REVIEW: Making the Match by Kristen Ashley
5 SMOOCHES!
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SYNOPSIS:
Decades ago, tennis superstar Tom Pierce and “It Girl” Mika Stowe met at a party.
Mika fell in love. Tom was already in love with his wife. As badly as Tom wanted Mika as a friend, Mika knew it would hurt too much to be attracted to this amazing man and never be able to have him.
They parted ways for what they thought would be forever, only to reconnect just once, when unspeakable tragedy darkens Mika’s life.
Years later, the impossible happens.
A time comes when they’re both unattached.
But now Tom has made a terrible mistake. A mistake so damaging to the ones he loves, he feels he’ll never be redeemed.
Mika has never forgotten how far and how fast she fell when she met him, but Tom’s transgression is holding her distant from reaching out.
There are matchmakers in their midst, however.
And when the plot has been unleashed to make that match, Tom and Mika are thrown into an international intrigue that pits them against a Goliath of the sports industry.
Now they face a massive battle at the same time they’re navigating friendship, attraction, love, family, grief, redemption, two very different lives lived on two opposite sides of a continent and a box full of kittens.
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REVIEW:
A longtime Kristen Ashley fan, a new book from her is always something I’m excited about. I’ve really enjoyed the River Rain series so far, and I’ve definitely been looking forward to Making the Match. For me, KA’s books are a magical reading experience—they’re the kinds of stories that I just completely fall into. She builds these amazing worlds, fills them with richly developed characters and pays careful attention to all the details, coming together into a truly special story. I can’t get enough of KA’s work. Whether it’s a favorite from her back catalog in my re-read rotation or a highly-anticipated new book that I’m reading for the first time, I know whatever I discover between those pages will be uniquely KA.
I loved Tom and Mika’s story. KA is known to give her readers a slew of wonderful, interesting characters, and this story features a mature couple—something I really like a whole lot. KA also doesn’t shy away from flawed characters, and the hero is definitely that. The rub for the reader is allowing this character’s story to unfold organically on the pages and deciding if he’s worth the redemption he seeks to receive. The thing about a KA romance is that they’re not always neat and tidy. Life isn’t black and white, there’s many of shades of gray in between. KA takes us through the kaleidoscope of grays in a story rich with challenges, chemistry and charismatic characters.
An engaging and layered romance, Making the Match was a complex and moving love story about betrayal, second chances, healing, redemption and finding the love you were meant to have. Heart-wrenching, hard-fought and heat filled, Making the Match was a fire storm of emotion blazing in a bonfire of difficulties and desire. I practically inhaled this story, and I’m on the edge of my seat in anticipation of the next book in the series. Five smooches from me for Making the Match by Kristen Ashley.
~Danielle Palumbo
BUY IT NOW!
