A review by llamallamacallurmama
Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

challenging funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

**Most of my reviews contain detailed Content Notes (including CW/TW) sections, which may include spoilers.  I have tried to mark them appropriately, but please use caution.** 

Audio (Anna Fields)

4

Summary: After getting into debt, socialite Daisy enters a temporary arranged marriage with circus performer (and maybe more) Alex Markov organized by her father. Despite the challenges of her new circumstances and their initial antagonism, Daisy eventually finds her place, and they find love.

Stats: CR, M/F, stand alone, open door

Notes: The weakest part of this book comes in towards the end, which was quite disappointing. I really enjoyed the main story, but once the wild plots started getting thrown in, the story lost my interest a bit. So much of that just made no sense and was totally unnecessary. I did find the tone funny and entertaining for the most part, though it shows its age in a lot of places - there’s a decent bit of kinkshaming and the animal abuse was a bit hard to read (even though it was recognised as abuse some of the time).

OTT and Spoilery Content Notes:
Death of parent (fire, accident), arranged marriage, critical parents, cigarette/tobacco use, alcohol, debt, grief, animals in captivity (circus), infidelity in past relationship (mother seduced FMC’s former partner), mention of suicide attempt (mother), use of “sexual perversion” to describe kink, brief mention of child abuse (physical, sexual?, of the MMC), a little bit of “crazy talk”, a few jokes about DV/IPV, a few references to religion, a joke about personality disorders, FMC throws something at the mmc out of anger, general manhandling, a joke about STDs, a lot of flirty waitresses, mention of dope, underage sex (mmc was 16 when an adult woman has him touch/kiss her breasts and touches his penis causing him to ejaculate - described on page), use of painful compliance with animals (shocks, bill hooks), light switch power play, honour bondage, birth control confusion, use of gypsy/hooker, mentions of assassination (including children) in Russian Revolution, animal attack, Firearms,a very little bit of doctor/medical play (more as a joke than a kink), pregnancy, a side character kicks a chair out from under his teenager and drags her by her arm (while angry), slut shaming of side character by side character, semi-public royalty role play, slave/tsar/tsarina role play, mmc demands FMC terminate a pregnancy, negative talk about abortion, mmc accidentally injures FMC, birth control tampering (by side character, of FMC’s medication), mmc threatens fmc’s job to manipulate her, reference to mmc having sex with FMC while she is passive/reluctant (but not refusing consent), a fair bit of OW drama, mention of big cat hunting, age gap (34/26)