Customer Reviews

Kiss at Your Own Risk

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Read this book if you crave something different, crazy, amazing, funny and totally not your average stereotypical romance. Kiss at Your Own Risk simply blew my mind with its off the wall humor, bizarre and astounding world building and a pace that kept me goggle-eyed.

With this story, Ms. Rowe has fried my neurons because I have no clue how she kept such an intricate, diabolical and convoluted story thread from exploding into chaos. Where do I even start?

Trinity, the heroine, is the most likely place to start. Her life is complicated. I mean totally and completely off the scale complicated. The poor woman can't ever hope to have a normal married life because something happened to her when she was a baby that changed the course of her life. And oh, didn't I get a big shocker about that later in the book. Just wait until readers get a load of that revelation. In the meantime I got to meet Trinity's friend, Reina. She's a friend only a black widow could have and love. That kind of friendship was a stroke of genius on Ms. Rowe's part because it in itself is tricky. It's all in who you know and Trinity is surrounded by some really freaky characters that will a delight a reader who appreciates a vivid imagination. This author delivers that in spades.

Trinity has some well documented conflicts that absolutely keep a reader interested. How in the world can she possibly ever have a happily ever after if every guy meets his demise? Sure puts a damper on her love life and yet, Ms. Rowe found the answer. It's unconventional, a bit morbid and totally perfect for this story. It's so twisted, it's funny.

Blaine is one hot hunk of a guy. Until I read the book through, I didn't realize how true that dishy adjective would be. He's also been tortured in inventive, creative and truly demented ways and yet his mind and strength of character and will has survived. He also does a mean cross-stitch. Sounds funny doesn't it? He's this big macho warrior with skills the military would envy and yet he has these moments where he says things out loud that simply mortified him. Of course, that had me laughing out loud and snickering because the dichotomy was simply genius. Blaine is also tortured from within with issues of trust and abandonment. In fact there's a heartfelt revelation with a righteous dark turn that has the last shattered shard of his heart healing which helped make the happily ever after that much more poignant. Blaine is complicated too. And a reader can see that the torture after all those years did break him in a way, but it remade him too and that added incredible depth to his character. It also added some very interesting talents far beyond the powers of mortal men. Go Blaine!

As for villains, there is more than one. The guy who smelled like bananas grossed me out. And here's the thing that threw me. Ms. Rowe tells the story from three people's point of view - Blaine's, Trinity's and the villainous treacherous witch, Angelica. Here's where I really got bowled over. At first I did what the author intended - I disliked the evil witch who has done some really bad things to Blaine and his buddies. Then the author pulled the rug out from under me and actually had me liking Angelica in a really macabre moment of genius mind play. How in the world can I possibly feel sympathy for a character that is totally without mercy? And yet I did, but by the same token I wanted her dead. How weird is that? Honestly, I never knew which way this book was going to go and it kept me on my toes trying to second guess the author. I never succeeded.

The happily ever after is unique to this story and it works for both Blaine and Trinity. It's romantic, happy, and true to the characters and very well done.

Kiss at Your Own Risk is hands-down the most highly energetic romance adventure I've ever read with twists and turns a roller coaster would envy. Did I forget to mention the dangerous Schnoodles? I had to re-read that twice when I first came upon it and even after reading this book I still dissolve into horrified giggles. Truly, where in the world did Ms. Rowe come up with such fiendish delights? I have to give this story a Best Book because the sheer scope of the world building, creative characters and the fact that I really do want to read about Blaine's three companions has me thinking beyond this one tale. Whoever's story the author comes out with next, Nigel, or Jarvis or poor Christian, will be an auto-buy for me. It has to be. If the quality of writing is as good as what's in Kiss at Your Own Risk then it will be money well spent. I am a very satisfied reader. Thank you, Ms. Rowe for a reading experience that truly was extraordinary.

Originally posted at The Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

Devilishly divine. Kiss At Your Own Risk is brilliantly fun, fast-paced and delightful.

Stephanie Rowe is to paranormal what Janet Evanovich is to mystery; laugh-out-loud fun and a non-stop tilt-a-whirl ride of excitement. I cannot express how much enjoyment Kiss At Your Own Risk brought to me. I literally found myself laughing out loud in the nice quiet library, while I read. Yes, for me, it was that humorous. I do have to admit that when I began reading the first few pages, I was thinking to myself "What in the world is this?!" The idea of men obsessed with cross-stitching and all things girly was a bit out there, even for me. However, once I read a bit further, I had no doubts that I was going to love this book. So, be warned, the very beginning may make you step back, but hold on, it is awesome.

Men, sex slaves, torture, the goal to make every one of the male species perfect and worthy of a woman. Yes, that is the goal of Angelica (the wicked witch, if you will). This is what Blaine Underhill and his friends have had to endure for the past century and a half. After coming together with a plan to escape, they finally find themselves free from the torture chamber of hell. However one thing went terribly wrong, Blaine's best friend did not make it out and is still left enslaved by the diva witch of all things unholy. Blaine will stop at nothing until he is able to rescue his friend and set him free.

Trinity Harpswell has had to live with a curse her entire life - if she falls in love, she has to kill the man she loves. Not such a great thing for a long term relationship. Trinity is a Black Widow and will remain so permanently after her fifth kill. However, she has managed not to kill a man for three years and if she can hang on another week, the curse will be broken and she will be free. Little did she know that final week would test every one her skills in resistance.

When Blaine realizes the the only way to kill Angelica is with the use of a Black Widow, he goes in search of Trinity. Trinity, however has problems of her own - her father has been turned into pink dust and will die if she doesn't kill the Smut Monster. However, if she kills Smutty, her soul will be lost forever. This doesn't stop her, however, and she will do anything to save her father.

Needless to say, Blaine and Trinity strike up a bargain - and what a bargain it is. These two characters are fiery, feisty and combustible. I have to say that I think they are one of my favorite character couples. Blaine is hot - literary and figuratively. Trinity is saucy and a spitfire - though very human in terms of insecurities and worries (she reminds me a lot of Stephanie Plum in the Evanovich series). The secondary characters are also great - Reina, Trinity's best friend, is delightful and it would be great to see her with a story of her own.

Overflowing with dark underworldly fun, Kiss At Your Own Risk is a book that I highly recommend to readers who enjoy paranormal and just want to lose themselves in laughter, a bit of romance and a whole lot of fun. Excellent writing and storytelling, great character development; Stephanie Rowe is an author I can't wait to read more of!

Let me start by saying I have read a lot of paranormal romance. With this book I felt like the writing was all over the place and the plot was just plain stupid. One of the other reviews said the plot was so stupid it works....That should be your first sign. The story line is strange in too many ways to list and the writing is subpar. This is one paranormal romance I wish I would have skipped and I am glad it was free.

**slight spoilers** don't read after the second paragraph!

I was devastated when the Immortality series ended, but I know all good things come to an end. Luckily for me, Stephanie Rowe has returned to her hilarious paranormal tales to keep me happy. Yes, I feel that she writes just for me! So just leave me in my delusions and keep bringing me more books by Ms. Rowe. Her stories are filled with slapstick humor and witty dialogue. Oh, and the guys are usually hot. There are four hot guys (not counting Death), so I demand one book for each hot guy. And well, if she throws in one about Death, I wouldn't argue.

I could write pages about the plot and characters, but I am going to concentrate on the evil minions. Yes, dogs! How can I not love evil Snoodles that morph into Snoodledemgons which are a combination of a schnauzer, poodle, dragon and demon that fly and have scales? Although, these little demons only play a minor role, they made me laugh with their antics.

Trinity has a terrible curse that forces her to kill her true love and in her haste to find a cure (she only has a week to keep from killing again or it is permanent) she tries to hide out at Death's McMansion. Her best friend, Reina works for Death and still tries to help Trin work this Black Widow curse out of her system. So when the guys (warriors developed by death's evil grandmother, Angelica) locate Trin to help them kill Angelica, it all goes south. Lots of wackiness and paranormal activity ensues and of course Trin ends up with the love of her life -- possibly unable to kill this one.

Kiss at You Own Risk by Stephanie Rowe

Paranormal Romance -Jan. 1st, 2011

4 stars

Stephanie Rowe has created another crazy and wild paranormal romance. Readers who enjoy Katie MacAlister and Kerrelyn Sparks will find her this book entertaining. Even the villains are funny and sympathetic if somewhat corny.

Trinity was cursed when she was young. She is a black widow and knows how to kill anything. The problem is when she falls in love, the man of her dreams dies. In her case, love does kill. But she can break the curse if she doesn't kill anyone for 5 years. And this is the last week before the 5 years is up! Then she will be able to love and have a normal life again.

Meanwhile, Blaine and the rest of his buddies are staging a break out. He and his friends were all sold when they were young to a villain named Angelica. Angelica hates all men after her husband left her for younger women. She is determined to 'make' men good guys. But her treatments are tortuous for the men who she has been teaching and many have died under her `tutoring.' All they want to do is escape and kill her. They realize the only way to kill her is to find a black widow that can kill Angelica.

This is a crazy story because so much is going on that reader will have to pay attention. Trinity is trying not to kill and break free of the curse. But her father is kidnapped and the only way to get him back is for her to kill and then lose her soul. Now a handsome man named Blaine wants her to kill for him, too. Blaine makes a deal with Trinity. He will help save her father if she helps him kill Angelica. But time is against them and everyone seems after them. Can Trinity save her soul, find love and live a normal life?

As mentioned earlier, this book is a whirlwind of action. Sometimes I found it hard to keep up with all the twists. There are some very funny moments, and I actually found myself very sympathetic towards the villain, Angelica, especially when her husband comes back! Blaine and his crew of men are super sexy, and I wanted them to be free from Angelica's grasp. The interesting part of this story is the complicated relationship between the characters and how the author twists the plot so you really don't know what is going to happen next. And there is so much plot that the 2 main characters doesn't really meet for a large part of the book. The only big thing that didn't make sense to me is why Trinity does not initially try to protect herself from killing someone involuntarily when she has a week left. If it was me, I would have locked myself away for a week until the curse passed. Trinity is a mass of contradictions which make for interesting reading, but sometimes made it hard to enjoy her character. There are several areas in the plot which take a big leap of faith and believability but the storyline is memorable and outrageous.

The funny, comedic characters make for a crazy and super zany story that you just have to keep up with!

Reviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

My rating is more like a 4.5 for this one, I was very impressed with this book and the author. I'm a first time reader of Stephanie Rowe and I would definitely check out more of her writing after this. At the same time a big part of me has a love/hate relationship with this book. I have to give kudos to Rowe for her ability to pull out strong emotions from me throughout the book which is a great accomplishment as a writer but can be frustrating for a reader if you are just looking for a little fun escapist reading. Aside from the occasional missing word and run on sentence Rowe is a talented writer that creates multi-faceted characters and incredibly complex and intricate plotlines. Now for my two bones to pick. I go back and forth on the villain Angelica. I find it interesting and refreshing that we get inside her head and see more than a purely evil side to her. The problem I have with this, though, is you make me kind of care about her while hating her at the same time for all she's done and part of why I hate her is she is portrayed in this stereotype of the over-zealous man hating feminist. I would consider myself a feminist and I happen to love men so I get frustrated when I read this villainization of a woman that's obviously gone overboard that can easily be seen as the proto type for the "dreaded feminist", and yet she is given a fairly strong voice and humanizing qualities in the narrative making it all the more difficult when the climax hits and you know something's got to give. I have to admit it's part point in Rowes favor and part against her because the fact that she's getting me to think and analyze this much is pretty great but how Angelica is written several times made me want to stop reading. Alas I persevered and I was glad I did because this story is entertaining and Rowe certainly knows how to create a storyline that stacks the deck against the main character so much so you're pretty much convinced there's no way everyone will get out alive. Part of me really kept reading just to see how everything was going to work out.

I truly did enjoy the romance aspect between Trinity and Blaine and really loved both of their characters. But as far as how crazy this plotline is, my second bone to pick would be how it ended. I don't want to give anything away but I couldn't help but feel slightly let down by how quickly everything was wrapped up. It did all make sense and work out but it just seemed slightly anti-climatic after all the action throughout the rest of the story. And maybe it was just me missing something but I felt like a few things were left unexplained or forgotten about like Trinity's curse deadline, what happened to it?

Overall it was a cute, funny, entertaining, emotional rollercoaster of an action-packed romance, and if that sounds like you're kind of party this is definitely something you should check out.

Blaine Underhill III and his three comrades, Christian, Jarvis and Nigel had all been kidnapped or sold by their parents to the evil black witch, Angelica. Try to envision if Pam Anderson and Hannibal Lecter had a daughter who had spliced in DNA of a psychotic Martha Stewart. That would be Angelica. After hundreds of years of humiliation and torture in the Den of Womanly Pursuits, they finally escape, only to have Christian dragged back by his traitorous girlfriend and protégé of Angelica, Mari. The only way to get Christian back is to kill Angelica, something they have never been able to do, but they know who can......the Black Widow. Trinity had been cursed as a child to kill any male she fell in love with. So far her total was four, and luckily they were no big losses, she always fell for the psychos. If she can stay pat until she turns 25, the curse is nullified, so simple right. Stay away from good looking, sweet, generous men. Fortunately Blaine is not sweet or kind and intends to kill her, so no problem right.

This book was so off the wall smart, sassy and funny that it completely had me fooled into thinking it was a pretty erotic read. There is some sexual content, but not nearly as much as you think there is while you're reading. Ms. Rowe does such a brilliant job with the illusion of sex, you never notice until you're done. I mean the guys are walking sacks of testosterone. They just ooze sex. Seventy five percent of the dialogue has sexual content. Angelica even teaches the arts of pleasure to her captives. Her grandson Death has a horde of Honey Pots on call for scheduled hand jobs. You would think that the story would just connect the sexual escapades, but that is indeed not the case. The fascinating characters are the case. Blaine is an expert at cross stitch and can dissect a perfume to the most minute of essences. He also has a skull and crossbones tattoo on his chest that catches fire and sets off explosions. Trinity's BFF, Reina is an apprentice to Death. The whole crew is beyond bizarre and endlessly entertaining. It's simply amazing at how all the characters wind up strangely connected, and the seemingly random twists that the story takes lead to a vastly enjoyable book. The only problem I had was the only true deaths in the book happened on the good guys side. I need a balanced score sheet, and heinous crimes call for equal or greater punishment and suffering. I would love to see a little more justice in the next book.

This may not be a 5.0 literary read but it is easily a 4.5 for sheer enjoyment! Picture Poison Ivy (from Batman) as a reluctant Black Widow, a powerful, twisted witch, and a band of mutant super hero warriors.

Trinity has been discouraging any man from getting close because if she falls in love there is this evil spider sense that pops out to kill them. When her spider sense is engaged she sees the weaknesses and the perfect way to kill her target.

When an assassin shows up to take her father into custody for execution, the powers that be make a deal with Trinity. If she kills a seemingly unstoppable serial killer, they will release her dad.

Blaine and two of his friends have finally escaped the nasty witch, Angelica. Unfortunately their fourth buddy was betrayed and has been caught. Blaine is a man of fire. He can use his body as an inferno of defense or use all sorts of fire bombs/weapons. Each of his friends have their own unique powers too. Blaine needs to use Trinity's powers to find out how to kill the witch and rescue his friend.

This might work - Trinity will go with Blaine to tell him how to kill the witch if Blaine will first go with her and kill the serial killer for her. The guys are willing to take out the serial killer if Trinity can just see how to kill him without her being the instrument of death.

It's not bad enough that they are going to face a chamaeleon monster, they are dodging ambushes as they go. Besides fighting off Angelica's nasty minions, they have to fight off the assassin who has decided to kill Trinity rather than give her father back. Then more complications arise when the guys realize that Trinity is the chosen so Angelica plans to claim Trinity's body.

Of course Blaine is busy trying to protect the beautiful Trinity even if he isn't sure he can trust her and he is sure he will have to kill her after they kill the witch. His protecting her is so sweet that Trinity starts to fall...which will louse up her plans to go curse free and add to Blaine's problems of watching his back. Needless to say it is a rollicking, crazy week and there interactions are pretty hot!

This is a very unique plot with lots of dangerous and twisted crazy characters. I will definitely be looking to read more by Ms. Rowe!

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't really like it either. With paranormal novels, as a reader you have to let go of the reality you know and trust in your author to weave a new world for you. This world, though different from the one we currently reside in, still needs to make sense for the reader to fully emerge themselves into the story and believe in the plot and the characters. The world in Kiss At Your Own Risk didn't make sense. Not at all.

I give Stephani Rowe credit for thinking creatively and coming up with some interesting characters, but the whole book was completely unbelievable and ridiculous to me. The basic plot was actually fine to me: Trinity, who is cursed as a black widow kills every man she falls in love with. If she kills five men, then she will remain a black widow forever. Four have been killed already, and she's got one week to go till the curse is up. Blaine has been a prisoner of the witch who cursed Trinity since he was four years old. When he and he two friends escape, they leave behind a fourth and Blaine vows to return and save him. Blaine finds and teams up with Trinity because he knows only she, as a black widow, will know how to kill the witch.

Basic plot line is fine and actually could have been very interesting. Except for everything else going on in this book that made it so hard to work my head around. Like Blaine, who is composed of fire apparently and shoots any color flames out of him. He can apparently fall off buildings but miraculously land fine if he creates an explosion and uses the back force to propel him in the opposite direction. Huh? And he hasn't been out in the real world since he was four years old, but he has no issues at all getting around, riding a motorcycle, interacting with people, or remembering the days when he used to drink Sam Adams. Oh, and he cross stitches and talks about rainbows, a lot.

It's not just Blaine though. Its the multitude of other characters coming in and out of this story: the witch, Trinity's parents (her mom travels through plants...), Death (oh he just happens to be the witch's grandson and somehow has made an enterprise off of being death), Napoleon (witch's ex and death's grandfather who is an assassin or something), Augustus (different assassin who turns souls to pink dust with pink dagger stars), Smutty (a shape-shifter who got all of the witch's black smut), Christian (has metal scales that are poisonous) and Mari (the witch's apprentice in love with Christian yet wouldn't let him escape). Too many ridiculous characters, and I really couldn't care about any of them. The only person I really liked was Reina, Trinity's BFF and an apprentice to Death. There was something more going on with her, but of course there were way too many things going on in this story and the author just never got into her stuff.

I think Stephanie Rowe was attempting, in some backwards way, to show that there was good and evil in everyone, and nothing is so black and white. It just did not come across well at all. It was confusing to the reader. One moment we are supposed to hate the witch for torturing these guys and the next we're supposed to feel sympathy for her because she really loves her "girls" and wants to protect them?

This book was just too odd for me. I didn't get it. And the ending? (If you don't want it spoiled, stop reading now...) Trinity gave in to her black widow because she loved Blaine and killed him with a claw that injected water into his heart, but then he was magically not dead. But he was dead... and keeps turning into a puddle? There was no explanation for all that, and us readers really could have used one.

I liked this book, It's not a keeper but I did read the whole thing.

I understand what the Author is doing with the humor, I liked it but after a few pages it gets to be a bit much, mix it up some.

The story seemed to get lost a few times and my biggest problem is trying to figure out all the characters, maybe thats the whole point?