The Kiss Thief
I love when I get a random snow day at work it gives me so much time to knock out a book! Sometimes I'll pick a very highly rated book on Goodreads, just to see if it lives up to the hype. A lot of times I will think a book is fabulous, and it will be rated pretty low (in book standards), but that doesn't detour me from reading any book. In this case I did choose a pretty highly rated book to see if it lived up to the hype. I was not disappointed. This book was very very good.
"Falling in love was so tragic. No wonder it made people so sad."
The Kiss Thief is about Francesca, or Frankie, she is the daughter of a mob boss in Chicago. She lives a very sheltered life. She is basically raised to believe the only thing a woman is good for is marrying into a good family, being a good wife, and sitting back and watching things from the sidelines. The story starts with her getting ready for a masquerade ball in town, she is supposed to be introduced to some suitors that her parents have to choose from to marry her off to. She has her heart set on Angelo. His father is a friend of the family, they grew up together, and it is pretty common knowledge that he is who she is going to end up with. At the ball she dances with a stranger in a mask and she for some reason or another tells him all about her plans for her and Angelo to kiss by the end of the night. This will be Frankie's first kiss, a little detail she leaves out of the story. At the end of the night, the mystery man has taken Angelo's mask and steals Frankie's first kiss without her knowledge. He is revealed to be Senator Wolfe Keaton. He has a reputation for being heartless and a womanizer. Frankie is disgusted and heartbroken that she has given away her first kiss to someone like him. The next day, he shows up at her house and somehow talks her father into allowing him to take her hand in marriage. She is furious, he has no desire to get to know her or have anything to do with her. His mission is one of revenge, and their love story is not typical.
"A story of a Nemesis and a Villian with no chance at a happy ending. Where the prince doesn't save the princess. He tortures her. And the beauty doesn't sleep. She's stuck. In a nightmare."
At first I did not care for Frankie. I thought she was spoiled and kind of a brat. I learned, as the story progressed, that she was brought up in such a way that it made her seem like that. The close she got to Wolfe, and the more time she spent with him she came out of her shell and started standing on her own two feet. She was stubborn, but she finally learned to put herself first, and I think that was the ultimate love story in the book.
"Maybe I am the monster. After all, I come out to play at night. But so do you, little one. You're out in the darkness, too."
Wolfe was a unique character, he was a pretty terrible person, and I know any sane person would have been pretty disgusted with him, but his life was also full of a lot of pain. His revenge against Frankie's dad was not in vain. He had a purpose and he was out to get those who had ruined his life. For a long time it seemed like he would never let her get close, and never let down the walls he built, but when he did he really became a great man, a fierce protector, and the readers knew he had fallen in love with her long before he ever admitted it to himself.
I was not a fan of Angelo. I know he was meant to be Frankie's first love, and he was supposed to be portrayed as a great and loving man, but I just didn't get that. He seemed a little fake to me, and he made some really questionable decisions. This story did not seem like a love triangle to me, because I never felt like Angelo was even a part of the equation. He was more of a nuisance that anything.
"I am a rusty barbwire, twisted together, knotted into a ball of fear."
This book did have quite a few steamy scenes, which sometimes can cause a book to feel a little like a porn rather than a book. I didn't think that was the case here. I thought they were far enough spaced apart that it didn't over take the book. There was one particular scene halfway through the book, you will definitely know when you get to it, that was very hard to read. I was so disgusted with Wolfe, and I almost thought I wouldn't be able to finish the book because I just couldn't see how she could forgive him for what he did, but I pushed through it, and I ended up forgiving him just as she did. But it is not an easy part to read, so be warned.
"No love is fully requited. No love is equal. No love is fair. There is always one side that loves more. And you better not be that side--because it suffers."
This was not your typical love story, it was not a love at first sight situation. These characters really despised each other. She hated him for taking her from her first love, and he hated her for the sins of her father. They went through a lot to get to where they were in the end. And I'm not going to lie, at about 70% I was really worried with where the book was going, I felt sick, and it was playing with my emotions. In the end, I was very happy with how everything played out, but it takes a long time to get there.
"Wolfe Keaton was a kiss thief, but it wasn't only a kiss that he stole. He stole my heart, too."
Overall, I'm giving this book 5 STARS. It had the perfect amount of steamy, suspense, and romance. It was everything you want in a book. I like that it's not your typical love story, and there were other things going on in the story besides the romance. It kept me intrigued, and it ended up being a pretty easy read!
"Falling in love was so tragic. No wonder it made people so sad."
The Kiss Thief is about Francesca, or Frankie, she is the daughter of a mob boss in Chicago. She lives a very sheltered life. She is basically raised to believe the only thing a woman is good for is marrying into a good family, being a good wife, and sitting back and watching things from the sidelines. The story starts with her getting ready for a masquerade ball in town, she is supposed to be introduced to some suitors that her parents have to choose from to marry her off to. She has her heart set on Angelo. His father is a friend of the family, they grew up together, and it is pretty common knowledge that he is who she is going to end up with. At the ball she dances with a stranger in a mask and she for some reason or another tells him all about her plans for her and Angelo to kiss by the end of the night. This will be Frankie's first kiss, a little detail she leaves out of the story. At the end of the night, the mystery man has taken Angelo's mask and steals Frankie's first kiss without her knowledge. He is revealed to be Senator Wolfe Keaton. He has a reputation for being heartless and a womanizer. Frankie is disgusted and heartbroken that she has given away her first kiss to someone like him. The next day, he shows up at her house and somehow talks her father into allowing him to take her hand in marriage. She is furious, he has no desire to get to know her or have anything to do with her. His mission is one of revenge, and their love story is not typical.
"A story of a Nemesis and a Villian with no chance at a happy ending. Where the prince doesn't save the princess. He tortures her. And the beauty doesn't sleep. She's stuck. In a nightmare."
At first I did not care for Frankie. I thought she was spoiled and kind of a brat. I learned, as the story progressed, that she was brought up in such a way that it made her seem like that. The close she got to Wolfe, and the more time she spent with him she came out of her shell and started standing on her own two feet. She was stubborn, but she finally learned to put herself first, and I think that was the ultimate love story in the book.
"Maybe I am the monster. After all, I come out to play at night. But so do you, little one. You're out in the darkness, too."
Wolfe was a unique character, he was a pretty terrible person, and I know any sane person would have been pretty disgusted with him, but his life was also full of a lot of pain. His revenge against Frankie's dad was not in vain. He had a purpose and he was out to get those who had ruined his life. For a long time it seemed like he would never let her get close, and never let down the walls he built, but when he did he really became a great man, a fierce protector, and the readers knew he had fallen in love with her long before he ever admitted it to himself.
I was not a fan of Angelo. I know he was meant to be Frankie's first love, and he was supposed to be portrayed as a great and loving man, but I just didn't get that. He seemed a little fake to me, and he made some really questionable decisions. This story did not seem like a love triangle to me, because I never felt like Angelo was even a part of the equation. He was more of a nuisance that anything.
"I am a rusty barbwire, twisted together, knotted into a ball of fear."
This book did have quite a few steamy scenes, which sometimes can cause a book to feel a little like a porn rather than a book. I didn't think that was the case here. I thought they were far enough spaced apart that it didn't over take the book. There was one particular scene halfway through the book, you will definitely know when you get to it, that was very hard to read. I was so disgusted with Wolfe, and I almost thought I wouldn't be able to finish the book because I just couldn't see how she could forgive him for what he did, but I pushed through it, and I ended up forgiving him just as she did. But it is not an easy part to read, so be warned.
"No love is fully requited. No love is equal. No love is fair. There is always one side that loves more. And you better not be that side--because it suffers."
This was not your typical love story, it was not a love at first sight situation. These characters really despised each other. She hated him for taking her from her first love, and he hated her for the sins of her father. They went through a lot to get to where they were in the end. And I'm not going to lie, at about 70% I was really worried with where the book was going, I felt sick, and it was playing with my emotions. In the end, I was very happy with how everything played out, but it takes a long time to get there.
"Wolfe Keaton was a kiss thief, but it wasn't only a kiss that he stole. He stole my heart, too."
Overall, I'm giving this book 5 STARS. It had the perfect amount of steamy, suspense, and romance. It was everything you want in a book. I like that it's not your typical love story, and there were other things going on in the story besides the romance. It kept me intrigued, and it ended up being a pretty easy read!
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