Book Review: After the Kiss
I have mixed feelings about this book; as a romance I did not like it nor did the main charecters appeal to me that much. The first half of this book was a bit meh to me; there wasn't much that really stood out to me as a plot; and it is pretty bad when me as a reader cared more about Alastair's charecter and his relationship with his daughters than Marcus's relationship with Eliza. I've always heard that secondary charecters might save the book for some authors and this is the first time that I see this. Alastair as as a second charecter was more interesting to me than anything else in this book which will make me want to read the book that the author dedicated to his charecter and I think that I will enjoy that book more than this one because I was so interested in what he is going through than what Marcus or Eliza's stories for that matter.
The second half of the book was a bit better because it took on the Beauty and the Beast theme which I enjoy very much where Marcus is heavily scared and literally calls himself a Beast. But unfortunately it wasn't done very well in which he constantly called himself that it got a bit old for me. Also Alastair's disappearance caused me more distress than any other event in the book.
The romance between the two main characters didn't improve but in fact got worst; Marcus had her marry him if she wanted to take care of his nieces and was constantly raping her; which is something I cannot forgive even when the reader shows that he does care about her internally but I was over that by the time it happened even when those feelings were always there.
Eliza's character did come on strong for a few scene but she would just collapse a few pages later.
If not for the side story and the secondary characters along with the hint of the beauty and the beast theme I would have hated the book; I give it a 2 out of 5 just because of the elements that I did like
Rating: 2/5