Customer Reviews

Kiss Me If You Can (Hqn)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Carly Phillips's books are always a fun read and this one is no exception. Coop and Lexie are fantastic characters, and I love their interactions. A bored reporter by day, novelist by night, Sam Cooper (Coop) foils a jewelry store robbery and is given a ring as a reward. Turns out this ring has a past--and Lexie Davis recognizes it as a match for her grandmother's favorite necklace. She sets out to buy it from Coop but he's already tracking its history and has found out it was reported stolen many years ago. He's not quite so willing to let it--or Lexie--out of his sight.

Coop's got some history that makes him a little wary when he finds out Lexie, a Web designer, loves to travel and hasn't set down firm roots (she lives with her grandmother). Lexie is worried about getting involved with a guy who wants to change her and prevent her from globe-trotting like she loves to do.

Besides the fast-paced banter, I really enjoyed the mystery Phillips includes in this story and, in solving the mystery, how the characters come together to have their HEA (happily ever after). KISS ME IF YOU CAN is as tasty as a cold root beer float on a hot summer day!

Originally posted at: [...]

Talk about being in the right place at the right time...Sam Cooper, crime beat reporter, made his own front page story by foiling a jewelry heist. As the hero dujour, he was given a reward from the grateful jeweler's daughter, an ostentatious ring with a past and he was named the most eligible bachelor in New York City by The Bachelor Blog. What woman wouldn't want a man who looks like sex on legs, isn't afraid to do what's right and already has the ring?

Sam has a side job as a mystery/thrill writer and the more he learns about the ring the more his creative juices flow to get to the bottom of a cold case file. Enter Lexie Davis, world traveler and web designer extraordinaire. Lexie too has an interest in the history of the ring but on a more familial level.

The attraction is almost instant and the chemistry is hot! One of the aspects of this novel that really appealed to me was that Sam and Lexie both acknowledge that they feel the attraction and don't allow personal pride to get in the way of exploring what might be there. As with all great love stories there are difficulties and past relationship issues that complicate the budding relationship. Both Lexie and Coop seem to actually want to make things work. So many times I've read books where the main characters spend more time fighting to deny their attraction rather than working towards their HEA. This was refreshing.

Ms. Phillips has an excellent writing style that is easy to read and a story that is easy to follow. Kiss Me If You Can flows at a steady pace without leaving out pivotal plot building information. The book is lengthy but the character development, including the secondary characters, is necessary and not just page filler.

Ms. Phillips also does something towards the end of the book that I always like to see in a good read, she leaves a strategically placed opening for the next installment. This reviewer, for one, will be looking forward to it.

In Manhattan Sam "Coop" Cooper always reports the crimes news not stars in the story. That is until he stops for lunch at a dirty dog stand in Midtown while he works a story on apartment burglaries in the Upper West Side. He notices something odd in nearby Vintage Jewelers and knocked out a thief using a hot dog medal lid cover.

Watching the store along with her teenage daughter for her dad who is in Florida, grateful Anna Burnett forces Coop to take a ring as a thank you. TV news catches the aftermath of the heroics and soon the city votes him most eligible male on The Bachelor Blogs. Lexie Davis sees the ring on the news and realizes it matches a necklace that her grandma wears. She meets Coop who thinks she is another bimbo to disturb him, but she wants the ring not him. They soon pair up investigating the history of the matching jewelry starting with a cold case 1950s theft that seems to implicate granny even as they fall in love

This is a terrific romantic comedy starring two likable individuals, the Big Apple and Granny the maybe jewel thief. The story line is fast-paced as Carly Phillips paints a fun tale winking at the enthralled audience with this madcap novel. Fans should set aside time as once you begin this Manhattan maniacal mayhem you will need to finish it in one delightful sitting.

Harriet Klausner

All of New York City is in love with the Bachelor Blog. All except the newest bachelor, that is. When crime beat reporter Sam "Coop" Cooper foils a jewelry store heist and is rewarded with an antique ring, he becomes the most eligible bachelor in New York. Women are throwing themselves at him right and left, but Sam's more interested in the history of the ring he received. As both a crime reporter and a budding novelist, Sam is intrigued to discover that the ring was an item stolen in a cold case robbery from the 1950s. But research collides with romance when he meets the nomadic web designer Lexie Davis.

Lexie's not interested in Coop's fame, but she is interested in the ring, as she wants to buy it for her grandmother's birthday. Coop himself fascinates Lexie as well, and as the pair dive into the mystery surrounding the long-ago heist, desire turns things personal. Secrets from Lexie's family's past arise and Coop's own fears come back to haunt him. Can the pair move past their personal demons in time to solve a decades-old case and get their own shot at happily ever after?

A crime reporter hero, a free-spirited heroine, and a jewel heist are all elements to a story that will make me sit up and take notice. Kiss Me If You Can is an enjoyable romp with a dash of intrigue to spice things up. Both Coop and Lexie are likeable characters, though they didn't come to life on the page as much as I had hoped. The mystery is what kept me involved in the story more than anything else, and I delighted in watching it play out.

I like Carly Phillips's take on the most eligible bachelor concept and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. The teaser at the end of Kiss Me If You Can strongly hints at who the next bachelor in the limelight will be and I'm hoping against hope that my personal favorite character in Kiss Me If You Can (Coop's best friend Sara) is the heroine. All in all, Kiss Me If You Can is sure to delight fans of Ms. Phillips and I eagerly await the next Bachelor book

Shayna
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Kiss Me If You Can (Hqn) was a major disappointment. Not a mystery: the puzzle in the plot was so simple it could be explained in a few dozen words, and was predictable. Not a romance: little besides hormones driving this "relationship". Not a thriller: the author wasn't able to involve the reader in the little moments of danger she created. Not a people-watcher's story: characters were very thin. There was barely enough interest to get me more or less through to the end. Not a satisfying resolution: credibility of the main characters' personal changes was low. I was just involved enough to want to know how it turned out, but, in retrospect, would have been just as well off if I had quit at 30% or skipped it completely.

review
"Kiss me if you can" is an awesome romance full of great characters, fun and love that makes me excited for more.

When crime reporter Sam Cooper (Coop) foils a robbery he has no idea that this single event will change his life completly. Because of his actions the media declares him New York's most eligible bachelor and women begin to follow him everywhere.
But that's just the start. Because of the ring he got as a thank you for spoiling the robbery Coop meets Lexie Davis who is so much more than just another groupie. She doesn't care about the whole most eligible bachelor thing. She wants to buy the ring as a present for her beloved grandma who owns a necklace in a similar style.
Coop and Lexie feel the attraction between them from the first moment and both are eager to get to know each other better. When Coop discovers that the ring is stolen property things get complicated. He and Lexie agree to work together and find out more about the ring and it's history. Neither of them is prepared for what they discover and how it's going to affect their feelings and growing attraction.

"Kiss me if you can" is another great book by Carly Phillips. It's easy to read and also very entertaining. Whenever I had to pause reading I had no trouble at all to get back into the story.
Lexie is a great heroine. She's very honest, caring, witty and free-spirited. I enjoyed that she is passionate about her work, travelling and the people she cares about.
Coop is also great. He is more grounded than Lexie and I love how he handles being criticised by her.
He and Lexie are a fantastic pair and it's nice that they talked about their issues and didn't act like idiots when they had a disagreement. It may sound a bit cheesy but I think that they really complemented each other perfectly.
There are many funny scenes between them but also some that are very hot and that's another aspect of the book I enjoyed. Coop and Lexie appear to be real persons instead of just book characters and that's why the story never falters and was always a joy to read.
The mystery is a light one and it's soon pretty clear who stole the ring. However the mystery is an important part of the book because it helps Lexie and Coop to solve their problems.

cover
The cover is fun to look at but the woman on it feels wrong because she is totally different from Lexie who for example wears glasses and isn't very girlie. But that's really the only thing I didn't like when it comes to this book

final appraisal
I really enjoyed reading "Kiss me if you can" because of the main characters and their interactions. Both hero and heroine felt like real people to me and I just loved reading about them. The story is fun and sexy - just how I like my happy books. I'm already excited to read "Love me if you dare", the second book in the series.


Most Eligible Bachelor series
1. Kiss me if you can, published July 27, 2010
2. Love me if you dare, published August 31, 2010

Sam "Coop" Cooper is the crime beat reporter for NY newspaper, but he's on the other side of the story when he foils a jewelry store robbery in progress and gains fame as New York City's newest most eligible bachelor as a result. Rewarded for his efforts with his choice of jewelry, he quickly pockets a gaudy ring with embarrassment for all the attention, just hoping the ring is invaluable enough to not be missed too much.

Footloose and travel-ready Lexie Davis is in NYC for her grandmother's eightieth birthday before jetting off on another of her many travel jaunts around the world. A childhood heavy with stiffling parents and heavier responsibility turned her into a wanderlust free spirit, a quick-to-leave, never-to-commit type, and her job as a web designer suits her wandering ways just fine. When she catches the news coverage of Coop's crime stop, and sees that the ring he chose so closely matches a beloved necklace of her grandmother's, she sets herself on obtaining the ring from Coop for her grandmother's birthday present. Getting past the scads of desperate females that a bachelor blog in the paper has set upon the man, however, makes her quest particularly difficult.

Once she's got her target in sight - and what a sexy, roguish sight it is - the attraction between them is instantaneous and powerful. The only problem...he's a man of home, hearth, and routine and she's a woman of travel and adventure. Those sorts of problems may just be insurmountable.

Kiss Me If You Can is supposed to be, I think, a relatively light contemporary romance with a bit of mystery and relationship angst thrown in, but unfortunately, it didn't work for me on a lot of different levels. The premise for the characters meeting seemed a bit of a stretch, and the bit about desperate women clamoring for eligible bachelors, sending undies and all other assortment of unmentionables was disturbing - and as a reasonably sane (I think) single woman, a little offensive. It did little but muddy the plot waters with sad detritus and debris. The mystery wasn't all that mysterious, and the two lead characters came together and acted on their mutual attraction a little too quickly and with too little relationship and character development for my tastes.

Be that as it may, that isn't really what sank this book for me, and there were positives to add SOME balance. I liked the secondary characters of Charlotte and Sylvia quite a bit and found their personalities added some color to the story. I think some of the family drama between Coop and his father and brother, as well as between Lexie and her parents, was good conceptually, and the impact of those relationships was well represented in Coop's and Lexie's characters. The problem for me was that neither situation really made either character sympathetic. I know it's probably a character flaw of mine, but I don't find two successful, good looking, financially secure adults who are obviously still affected by childhoods with families that were far from abusive all that likable when they start moaning about how bad they had it growing up, or how their families don't really understand them, or how those families are responsible for their various peccadilloes now. It didn't work for me, and especially in Lexie's case, didn't endear me to them.

And about Lexie - I couldn't understand AT ALL the serious soul searching necessary when facts about her grandmother's youth came to light. Again, her entire sense of self was far too heavily predicated on the influences of family, and for me, that robbed her of her independence and individuality as a character.

Still, though, that isn't what really sank the book for me, though it would have relegated it to a three star rating, because altogether, the issues I had with the story and characters weren't enough to dislike the book, just weren't enough to like it either. What truly sank it was the ending. Out of the blue a not-too-mysterious mystery and light romance peppered with quirky characters and a couple of leads who weren't all that compelling but not too offensive, either, took a sudden and bizarre dark turn (details withheld to prevent spoilers) with lives being threatened and weapons brandished. That sudden turn came out of nowhere, with nothing to allude to it and very little, if anything, to foreshadow it. It did, however, allow for a couple of characters to reach their epiphanies about their relationship. Which didn't surprise me at all, but sure did disappoint me, because it made the entire end of the book seem contrived and the culmination of the relationship between the leads ultimately cliche.

It's a shame, really, because I was very much in the mood for a light romance with quirky, likable characters. I didn't need much plot, really, not after the last few books I've read. I was easy pickin's as a reader when I started Kiss Me If You Can, and would have enjoyed just about anything. Except this.

Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

I was so disappointed in this book and had to force myself to finish it. The writer used so many cliches that I could often predict the very next sentence. The character's back-stories were repeated over and over, first in their own internal dialog then again as they told their stories and then rehashed them again. The main characters know each other absurdly well after having just met a few times. I did like the plot involving the robbery which saved this review from being one star.

This is the first in a new series call "Bachelor Blogs" by Carly Phillips.

Sam Cooper is the crime beat reporter for the Daily, but when he finds himself on the other end of the crime, he feels a little uncomfortable. When he foils a jewelry store heist, the owner's daughter is so grateful that she offers him a piece of vintage jewelry as a thanks. He reluctantly accepts because the local newscast was watching. When Lexie Davis sees the report and the ring that looks like a match a a necklace her grandmother has, she decides to contact him to buy the ring from him.
When Coop's paper runs a new column called "Bachelor Blogs" and names him the first bachelor, he is even more uncomfortable with his new status. When he and Lexie start looking into the history of the ring and find it was stolen in the 50s, things start to get even more interesting...

Coop and Lexie are both likable characters with a good chemistry and believable circumstances. The mystery is interesting and keeps the reader going. I enjoyed the story, but I didn't find it to be anything overly exciting. It felt like just the usual run-of-the-mill romance story. Plus, Phillips uses trite phrases that have begun to irritate me (like "her eyes danced with..." which just sounds dumb to me).

Overall, a decent read. The epilogue sets up the next story which will involve Coop's neighbor, good friend, and cop, Sara, and her ex-partner, Rafe Mancuso. It sounds like an interesting one to me.

For Phillips fans, there are references to the Hot Zone characters, specifically Yank Morgan, who is a friend to Lexie's grandmother.

*I received this book from netgalley to review*

Great book! Really enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone looking for a light fun easy read! l l l l