Easton, Etta. The Kiss Countdown. New York: Berkley Romance, 2024.
ISBN-13: 978-0593640227 | $18.00 USD | 336 pages | Contemporary Romance
Blurb
A struggling event planner and a sinfully hot astronaut must decide if their fake relationship is worth a shot at happily-ever-after, in this starry debut.
Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie’s favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.
Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a plan: for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent’s doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.
What Amerie doesn’t plan for is Vincent’s gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he’s exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she’ll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.SEE LESS
Review
4 stars
The Kiss Countdown caught my attention due to the cover (I’m here for more Black romances!), and I didn’t know the specifics of what it was about until just before I started reading it. Going in with no expectations, I ended up really enjoying it. I liked that, while it was a fairly light romance, it also touched on tough topics, like grief, familial death, and the impact of chronic illness.
The characters are the strength of the book. Both Amerie, nicknamed Mimi, and Vincent are likable characters who each have family issues that motivate them throughout their personal arcs. While they didn’t have the best initial meeting, I liked how things developed once they got to know each other. They complement each other really well, with her being the slightly more prickly one and him being really sweet. And I really liked how their careers, especially his as an astronaut, played a role in the background. I did feel like some of the impetus for their fake dating got a little lost as things got a little too real, and I wondered why they were dragging things out. However, I enjoyed how things came together.
This was a solid debut romance, and I’m interested to read more from Etta Easton. If you’re interested in a Black contemporary romance with fake dating, I’d recommend checking this out!
Author Bio
Etta Easton is a certified hopeless romantic who now writes contemporary romance. Her stories are full of humor, relatable heroines, swoon-worthy heroes, and Black joy. She lives in Central Texas with her husband and two young kids.
Buy links
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