This one took me by surprise. It took aittle while for me to get into it but once I got to around 20% ish I couldnt out this one down. Marina Adair has a real talent for writing extremely likeable characters, and that goes for the supporting characters too!  A fantastic love story that was really quite touching at times

A very heartwarming romance story. I loved every minute of it!

This was an awesome read especially for a Series starter. Marina Adair always writes heartwarming loving stories that grip you from the very beginning. I absolutely loved how Ty and Avery met, the ever-loving Avery showed no fear and just jumped straight in. I loved how every day Avery done things from her "Memory Journal" as she honored her friends. While her dreams of becoming an Adventure Guide are not going as well as she would like, it isn't stopping her from being adventurous. Ty Donovan has been gone a long time and he rarely visits due to family grievances with his dad, he is now back for 3 weeks to get his families Lodge back into shape.
I loved the chemistry between these two, it made for an awesome read, also Avery was a great buffer between Ty and his dad, she was also able to give him that push to mend fences!! Throw into the mix Avery's new liver and there is a good bit of angst, a little heartache that totally goes with the story of Love, healing wounds, pure adventure and plenty of Passion even from the Seniors or O.A.P!!
The ending is totally worth reading this!!

It Started with a Kiss is book 1 in Marina Adair's new series Sequoia Lake.

Tyson is the lead male and was amazing to read. He was an alpha male type with trust issues. I love how he was all alpha but still soft and gentle with Avery. I loved the development of him through the story, this was done at a pace that made you cheer for him to achieve whatever he set out to do.

Avery is the lead female and was oh so relatable and a role model I hope to emulate in my life with my own set of goals. I found Avery the type of female other women should read as she was strong, had dreams, didn't compromise her convictions and didn't backdown when trouble came knocking. 

The storyline itself was well paced and full of depth and emotion that left me sad to see it finish. I thought Marina achieved another great beginning to what looks to be another successful series. Marina Adair is a staple author for me and this series looks set to be no different. Congratulations Marina!

I really liked and enjoyed this book. Really a great story and a great start to this new series. Can't wait to read more.

“It Started With A Kiss” is the 1st book in a new series called Sequoia Lake by Marina Adair. This book is about 
Avery Adams and Ty Donovan. 

Avery has been sick for a while with Kidney failure first then a Kidney Transplant.  During her stays in the hospital she has meet several people that have passed. She has a journal that is similar to bucket list. The items on the list are things people wish they could have done. Avery also wants to explore and try new things now that she is healthy after her one year mark of her Kidney transplant. During her transplant her boyfriend  who she also worked with broke up with her and she quit her job. 

Avery is now working at Sequoia Lake Lodge as an Adventure Coordinator. She wants to lead excurisions and hikes. However, Dale the owner hasn’t let her lead any groups yet and she runs the front office. Dale has been showing signs of dementia and Avery was hired to help him. Avery really wants to lead any excursion and she is 100% determined to do so.

Ty Donovan is the son of Dale and he is head of the swift water rescue team. He stays away most of the time with work and has never met Avery.  They way Ty and Avery meet is pretty hilarious. She needs to get off her harness and she sees a truck (ty’s) and goes into his tool box to borrow a screw driver. However she drops the screw driver and proceeds to leave a message on the truck with lipstick on the window. Ty comes up at that moment of course gives her a hard time about her message.  Ty figures out she works for his parents but doesn’t tell Avery that he is the owners son. From that moment they go to the bar close by. Avery decides to fill one of her “live life” moments for her friends and kisses Ty because he is a stranger and that was her friends wish. 

Ty has came home because he has heard the Lodge hasn’t passed inspection for one of  the annual events they always hold. Ty tries to fix the Lodge without making his dad mad and keep Avery from hurting herself. Ty also senses something is off with his dad but can’t get an honest answer from his mom about it. 

This is a very sweet romance about two people who are trying to fine theirselves. This book moves at a good pace, with a dual POV. I loved this book and can not wait for the other books in the series. 

I received this book for free for an honest review.

This is a really great book to start out a new series. Avery is living life as full as she can following a kidney transplant - and fulfilling adventures for others she has connected with. Ty returns to Sequoia Lake to find that the family's lodge needs a little more assistance than he'd planned. I love how these two connected the first time and how their relationship progressed throughout the book. 

Avery is sweet and loving and wants to experience more in life, as others want to protect her. Ty's life is all about the adventure (his job involves him rescuing people.) You find he is more sensitive than he wants to let on, and Avery is tougher than people think. I loved the whole book, but the last chapter was a little over the top for me. Thankfully the epilogue was perfect.

Marina Adair writes the most wonderful, small town romances with sweet heat! I just love the setting for this new series, set in the Sierra Nevadas, a small town called Sequoia Lake. In our first introduction, we meet Avery, who has had her health challenges and conquers them by living life to the fullest every day, with no fear. She has this huge heart and happiness just radiates from her to anyone she comes in contact with. Her meet-cute with Ty, was so funny, I totally laughed out loud, not weird at all for the people sitting next to me at the time. But seriously, this author writes not only hilarious dialog, but really sweet, tender moments and creates characters you can't help but fall in love with. I am so excited to revisit this town and these wonderful characters in her next book...I think we are in for a very sexy time with Miss Olivia and her mountain man!

I received a copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I really enjoyed It Started With a Kiss. Marina Adair brings so much feelings with this story. It was a wonderful and  emotional read .

When I pick up a Marina Adair book, I know I will be getting a fantastic, well-written story. It will be filled with fully-developed characters that you, the reader, will fall in love with. It will be set at a wonderful, scenic location you will want to visit. It will be flowing with witty banter (which I love.) And it will wind up being an engrossing, read-it-in-one-sitting novel. So when I began to read “It Started With a Kiss,” I was prepared for a first-class reading experience. And it delivered all of the above! But Ms. Adair had a surprise for me with this book, for at its heart it was so unexpectedly but wonderfully “soulful” it actually made me sigh!

Avery Adams is just going for it. Hobbled by a genetic kidney disease for a good part of her life, a kidney transplant gives Avery a new lease on life. So she waves goodbye to the bank desk job she had and gets a job at the Donovan family’s “adventure” lodge, hoping to eventually move from coordinating customers’ adventures to actually guiding them up and around the Sierras! Tyson Donovan is the proverbial prodigal son, returning home to help with a crisis the lodge seems to heading towards. Ty hasn’t even made it to the lodge when he runs into our intrepid Avery, in what has to be one of the funniest “meet-cutes” you will ever read in a book! Before you know it, Avery is ticking off the boxes in her life journal while Ty is trying to figure out what is going on with the lodge, his dad and his attraction to the petite dynamo stealing his sanity!

There are such profound and sad backstories to Avery and Ty, you cannot help but be moved. The delicate touch Ms. Adair had with telling those stories created such a heartfelt, sincere, passionate and mournful swirl of emotion. Avery and Ty handled those defining moments in very different ways; at first, I thought is was because of the ages they were when tragedy struck, but I do not think that was it. It was just a deeply ingrained reaction - Avery is the optimist, and Ty the realist, given his perceived family dynamic. Like Ying and Yang though, they both balance each other perfectly. “It Started With a Kiss” was the perfect start to this new series, and I cannot wait for the other characters I “met” to get their stories!

This is the first book in a new series by Adair, one of my favorite go-to authors for touching story.  This book delivers as expected.  Adair has created characters that are real and feel like real people you could be friends with and want to get to know better.  On the love story side, the chemistry is great and doesn't feel rushed and the story is a great balance of romance, family, and friendship.

Oh - Marina Adair had me right out of the gate with this one! Avery - our heroine, just wow. What a strong and feisty woman. I want to be HER when I grow up. In that case, I would get Ty, right? Our equally awesome hero. I love how the author really created the backstories for our hero & heroine. I love a strong heroine and a hero that accepts her strength. Sequoia Lake is my new favorite series and I can not wait to read more!

4.5 stars

Another great read by Marina Adair, I loved It Started With a Kiss.

I enjoyed the storyline, my attention was held all throughout the book. It warmed my heart watching the relationship develop between Avery and Tyson, they had great chemistry and both were likable/entertaining characters. They truly were perfect for each other.

Overall, a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, I highly recommend this book. 

*Thank you to Montlake Romance via Netgalley for the advance copy*

It Started With a Kiss by Marina Adair. This new series by Marina Adair is totally catching, especially from the beginning. I laughed so hard and thought: Boy, this is going to be exciting! And sure was not disappointed! The chemistry between Ty and Avery is awesome and the kiss between them and Avery's live your life to the fullest pulled on my heartstrings. Lovely and emotional as well as just plain ole romantic. Loved this book. 
Such a great start to "The Sequoia Lake Series" and can't wait to see what the next book will bring.
Was given a ARC kindle copy to read. And thank you very much for the chance to read this book.

It Started With a Kiss is the first book in Marina Adair's Sequoia Lake Series.

The book has three plot lines that developes throughout the book. The first is Avery Adams, her struggle and growth after her kidney transplant and her social circle (which introduces future heroines of the series). The second is Tyson Donavan's family issues and how it's affecting their family business, which is the local adventure lodge where Avery now works. The third and last plot line is the relationship between the two main characters, Avery and Tyson.

The author managed to create a believable world. Sequoia Lake feels like a community, the side characters are flushed out well. She's manages to developed both main characters, you can see them grow throughout the book as they tackle their challenges. The plot lines are good, no real complaint here, I enjoyed them even if it sometimes got a bit too sappy for me. The only real downside I can find is the editing and proof-reading. The book has typos and small mistakes that should've been spotted in editing, and then there's scenes that have major flaws to them that took me out of the story. Like magical appearing condoms. With these mistakes fixed the book would've been a 4/5 for me. Sadly I can only give it a 3/5 due to the obvious mistakes in editing.

So would I recommend the book? Maybe. If you don't mind some sad depressing tones (when reading about Avery) or sappy ones (Also Avery) and can overlook obvious editing mistakes and scenes that might take you out of your reading flow, then go ahead and get it, it's still a good read, but could've been much better with some more attention to detail.

An amazing story that both tugs at your heart while making it go pitter-patter as well.  Ty and Avery are characters that you wish you could know in real life, and the others who share in their story bring added interest and depth.  Several difficult storylines come together and are handled well.  Love Marina's writing, and love this new book!  Can't wait for the next in the series!  Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with an ARC, from which this review is based, in exchange for an honest review.

It was a great book., it had its sad moments, but it was heartwarming.    The book did have its funny moments and you couldn't help but root for them, even though they both wanted different things, he did not want to stay and she did.  Avery had some hard times, so you could see why she wanted some type adventure.  Ty had things he was working thru, but they found romance in each other, and so I always enjoy a love story.  Cant wait to read about Liv.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Mary – ☆☆☆☆
Avery Adams has been dealt a rough hand in life. After a kidney transplant almost a year ago, she is living her life to the fullest. Well, as full as her doctors will allow. Being diagnosed with kidney disease, the same disease that took her mother, she found a group of women that has helped her deal with the pain of loss. Avery helps those that can't fulfill their "Bucket List." One thing on the list was to kiss a stranger, so when she met Ty, that was the thing that came to her mind. It was the one thing that her friend Becca wanted to do before she died, so it was in the Living Loud journal.

Ty Donovan was back in the mountain town that he had been running from for 15 years, to help his parents get the lodge ready for the search and rescue training coming up in a few weeks. With his dad forgetting things and his mom covering for him, all Ty seems to do is agitate him more.

When Avery kisses Ty, there is a spark that seems to wake them both up. Can they have a fling for the short time Ty is around? Will Avery be able to make Ty stay? Can they get Ty's dad to see that he needs help?

This is a first for me from this author and I really enjoyed this story, it is cute. I laughed and cried, so be sure to have Kleenex handy. I can't wait for the next one to come out.

This was such a fun, sweet sexy story. One of loss, healing, and finding true love. Ty had so guilt from a past tragedy, I couldn't help but fall for him a bit. Avery is sweet, sassy, and brings out this brighter fun side of Ty. This book was a fantastic start to this new series, and I can't wait to read the next one!

This is my first book by Marina Adair and I absolutely loved it.  I loved the chemistry that Ty and Avery had and all the additional characters that were seen throughout the book.  I will be checking out more of Marina's books