16 Jan 2023

SOMEONE TO KISS.

 My first book tour of 2023 and what a great read it was. Today {the second day of the tour} its my pleasure to be amongst the bloggers who over 10 days will be participating in the Blog Tour of ...

SOMEONE TO KISS by JAMIE ANDERSON.

Genre ... NA / Adult Romance, Romantic Comedy

Publication Date ...  26th September 2022

Standalone Novel

Publisher Content Warning ... While it is funny and ultimately uplifting Someone To Kiss does tackle some more serious issues like addiction (alcohol) and consent and features good mental health and anxiety representation. It is closed door, also some swearing.

Order Link ... https://mybook.to/someonetokiss


A Hilarious and Heartening Take on the Pitfalls of Modern Dating.


As the clock strikes midnight over a disastrous New Year’s Eve and happy couples celebrate all around her, Kate makes a resolution, hastily scrawled on the back of a napkin, that next New Year’s Eve she will have found someone of her own to kiss.

But when you’re a forty-something cat-mom who’d rather binge Netflix than brave the singles scene, finding someone to kiss turns out to be harder than it sounds. Kate is totally unprepared for navigating hook-up apps, speed-dating, and sliding into somebody’s DMs.

With the end of the year rapidly approaching, Kate seems further than ever from reaching her goal. As relationships crumble around her and dark long-kept secrets spill out, could Kate's fixation on her quest cause her to let true love slip through her fingers forever?

Someone to Kiss is a wry and witty romantic comedy, tackling serious issues with real heart. 

 


The story of forty-something Kate who having found herself alone on New Year's Eve, drunk and underneath a table, her underwear exposed, vows that the next year will be very different.

Hmm! A forty-something year old who finds herself drunk, under a table, her underwear on show. I certainly wasn't going to relate to Kate. Question being, was I going to like her, let alone enjoy her as a character?

As it turns out I liked Kate well enough {I mean she loved her cat, Mittens, so couldn't be all bad, right?}, actually enjoying her as a character even if at times I thought her a totally believable forty-something, at other times, far from it; her behaviour more like that of someone a decade ... or two younger.

Unsettling images flashed through my head like I was remembering a trauma.
Flash: Dancing with Nate to "Cotton Eyed Joe", grabbing his beer and pounding it like it was a glass of water.
Flash: Sharing glossy pink lipstick in the bathroom with a woman I'd never met.
Flash: Shivering outside on a bench, asking if I could have a drag of someone's cigarette.
Flash: Concerned, blurry faces - someone pulling me off the ground and bringing me back inside, the smell of vomit following close behind. {Pg 11/12}

The comical and kind of tragic tale {or is that just me being a smug, happily married fifty-something? Actually don't answer that} of what ensues when, determined to find Someone To Kiss, Kate finds herself, the member of several on-line dating apps, having one, err, unremarkable date after another. Which is kind of frustrating when there are two eligible men right there in front of her; two eligible men that, like carrots before a donkey, are being tantalizingly dangled right there under her very nose ... and that of us readers. The thing being, will she end up with Someone, anyone, To Kiss come the new year and could it be best friend Julie's brother Ben OR the friendly barista ?

Told mainly from the point of view of Kate but with interjections from some of the other characters and including some of the messages between Kate and her potential Someone To Kiss {Not my favourite format I have to say but here it worked well enough}, whilst being funny, the book did feature some mental health issues which part of me thought commendandable, the other half? Well! The other half of me was kind of longing for a read that was simply light-hearted entertainment. 

In a nutshell, the main characters, surprisingly endearing; an easy, humorous read that, longing to know the outcome, I found myself reading until the wee small hours, I did enjoy this debut novel and am looking forward to its follow-up, Love Julie.



Jamie Anderson is based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. A proud Canadian and Saskatchewanian, she wanted to set her first two novels in the place she was born and raised.


She works in content marketing, has a certificate in professional writing and has done a smattering of freelance writing, character development and copyediting over the past several years.


She’s been writing for as long as she can remember, and has been reading for longer than that. She lives happily with her mountain of books, her TV and her two plants.


Sign-up to Jamie's newsletter ... https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cxifz0ucfv for news on her follow-up romance novel Love, Julie. You’ll also receive exclusive deals, special offers and a FREE copy of Jamie’s sweet, uplifting novella Running from Christmas as a welcome gift!  


Social Media Links ... ~ Twitter ~ GoodReads ~ TikTok ~ Instagram ~ FaceBook


With thanks to Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for another well organised Blog Tour. 

7 comments:

Kelly said...

I have a feeling I might be exasperated with Kate at times in this. Not because I feel old or superior, but because a decent portion of my youth was misspent and I could relate to some of her behavior. But fortunately, I (mostly) got over fool's hill by the time I reached Kate's age.

Entering the world of dating again would be an absolute nightmare in my opinion.

nightwingsraven said...

Felicity,
Perhaps I would appreciate Kate
and this book. And I will keep it
in mind. But thank you for your
excellent review.
Raven

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

I don't read a huge amount of contemporary rom-coms and I think this one might be just a little too annoying and banal for me to connect with.

However, that might just be because I am a sixty something, happily married for over forty years, kind of person, who finds that kind of behaviour in a middle-aged woman hard to stomach. I totally agree with Kelly, that the world of dating has completely left me behind and is not one which I would wish or choose, to navigate again!

You managed to put a very neutral spin on your review, which is admirable :)

Mary (Bookfan) said...

Sounds like an entertaining novel!

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Definitely sounds like a mix of good and bad. I'm glad you liked Kate overall as a character. Thanks for the honest thoughts.

Lauren @ www.shootingstarsmag.net

Karen said...

This sounds like a book I would enjoy.

Meg said...

Ha, sometimes I eyeroll at romantic plotlines too (especially JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?!) It can be a little hard to empathize when a character won't get out of their own way!