I suggest the author builds on this.

Plot

They fall in love in almost two weeks span. Do I even need to say more? Probably not but I’m going to anyway.

Annabelle’s life is going to hell and when she gets home she’s immediately rattled by her parents but there’s no pleasure derived from reading this conflict. There’s no satisfying ending, just a dialogue announced demonstration that a certain someone else in the book had stood up to her parents, not her. So reading this and it having no karmic ending feels like a missed opportunity.

The last chapter felt rushed and lazy.

There wasn’t anything substantial or inspiring about this book. It felt like a bunch of cliches thrown together and nothing really significant about this particular compilation of them.

It could’ve been so so much more.

The book starts off on a hopeful note but quickly turns to predictability, immaturity and superficiality.

Writing

Good grammar, that’s for sure. But the writing definitely contributed to some irritable pacing. There’s a lot of dialogue, maybe too much dialogue especially in the later chapters so there wasn’t much to go off on with setting.

Just definitely not my style

If you’re interested in reading this, please read other reviews. This is the first book I’ve seen by this author and it’s seemingly a debut so even though this particular book wasn’t for me, I do wish her the best and maybe another one of her books might speak to me.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchanged for an honest review.

This book was a wild ride. I enjoyed its twists and turns, and finished it in a day. The characters have relatable challenges and great heart-to-hearts with family and friends that will leave your heart feeling full.

When Anna and Louise first meet at The Bar they are immediately drawn to each other. They spend hours talking and flirting despite Louise having a boyfriend. Expecting to never see each other again, they share a passionate kiss before parting ways. Unfortunately for them things aren’t so simple and it turns out Anna’s brother, Clay, is the boyfriend.

Anna and Louise aren’t able to fight their attraction and tension in the novel was easy to believe. Additionally, the actions taken and mistakes made by the characters managed to be dramatic without feeling counter to their personalities or what they knew at the time. However, there were a couple of things that pulled me out of the story. A couple of the early chapters jumped back in time when switching POVs which I found distracting. The other thing that kept tripping me up was how concerned Anna and Louise were about potentially being in a long distance relationship from NYC to Seattle. This would be a reasonable concern if Louise and Clay weren’t even more long distance (Seattle to England).

It seemed like almost everyone but Clay figured out that there was something going on between the two. Greene managed to find probably the only reason for this that would be believable and it was very well done.

Throughout the story Anna and Clay’s parents are repeatedly rude and/or queerphobic to everyone they come in contact with. Often this type of story ends with parents starting to come around, but I appreciated that Greene didn’t try to send this message. Instead, the novel ends with a found family starting to come together.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read that lives up to expectations.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

This book has all the elements of a classic romance, there’s instant attraction, there’s something forbidden, there’s hidden truth and meddling parents. I’ll start with the parents, they have 0 redeeming qualities, they are mean, homophobic, classist, sexist. And then there’s the MCs and the secondary characters that happens to have their own story on the side. I won’t repeat the blurb but there’s a couple more twists than one may guess. I enjoyed reading this book, it was engaging and fun.

Free ARC via NetGalley

Anna kissed an alluring woman whom she spent hours at the bar with. Although the chemistry was intense, they had to part ways and to leave it as that but what happens when the object of her attraction reappears; with an identity no less, as her brother’s girlfriend.

Louise has plans. They are structured and organised. She has everything contained, until a certain Anna threatened to pry it all open and neither is able to stop everything in its track.

For a debut, Stolen Kiss was well written and the dissection of the leads’ thoughts were clear and concise. The draw and chemistry was off the charts, it was as quick as it was intense. If you are looking for an angsty plot and you live for moments where you get to experience an overwhelming rush of emotions with some twists thrown in, it’s your book. I loved how jealousy was freely mentioned in the book, it’s like they can’t help themselves and just tuned in to the other.

I just reviewed Stolen Kiss by Spencer Greene. Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Book for the ARC.

This book was light hearted and fun I really did enjoy it. The characters were interesting well written and felt real. I was a little unsure with the whole she has a boyfriend thing I was expecting no happy ending but I was wrong and it was beautiful small town love story. There was a little twist I didn’t see coming which I did enjoy and made me feel better about the boyfriend situation. I would definitely recommend this book it’s also my first lesbian book and will not be my last Thankyou for showing me a different kind of romance book.

5 stars.

It’s a nice contemporary romance. Beautifully written and well paced. The romance, or rather how serious the characters were feeling for each other, was lightning quick. But the writing and the pace of the book was just right. There wasn’t a dull plateau, I was turning page after page loving the story. It’s not all doom and gloom, but it’s far from a fairytale either. I was emotionally invested in the characters, and I liked the story, and of course I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys reading a contemporary romance. It was believable and realistic enough.

Now, there were a few not so great things. The author made some weird word choices. I wouldn’t mention it if it was simply my discomfort with the word, but it really was inconsistent with the characters. At the beginning of the story, during their first meeting, Anna and Louise talk about a particular profanity and how frustrating the word is, and then the author uses that same word during sex scenes. Why would you choose to use the word your characters wouldn’t use? And then there were Anna’s parents. Characters with zero redeeming qualities don’t make such great characters at all. Could they have at least loved a pet or something? There’s just nothing human about them. Pure evil with names.

Overall, I still think it’s a 5 star book. This book isn’t perfect, there were things I didn’t agree with, things I didn’t like, and some simplifications made to fit the story. But it’s a book made for entertainment, not a textbook, and I had a good time with this story. It might seem ridiculous how fast the characters declare they’re falling for each other, but the author is right, there really isn’t a rule for how fast and how strongly you’re allowed to feel.