Reviews

Dirty Kisses by Kenya Wright

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dallsbookclub's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense

4.5

winosaa's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

febec44's review against another edition

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3.0

I’m intrigued by the story and although i normally wouldn’t have read it, i quite enjoyed it. I probably will not read the next book even though i want to know what happens next just because the writing style wasn’t really for me. I also wasn’t really a fan of Kaz and Emily’s relationship.

star_lte's review against another edition

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5.0

Is there a way for me to give this book 10 stars? Omg this book is the bomb. Kaz and Emily...sigh....they are going to be a power couple I can only imagine what it's going to be like in Book 2. Lol this book made me wanna learn Russian alright. It was a fun read. Excited about the continuation

bookishrealm's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a solid start to a new series! There were some really great elements. 3.5 Stars. CW: graphic violence, childhood sexual abuse (not on page)

Dirty Kisses is the first book in the Lion and the Mouse series and it focuses on two characters: Kazamir and Emily. Kazamir is a Russian mob enforcer of sorts who is well known for how dangerous he is while Emily catches his attention and quickly becomes his money washer. One thing that Wright excelled at with this book was her ability to create chemistry and mutual respect between Kazamir and Emily. Their attraction was quick, but Wright created the perfect situations in which readers felt as though Kazamir and Emily knew each other for an extended period of time. It was most fascinating watching Kazamir grow in his respect of Emily. They were put in a specific situation where Emily was able to exhibit her strong skills which let Kazamir know that she was a force to be reckoned with. This only intensified their attraction. Every steamy scene between the two of them was extremely hot both physically and verbally. The book was also fast paced and easy to get through, but the characterization was probably my favorite aspect of the novel. There were even found family elements which, for me, was an interesting element to discover in a mafia based romance. Emily was a strong, confident Black woman that basically handled her business as she saw fit.

There were a few things that I didn't necessarily enjoy about this book including the fact that the big reveal not only threw me off, but it created quite a few plot holes. Don't get me wrong, I think that it will turn out to be an interesting premise to work with in future books; however, with this ending I don't think enough was revealed. It left the reader with more questions than answers and it creates doubts in the validity of the big reveal. I'm hoping that it will be explained further in the next few books because there are quite a few things that Wright could potentially do with that information.

Overall, I thought that this was a solid read. I'm looking forward to reading the next book and I'm glad to say that this was my first official mafia romance.

dejreads's review against another edition

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3.0

I rated this three stars because as I was reading, the story just became so confusing. The female MC Emily, I had so much hope for her to be this badass female lead but as the chapters going on and she grew closer to Kaz, she was slowly becoming a damsel in distress. Which I do understand due to her past trauma, she would be want to be protected and let her guide down in order for Kaz to protect her—but I feel like it wasn’t written that well to distinguish that. Especially given that the events in the book literally took place in what? Four days at moment. I was walking into this book thinking that it was going to take them a while to figure out Rumi’s murder, but when I got to a chapter and it stated about it just being a day before Kaz and Emily first met…I let out a frustrated sigh. I enjoyed the plot, but it was lowkey so predictable and some points weren’t needed at all. Tinder Killer plot, I feel like was so unnecessary. Just another quirk to add on to Emily that I feel like the author didn’t go into full detail for. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the constant italic flashbacks, I feel like the author used those scenes as a word count filler to be honest.

I wanted to rate this book higher because I did enjoy some characters *cough* Maxwell and Xavier *cough* and I did enjoy the smut scenes (which I applaud because it was a good plot to smut ratio for a mafia romance). But the story just felt like it was lacking some things and I’m still 50/50 on continuing the series.

kaitays's review against another edition

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fast-paced

1.25

This is not the worst book ever written but it didn’t appeal to my tastes in the slightest. The description was so enticing, just to get to a lackluster book. The only redeemable thing about the book were the spicy scenes, those were written well. The book describes itself as a “slow burn” but Emily and Kaz were doing it day two. what’s slow about that?? The book was split up into “acts'' but there was no need to split it up when the timeline in the book spanned over 3 days. THREE! Crazy. The dialogue was also choppy, unnatural. I do like Emily though, but even she had some odd qualities to her. A man comes into your gallery speaking in metaphors and tells you you need to get into more criminal activity, and there’s no opposition? No inquiry? You just think he is sexy and that’s it? Or, how she handled Kennedy’s death. Yeah get your outlet but you ain’t even have no internal monologue about the situation. Yeah, you didn’t want to cry too much, but that was your sister from another mister, come on. Also, how I was 25% through the book and ain’t shit happen yet. That 25% should’ve been like 5-10% for the amount of information and scene setting we got. No development or depth in the story or the characters. There’s so many things I can frown upon in this book but I will leave it here.

Initial Response: 2/5; Recommend?: 1/5; Re-Readability: 1/5 Characters: 1/5; Plot: 1/5

Overall: 1.2/5

Would Purchase?: No