Kissing the CEO
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Kissing the CEO
Narrated by:
Jacob Morgan, Samantha Brentmoor
Buy Now for £14.99
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Narrated by:
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Jacob Morgan
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Samantha Brentmoor
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By:
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Layla Hagen
About this listen
The last time I saw Cade Whitley, I was the curvy, nerdy girl who tutored him in math. He was the popular boy who only saw me as a friend. Now he’s the CEO of the competition.
The second we meet again, we start pushing each other’s buttons…then end up flirting.
But that has to be a fluke, right? After all, the only things we have in common are a love for the coffee industry and affection for his matchmaking grandmother.
At least, that’s what I think.
In high school, I had a crush on him. And it was completely unrequited. I don’t want history repeating itself.
Then he kisses me in his office, making my head spin. This is dangerous. He could break my heart again. My boss could find out.
©2023 Layla Hagen (P)2023 Layla HagenListeners also enjoyed...
There are descriptions of character development in the novel but I didn't really find them believable. Cade is known as a "flirt" in his family. In novels of a different type he'd be described (at best) as a "player" but probably something less attractive. Though Meredith is undoubtedly a warm, attractive and lovely person, I didn't really buy the speed with which Cade made an abrupt about turn and decide that she is the woman with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life. It felt forced and unrealistic.
There are some points worthy of note. Meredith is described as a "curvy" girl and tells us that her waist has never been under 34". She talks about her cellulite but is proud of her curves, despite her mother's quiet efforts to get her to lose weight. She tells us how comfortable she is in her body and clearly states that she has no time for what she describes as "fat-shaming". Cade can't get enough of her body and loves her shapeliness.
Meredith holds down a high-powered job in a competitive industry and earns enough to support herself and also to help her parents with their rent. She regularly buys treats for her family and also for herself. Though she's not profligate, she takes her sister off for a spa weekend and she loves to buy new clothes. Despite Cade’s wealth, he doesn't try to shower her with expensive gifts and she's reluctant to even make use of the driver Cade’s brother Jake keeps on standby.
There are touches of wit and romantic comedy in here too. Early in the story, Meredith tells her sister that Cade has a "bad attack of know-it-all-itis". At another point, Cade turns up late at Meredith's apartment building and announces his presence through the classic device of throwing stones at her 2nd floor window. Early one morning Cade is woken by Meredith nearly falling off the sofa where they've fallen asleep together. It's gentle humour, not a romp but it adds to what's beginning to feel like a folksy small town romance, rather than one set in one of the country's biggest cities.
However, there are some points which have begun to grate on me in this series. Though we do need to get to know the family and its backstory, I don't think repetition to the degree with which it happens is necessary. If it happens between books, that's understandable and means each can be listened to as a standalone. The fact that it happens within a book irks me. Cade regularly tells us why the family are protective of his grandparents; why he and his 4 full brothers don't have a great relationship with the 3 half-brothers; what their father did to bring shame upon the family and wreak havoc with the family's business interests; how impossible it is to get Colton out of his lab; how he, himself, went off the rails at school or how he conducts himself in business or personal relationships. It's unnecessarily repetitive and grated on me. There are editorial errors which have begun to be noticeable too. The half-brothers' mother is called Nancy in this book but by the time we get to Nick and Alison's story in book 7, she's called Helen. This won't be noticeable if you listen to just one tale but will be if you want to listen to them all.
The narration is reasonable but not as good as it gets in the later stories (I listened to books 6 and 7 first). Mr Morgan uses a rather less measured tone for Cade than he did for Jake in book 1. That's appropriate, given the very different characters of the two men. However, there are still points when it sounds as though he's reading a list, rather than being fully engaged in the action. I put that down to his regular use of a rising cadence at the end of a phrase or sentence. It's not marked but it's there. Ms Brentmoor sounds warm and lovely, bright and bubbly - entirely appropriate for Meredith. However, there's not much in the way of sultry passion at points when I'd expect to hear it.
Overall, this was probably another 2.5 star book for me. Of the 4 I've listened to so far, 6 and 7 have stood out as the best. The books signal clearly whose story will come next so I'm off to listen to Cade's twin, Spencer, tell us how come his baby Ben has been dropped on him by the mum when Spencer wasn't even aware that he'd become a daddy!
Warm café au lait rather than steamin' hot double espresso.
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