Hey there, bookworms! Happy Tuesday. As we start another week during a continuing crazy time, I thought I’d pop on here and give you a bit of a break from the stresses reality brings on the daily.
It feels like it’s been forever since I brought you a book review and I have a handful of good ones I’ve read recently that I almost didn’t know which book to discuss tonight. It took some deliberation and back-and-forth but I’m ready to discuss my latest pick. Let’s gush over all things Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan!
The boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have…
Dig a little and you’ll find photos of me in the bathtub with Ezra Stern.
Get your mind out of the gutter. We were six months old.
Pry and one of us might confess we saved our first kiss for each other.
The most clumsy, wet, sloppy . . . spectacular thirty seconds of my adolescence.
Get into our business and you’ll see two families, closer than blood, torn apart in an instant.
Twenty years later, my “awkward duckling” best friend from childhood, the boy no one noticed, is a man no one can ignore.
Finer. Fiercer. Smarter.
Taken.
Tell me it’s wrong.
Tell me the boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have.
When we find each other again, everything stands in our way–secrets, lies, promises.
But we didn’t come this far to give up now.
And I know just the move to make if I want to make him mine.
So, I’m not sure how constructive this book review will be, and I can’t say I’ll apologize for it, but holy cow this book! I had seen friends and fellow bookstagrammers raving about it online, and I have thoroughly enjoyed Ryan’s work in the past, so I had to move this book to the top of my list and just enjoy some sultry goodness.
Kimba and Ezra, what can I say? These two have been friends since they were infants and I just enjoyed every phase of their relationship. While it’s filled with popular tropes of friends-to-lovers, it’s a slow burn that unfolds which builds the tension to insane levels.
They’ve grown together and they’ve grown apart. Life took them in different directions over the years, but once they see each other again, their old flame ignites into an inferno simmering just beneath the surface. Kimba’s life is ambitious, focused on work, leaving her personal life (and her health) on the back burner and in desperate need of TLC. Ezra is in a strange place personally with the mother of his child while he makes great strides to help out his community. Fate puts them in the same place for the first time in years, and there’s no ignoring or denying each other anymore – the temptation is too great. The past becomes a very prominent present once Ezra and Kimba are reunited.
I’m not sure it needs to be said that their chemistry is through the roof. Ezra is hot as all hell and when he has a heart of gold to back it up, I almost wanted to steal him away from Kimba. She has a sultriness about her as well and I loved how driven she was when it came to both work and play. In 2020 it’s silly to say, but we need more depictions of women who know how to get things done and do it by carving their own path and going by their own timelines and standards – not society’s.
This is one of the first 5-star reads I’ve enjoyed of 2020 so far. Better late than never. Everything about this book totally lived up the hype, as I figured it would. Again, Kennedy’s words were enchanting much as they’ve been with previous books of her I’ve read. The way she discusses characters, sets up her story, and seduces us readers into a steamy romance, leaves us smitten by time we reach The End. She does it all without being too blunt, aggressive or tawdry. As I get older, I realize that I don’t always reach for the quick and smutty romances that I used to gobble up as a guilty pleasure. I still enjoy a sexy book, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer the slow dance and the time the couple takes teasing and playing with one another. When they finally cave and come together, it makes the build-up so much more explosive and I can’t get enough.
If you haven’t done so already, please go meet Kimba and Ezra. They’re sweet, sassy, charming, and completely alluring and you’ll enjoy every single page of their modern love story.
Until next time, happy reading! xx
