The Kiss Test by Shannon McKelden - A Book Review

Title: The Kiss Test
Author: Shannon McKelden
Kindle e-book
Published: 10/11/2010
Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Fiction

Summary:

Margo Gentry's life is perfect. She loves her job as a DJ for Manhattan's only country music station, and she has a great boyfriend who accepts her need to avoid marriage and tolerates her Elvis obsession-even the velvet Elvis painting in their bedroom.

But then it all falls apart. The radio station changes formats and fires all the DJs. Margo's boyfriend decides he wants kids and a house in the suburbs and kicks her to the curb. And to top it all off, her Mom is getting married-for the 11th time! -and expects Margo to be there as maid of honor.

With no job and no place to live, Margo has to bunk on the couch of her best friend, Chris, whose revolving bedroom door has played host to half the women in New York-at least, the ones who pass his "kiss test." Worse, he's insisting she attend her mother's wedding, and he's personally driving her cross-country to ensure she shows up.

Forget about surviving the road trip-can their friendship survive The Kiss Test?(from netgalley.com)

In all honesty, I really had no idea what to expect when I started this book. I kind of picked it because I really liked the cover and I love books where best friends realize they love each other.

So, all that being said, I really did love this book. It was different and fun and there were some super funny parts that had me laughing out loud. I don't know if all of you readers have quite figured this out yet, but I always love to add in a little bit of contemporary fiction to swerve my genre reads. This book was a nice change in pace for me.

Our main character, Margo, I could relate with. Not that I'm necessarily a marriage hating fiend (although, even though married, I just may be *wink*), but I could understand her frustrations. I could understand her thoughts and feelings about wanting to be her own person and not wanting to hurt or get hurt. Now, there is a whole lot more to those feelings that we find out along the way, but, I could understand her. I loved how she was always willing to stand on her own two feet and how she could kick it to the man if necessary.

Chris, the best friend, was an interesting character. I didn't quite know how to read him at first. Don't get me wrong, I knew that I liked him, I just didn't know if he was the self absorbed hottie or the hottie who gets all the woman, but isn't a hothead about it. Having read the book, I'd go with the latter. I loved Chris and his character in this book. He was not only a sexy bit a man flesh, but he had personality and charisma. Which, yeah he used more often than not to bring the chicks to his bed, but I could always tell that he cared for Margo. Even if those feelings may have been only best friend feelings, he still always cared for her above others, and that I really loved about him.

Really, the only thing I didn't truly get in the book was Margo's unadulterated obsession with Elvis. Possibly because I think he is just alright, but I don't necessarily think it was Elvis that was the point as much as that she be loved in spite of it.

But, I thought the plot flowed and paced nicely and I really did care for the characters that McKelden wrote. They were flawed and funny and I needed a little bit of love in my life the night I read this. I needed a good story with a happy ending to cheer and brighten up my day. And that is exactly what I got.

So, if any of you are looking for a cute story with some love and romance, a cross country road trip with a sexy man in a Jeep (not a car mind you, a Jeep) and a really steamy scene in the outskirts of my favorite state in the nation, Arizona, than you really should pick up this book. I recommend it for those who enjoy Adult Contemporary Fiction with Romance thrown in.

Rating: 4/5

Quotes:

...Rob never took his eyes off the screen as his fingers tapped out unintelligible words and symbols. He did spit out the pencil though before speaking. "I'm rearchitecting the hardware abstraction layer in the proprietary OS my client ships in their wireless devices to deconflict some API naming schemas."

I blinked, hoping somewhere, on some level, to someone, that made sense, and it wasn't an indication my brother had started dabbling in drugs.

...Jeff snapped off a bunch more shots, miming directions to me about where to put my hands, how to turn my head, when to flick my hair just so. I am not a natural-born hairflicker, so that step required repeated demonstrations on Jeff's part.

I yanked up my shorts and started to climb down, only to be swamped by a wave of dizziness. Chris stopped laughing for ten seconds to catch me, returning me to the floor.

"You are so dead." I stomped past him out of the bathroom. "You and Case are going to rot in hell for this."

"It's just a tattoo."

It has your name on it!"

"Lot's of women get tattoos with guys' names on them. Doesn't Angelina Jolie have a tattoo that says Billy Bob?"

"Angelina Jolie was married to Billy Bob at the time. Don't you think it's more than a little weird to have my best friend's name tattooed on me?"...

...You are so going to pay," I said turning back when I reached the bathroom door. "You have three more weeks of me--"

I stopped midsentence and gasped. Chris didn't notice, because he was too busy being a man and thinking everything was a big joke. Well, I had a surefire was to put a stop to his mirth.

I dumped my clothes on the floor and walked up behind him, giving him a shove.

"Hey," he protested, still chuckling. "No violence."

"Remember that in about five seconds," I snapped giving him another push and lining him up with the bureau mirror. "Take a look at that, smart man." I reached up and yanked off the bandage covering his right shoulder blade. His sharp intake of breath told me his tattoo hurt much like mine.

He swiveled his head to peer in the mirror. I saw his eyes widen in his reflection. He backed up another foot until his thighs bumped on the bureau and leaned close tot he mirror.

"Does that say--"

"Margo." I folded my hands across my chest and waited for it to sink in that he now sported my name in black--surrounded by a red haeart, with lovely white wings. He wouldn't find the situation nearly so funny now that he had his own damn explaining to do every time he had sex for the rest of his life.

"Son of a bicth," he muttered.

I grinned with satisfaction, glad to have proven my point.

Chris promptly burst into hysterics again. He laughed until he finally had to collapse on the bed to keep from falling.

"You are such a moron."

"Ah, but I'm your moron," he pointed out. "The tattoos say so."

I received this book free of charge from Carina Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.