Kiss the Girl by Tara Sivec

​ROMANTIC COMEDY

Publication date: 09/04/2018
Kindle Unlimited: No
Cliffhanger: No

Warnings that should come with this book include:

1. Those who like their romance heroines meek, mild, and sweet-natured need not pick this book up.
2. If you don’t have a healthy appreciated for snark, sarcasm, and cussing, this book is NOT for you.
3. Anyone who doesn’t have a healthy sense of humor need not apply.
4. Stick-up-butt types who don’t believe in a woman’s right to express her sexuality (sometimes on a stripper pole) will likely be offended by this book.
5. Snort laughing. It will happen.   

If any of these warnings turn you off the book, I say good riddance. For the rest of you…

I loved this book. The humor, the banter between Ariel and Eric, the banter between Ariel and her friends, the snark, the cussing, the sexy times...it was all perfect.

I also really liked the premise. I mean, who wouldn’t love to read a twisted, sexy, adult version of The Little Mermaid in which Ariel is a stripper, is best friends with Cinderella and Belle (also strippers), engages in a super sexy enemies-to-lovers romance with a snarky billionaire named Eric, and has all kinds of hilarious adventures along the way? The originality of it all was so much fun!

I will warn y’all that Ariel takes a little bit of time to warm up to. She’s coarse, rude, outspoken to an alarming degree, and super anti-social. Her demeanor was a little startling to me in the beginning of the book, but if you stick with it, you’ll soon figure out why she is the way she is, and it all makes perfect sense. It didn’t take long before I was rooting for her.

And while it took me some time to warm up to Ariel, Eric, on the other hand, was instantly grade-A book boyfriend material for me. He’s sexy, hilarious, smart, successful, and so supportive of Ariel (emotionally, of course, not financially, aside from offering her a temporary place to stay) that he instantly endeared himself to me.

Other odds and ends:

1. Ariel’s douchenozzle of an ex gets what’s coming to him in a SUPER satisfying way
2. Ariel’s dad is all kinds of awesome
3. The scenes with Ariel and her friends are laugh-out-loud hilarious
4. All the little “shout outs” to The Little Mermaid were clever. It could’ve been cheesy if not handled properly, but the author handled it beautifully
5. I loved how Ariel and her friends embraced and owned their sexuality and their significant others were totally supportive of them, without getting possessive or jealous or otherwise ugly about it      ​

So, in case I haven’t made it clear, this is a unique, fun, sexy, empowering (#girlpower!), hilarious read that I highly recommend. (But, again, if you don’t have a healthy sense of humor and respect for snark, steer clear. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Full disclosure: we received an ARC from Netgalley free of charge.

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
Crushes it! This one’s clean and sober.    

Other reading suggestions
Check out the other two books in the series, At the Stroke of Midnight and In Bed with the Beast. ​

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