Deadly Kisses blog tour: review & giveaway

It is Friday and we are one of today's stops on the Deadly Kisses blog tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. We have our review and there's a tour wide giveaway to enter. 

Deadly Kisses by Kerri Cuevas

Publication: March 5th 2013

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Purchase: Amazon | WiDo Publishing 

Aiden Grant has a killer kiss. Literally. And it’s not every reaper who gets to work with the Sixteenth President. Sure, Honest Abe likes to throw out history lessons with reaping assignments, but when you’re favored by the ancients, grim reaper life is pretty sweet for a newly dead seventeen-year-old.

Then things get messy.

Aiden is assigned to reap the soul of Bee, the only girl he has ever loved. When Aiden’s kiss of death fails, intertwining their souls, she is still very much alive and they are both in trouble. The ancients want Bee, who has special powers of her own, and they’ll do anything to get her.

Some rules are meant to be broken, even if that means Aiden must bargain with his own soul to save Bee. Who knew the afterlife could get so complicated?

About the author:

Kerri Cuevas

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter 

Kerri Cuevas was born and raised in Rhode Island. She moved to New Hampshire with her husband, three kids, cats and a rabbit named Hercules in 2005. When she's not writing, she's chasing chickens on her small farm or searching for the ultimate mac-a-cheese recipe.

Kerri went to college for Early Childhood Education but now writes books for young adults full-time. Her storytelling stems from watching too many horror flicks as a teen, but she no longer needs to sleep with the lights on.

Within a six-month long stretch I have read a handful of books featuring reapers. Most have made their versions humorous and light. Deadly Kisses is the second reaper book featuring a male chracter's pov which is always a welcomed change. Aiden Grant is a good guy with a strong voice. He reaps by kissing the person he is there to claim and sucks their soul out. Though some of the 'reaper-ology' was similar to that of other tales, author Kerri Cuevas added this 'deathly kiss' and then increased the tension by adding a touching conflict for Aiden to make her novel stand out. When Aiden goes to claim the life of Bree, the girl he loves, his kiss fails.

Hmm, what's a reaper to do when he can't reap? Aiden's boss is none other than President Abraham Lincoln and believe me when I say I did I a double take when I saw his name. I wasn't thrilled to see this choice in boss but it wasn't a reason to stop reading the book. I liked Aiden and enjoyed watching his dilemma with Bree. She's instantly likable with her feisty self. When her reaction to Aiden is one of dislike I applauded the author for giving us a different take with this couple. No insta-love here, thank goodness.

The author has a nice style of writing and I connected quickly with her two main characters. There were occasions when the dialogue sounded unrealistic and the pacing slowed but Aiden's strong narrating really kept me invested in his story. Having a guy tell the story only enriched my enjoyment by learning from his insightful perspective. He definitely had his hands full dealing with Bree, with the other reapers who wanted her while trying to figure out why the Ancients wanted her. Besides all of this, he's dealing with being good at his job but still having regret over the life he lived. Could he work out his problems, solve the mysteries and get the girl too? 

I'm not telling! What I will instead is recommend Deadly Kisses to readers who enjoy paranormal stories. I'm making room on my list of likable supernatural characters and reapers are joining this group now grabbing a spot right there along with vampires, werewolves and the fey. 

Rating: 3.5

Cover comment:

I understand that more females read paranormal than males and yet this cover choice makes me wonder why Bree was featured by herself? I would have loved to have seen Aiden    somewhere on the cover.

Book source:

I received a promotional copy in return for my honest review. 

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