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Compromising Kessen (2012)

by Rachel Van Dyken(Favorite Author)
4.01 of 5 Votes: 5
ISBN
1475116233 (ISBN13: 9781475116236)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Astraea Press
series
The Vandenbrook Series
review 1: What I likedCompromising Kessen (The Vandenbrook Series, #1) delivers a comedic take on a "set-up" marriage between a very successful British business man and the American-British heiress of a sensational coffee company.Both characters are on even playing ground, if you will, in terms of both coming from money, both are very successful and trying to take over respective companies, and both have something to prove to their families before they will be able to take over the companies. That provides for a humorous get-to-know-you-period for both characters. Stirring the plot-pot you also have the British father of the American-raised Kessen who is trying to integrate her more into British culture - of which Kessen would rather not.Compromising Kessen also provides the meddli... moreng grandmother (a Van Dyken classic like that in The Bet series), many American and British stereotypes to laugh at, a strong love for coffee or tea (in this you must pick a side ;-)), and of course a very handsome Mr. Christian Vandenbrook who has a secret that he's keeping from Kessen. What more could you ask for?!What I didn't likeI fell in love with all of the characters in the beginning, and the love-hate tension between Christian and Kessen due to their respective situations within the company was great! However, as their relationship evolved I felt as though their maturity greatly waned and there was a specific event that had me yelling "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! Are we 12?!" and then skimming through the pages until that part was over. Christian and his friends immaturity especially started to drive me nuts. There are certain things that you read in a book and you're like "meh, ok. I don't really get it but whatever," and then there are other things that you read that have you screaming "WTF," because who in their right mind would do that?! I don't normally rant about a specific part of a book, but because I love Rachel so much and I was so disappointed in this I am going to. For specific details read below or skip to the end of the minor spoiler.*** Spoiler ahead ***Christian was completely unable to express any feelings towards Kessen (okay, so maybe he was shy/hesitant/thinking life through. I get it.). For whatever reason his friends decided that the best way to make him admit his feelings was to stage a kidnapping (WHAT?!). We're talking fake news crews, fake friends, fake chaos...all staged for the hell of it as a life lesson prank. The whole thing was ridiculous, embarrassing as a reader (considering these people were supposedly 25+ years old), and didn't make sense! Once you got over the initial "WTF" thoughts you start to think, okay maybe this can turn out fun. Maybe. But then it's just over and all of a sudden all is fine in the world. Both parties realized how important it was for their friends to stage a ridiculous kidnapping in order to get a guy to say "I love you". WHAT? So yeah. That pretty much ruined the ending for me.***end of spoiler***Overall, how the story played out in the end really tainted my good loving feelings from the beginning. How the characters mentally responded to those later events was not how I would have thought they would have based on their mentality up to that point. So it was a bit of a character building let down. It was a pretty good read besides that and the writing style was exceptional as always.
review 2: This was a true romance novel!!! Loved the added humor!! Duncan and Nick were hilarious. However, I found the overall innocence of the characters got old really quick. The story needed a little bit of steamy sex!!!!!Out of the four books I've read from this author, only one included sex. I'm not saying a book has to have this but at times it is appropriate. This book was one of those times. less
Reviews (see all)
Sundus
A fun quick read that had me laughing the whole way through!!!!
Karla
Holy cow! But this book was awesome!!!
lilac_kisses
modern day regency.
satish
love it
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