Review - Last Kiss (First and Last #2) by Laurelin Paige

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Last Kiss

(First and Last #2)

Author: Laurelin Page

Publication Date: June 14th, 2016

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

A GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE FILLED WITH DARK DESIRES AND DANGEROUS SECRETS…

Emily Wayborn has made a decision.

She might not fully trust handsome and deadly Reeve Sallis, but he is the one person that gives her what she needs. With Reeve she can finally be herself. Submitting to him is the only thing keeping her grounded as the rest of her life falls apart. But the hotelier is a master at keeping secrets and as she continues her quest for answers someone is making sure she doesn’t find them.

Time is running out and she is questioning everything she thought she knew about friendship and love. She must now make an impossible choice that will determine if she will survive with her heart…or at all.

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon 

I would:

• Befriend: Joe
• Go out on a date & kiss: Joe
• Take to a desert island and leave behind: Emily
• Travel to Vegas and let Elvis Presley marry us: Joe

2.5 “I think I read the wrong book” Stars

ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you, St. Martin's Griffin.

Warning: unpopular opinion.

Waning 2:

Meme

**I mean it. SPOILERS ahead**

I’m just as surprised as you are that I’m not giving this four or five stars like the rest of the world. The premise sounds fantastic. The writing is really good. This was published by St. Martin’s Griffin.

St. Martin’s and I have established a pretty satisfying relationship – they publish amazing books, I read them, and we’re all happy. Perfect.

But this time I’m a little less happy.

“Last Kiss” is the second and last book in the First and Last series, and it starts right after the end of “First Touch”. If you didn’t read the first book, then you should probably stop reading the review (yeah, I’m warning you a third time)…. You’re still here, so fine…

In the end of “First Touch” Amber makes a comeback. She’s the friend Emily has been looking for since the beginning of the first book – she’s the reason Emily seduced handsome, dangerous and millionaire Reeves; Amber’s former boyfriend. She’s not the reason Emily stayed with Reeves, but it’s pretty clear now that she’s back, Amber will the one causing trouble in Emily and Reeves’ already troubled relationship.

I expected all of that. What I didn’t expect was for Emily to react the way she did – uncertain, undecided and insecure – throughout the entire story. I mean, at some point she had to realize Reeves wanted her and her alone, didn’t she? She did. Except she didn’t.

Well, I can’t say I’m really surprised Emily annoyed me. She’d been doing that since the first book. Truth is, I just couldn’t connect with her in any level. Her submissive personality was WAY too much for me. I’ve read other books with submissive MC, but Emily’s situation was too over the top. Time and time again she showed (and said herself) she couldn’t be trusted with her own safety. She couldn’t say no. She didn’t know how to stop. She didn’t seem like the type of person that could be trusted to take care of herself without some sort of supervision. And I don’t mean Reeves’ supervision.

I’m all for alpha male – Jericho freaking Barrons is my book husband. He’s the alpha of all alphas (don’t even argue with me).

But Reeves’ is no Jericho.

I didn’t trust Reeves’ to be there for Emily and understand what was best for her – although the entire relationship was supposed to be about that; about Reeves’ being the only one who could understand and give Emily what she needed.

What Emily did need wasn’t more sex and dominance. She needed to get her shit together.  She needed to stop going from one decision to the next back to the first. She needed to make up her mind and face the consequences. She needed to stop acting like she was seventeen.

It took her forever to understand Reeves’ wanted to be with her. It took her even longer to face Amber and tell her best friend that they’d fallen for the same man. Then another lifetime for her to decide whether she wanted to keep her friendship with Amber or fight for the man she loved.

At a certain point, I just stopped caring. Her indecision made that happen.

To be honest, I even liked Amber more than I did Emily. Her friend was absolutely crazy, but she knew what she wanted and she went for it. Were her methods okay? Nope. But at least she didn’t waste time going back and forth on what she wanted.

No doubt my favorite character was Joe. He was a cool guy who wanted to fight evil, even though he'd probably end up dead, and made a habit to check in on Emily even though she lied to him more times than we can count on two hands. I liked Joe. A lot. More than Reeves. Just saying...

The ending was okay, though I didn’t like the way things turned out. I thought the author took the easy way out – by choosing that path, she left no room for Emily to have to make a hard decision. After all was said and done, there was nothing standing in the way of what she wanted to do all along but had no courage to.

While the writing kept me from abandoning the story halfway through, the MC’s insecurity and the abusive undertone (can you call someone a consenting party when they clearly state they don’t know how to say “no”?) kept me from enjoying this like everyone else. Such a shame.

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.