THE KISS THIEF – L. J. SHEN

**Spoilers Ahead, Read On With Caution**

“Falling in love was so tragic. No wonder it made people so sad.” 

When I first read the blurb for THE KISS THIEF I was immediately drawn in as it sounded like it could be an epic love triangle, but knowing LJ’s writing capabilities, I knew it’d be a marvel. How right and wrong I was! It’s a total marvel for its genius in plot progression and emotion, but not at all the triangle I thought it would unfold to be. 

“We were entwined and entangled, connected with invisible strings, each of us trying to pull away, only to create more knots that made us closer.” 

Francesca Rossi is young, beautiful and very much in love with Angelo Bandini, the man she knows she will share her first kiss with, and eventually marry. This however, is not what happens. On the night of a charity masquerade in Chicago, she meets Senator Wolfe Keaton; older, tall, broody and deathly serious to a sharpened point. He secures a dance with Francesca, and discovers secrets that shouldn’t have been revealed. Wolfe uses this to his advantage as he wants to take down Francesca’s top mobster boos dad, and knows exactly what to do. He has her first kiss, and then her hand in marriage. This is where the story starts to really get wild…

“A Story of a Nemesis and a Villain with no chance at a happy ending. Where the prince doesn’t save the princess. He tortures her. And the beauty doesn’t sleep. She’s stuck. In a nightmare” 

First of all, I loved that Wolfe nicknamed Francesca Nemesis, it was an adorable, yet cutting reference to her costume of the Greek Goddess Nemesis, as she dressed as her to the masquerade ball, but also always calling her his enemy, his nemesis. Their banter, and biting comments back and forth truly made this book so enjoyable to read as it was like watching a blaze get hotter and taller, knowing it will surely combust if unattended. Francesca is underestimated by Wolfe, and so he never expects her to continuously grow her back bone and fight back. One thing I do think could have been toned down within the story was the amount of times both Wolfe and Francesca referred to one another as either: my soon to be husband/wife/bride, my fiancee, my bride, my wife, or my husband. After the first ten times of them saying it, it became incredibly repetitive, and almost like they were saying it way too many times for it to be considered authentic. 

“Betrayal, no matter by whom, cracks something deep inside you. Then you have to live with the pieces rattling in the pit of your stomach”

Like I’m sure I’ve said before, LJ is excruciatingly good at writing a vivid cast of characters in her novels. Clearly alpha males are her expertise if any of her previous male leads are anything to go by; Vicious, Dean, Jaime, Trent, Bane, Penn, Knight, Vaughn, Hunter, Troy, Célian and now Wolfe too. These men are cut throat, and not to be messed with or disrespected. The other main characters that we get a really good look at during THE KISS THIEF are Francesca’s father who’s truly an abomination of a human being and parent, and also Angelo, her first love. I really liked Angelo, I never sensed ulterior motives, or malicious intent towards his affections for Francesca. Him calling her Goddess which is such a subtle difference in names from how Wolfe calls her Nemesis, whereas Angelo simply refers to her as just Goddess, not realising who she’d dressed as that night. Being five years older than Frankie, rather than eleven like Wolfe is, it made him feel more comfortable and sweet. He was her absolute first love, and her his, they had a bond that went through all their childhood, knowing marriage was ultimately going to be their endgame, and so we easily get swept up in them, and weep when she’s suddenly ripped away and faced with her new realties with Senator Wolfe Keaton. 

“I felt his arms slowly enveloping my body as he acknowledged my surrender, opened the gates, and let my army skulk into his kingdom, wounded and famished.” 

Watching Francesca and Wolfe slowly open up both physically (that’s one hell of a scene, and the way it was all written and handled was spectacular) and emotionally. But watching how the overall plot unravelled, twisted and exploded at times, was riveting. I was so engrossed in this story I absolutely had to force myself to put it down in the last quarter of it so that I didn’t read it all in a day, and end up feeling overwhelmed and remorseful for reading it too quickly. I really wanted to be able to digest it and linger in that world for a while. 

Simply beautiful.