Genres: Historical Romance
Published by Indie/Self Published
Released on December 14, 2018
Pages: 140
Format: eBook
Source: Author
The Delight
When a mother expresses a whimsical wish on her death-bed, a serious, young dutiful daughter heard and took it as her clarion call for life. Will the oldest of the Belle sisters turn aside from love and happiness out of a misguided sense of duty or can a managing soldier find a way to change the ‘Bossy’ Belle’s mind? I was eager to find out in this first of the Kiss A Belle series about five very different, but affectionate sisters.
Review
Alice Belle is the oldest of five girls born to a wealthy merchant who would see his girls make dazzling matches into the aristocracy. She has looked after everyone since her mother’s passing and revels whenever she can consider herself indispensable. The trouble is, with her youngest sister’s marriage to a ducal heir, she finds herself floundering because for the first time, she wasn’t the Belle sister leading the charge. Several encounters of the years with a man deemed highly unsuitable by her father though he is a gentleman and comfortably well off shake Alice’s determination to do her duty, but Robert wonders if anything he does can ever be enough.
This was one that I enjoyed, but also felt somewhat frustrated over. I loved the premise of the series with the five eligible daughters and I loved each of their separate personalities particularly when they are all together. Alice, however, had me wanting to shake her until she realized that duty wasn’t everything nor was a lifelong denial of personal happiness to please a parent. She loves a man and denies them both to make her father happy and fulfill something that her dying mother never intended. She adores her sisters and wants to do her part so they can have their dreams and wants to help easy the grief of her father by her actions. I did want to boot her when she asked the man who loved her to set her up with one of his titled best friends. Their sweet repartee and exchange of notes, delightful meetings and complete understanding of one another had me rooting hard for poor Robert to find a way to get the Bossy Belle to change her mind.
The end came swiftly and delightfully with Robert and Alice. I would have like a bit more there at the end with the engaging pair, but I hope to see more of them in subsequent books.
Kiss Me After left things tantalizingly open to continue with the story of these sisters from a different sister’s perspective. I can’t wait to see what comes next for the Belle family and their friends. These are sweet, fun, light, and swiftly read Regency romances that I can heartily recommend to those who enjoy a circle of friends and family engaged in that tricky mad cap romp of courtship and love.
My thanks to the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Recommendations
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Not sure about this one for me anyway. I only read historical romance probably less than ten times a year and I have way too many already waiting for my to read. I hope the next one is as good or better than this one for you!
It’s funny, but I’ve had something of a shift in my genre preferences. I used to read mostly historical of one type or another with very little contemporary. It seems to have reversed and I read maybe a few dozen a year now.
I did end up enjoying the second book more.