Blind Kiss

By: Renée Carlino

Narrated by: Rebekkah Ross, Sebastian York

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

From the national best-selling author of Before We Were Strangers, Swear on This Life, and Wish You Were Here comes a powerful story of two people who spend years denying their scientifically proven chemistry.

Penny spends her afternoons sitting outside a sandwich shop, surrounded by ghosts. Fourteen years ago, this shop was her childhood dance studio - and she was a dancer on the rise. Now she’s a suburban housewife, dreading the moment her son departs for MIT, leaving her with an impeccably decorated McMansion and a failing marriage. She had her chance at wild, stars-in-her-eyes happiness, but that was a lifetime ago. After The Kiss. Before The Decision.

The Kiss was soulful. Magical. Earth-shattering. And it was all for a free gift card. Asked to participate in a psych study that posed the question “can you have sexual chemistry without knowing what the other person looks like?” Penny agreed to be blindfolded, make polite conversation with a total stranger, and kiss him. She never expected The Kiss to change her life forever and introduce her to Gavin: tattooed, gorgeous, and spontaneous enough to ask her out seconds after the blindfolds came off.

For a year, they danced between friendship and romance - until Penny made The Decision that forced them to settle for friendship. Now, 14 years later, both of their lives are about to radically change - and it’s his turn to decide what will become of their once-in-a-lifetime connection.

©2018 Renée Carlino (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Loved every angst filled minute

The narrators were amazing and really brought the characters to life.
I don’t think I have read a book that frustrated me as much as this one. Talk about some angst and the connection these two characters had. This is a book you will either love or hate. This was an intense story that would make me so mad at times but I couldn’t stop reading, I had to know what happens next.

Penny and Gavin have been best friends after meeting in a study. They have an instant chemistry. Penny is a dancer with a fierce personality and only wants to focus on finishing school. Gavin is a musician and a mechanic who can make any girl swoon.

This book was so good but there were times I was ready to throw my kindle!
Renee Carlino wrote a fantastic story that takes you on a bumpy roller coaster. It days later after finishing this book and I am still shaking my head. I loved this book and I highly recommend it.

Wow!

This book really put my heart through the ringer! Just when I thought I was getting my happy ending my heart was broke! I loved it though!

confused

I’m not sure how I feel about this story. It just took so long for them to be together. It’s a great friendship or great love story and how they finally got there was so long and frankly I was losing interest.

What could have been...

Penny and Gavin met when they took part in a social/science experiment in college. In exchange for a coffee voucher they, along with several others, agreed to be blind folded to meet, talk to and kiss a stranger. That kiss would cement them from this day on. If Gavin had his way, Penny would have been in his bed that night. The chemistry between them was ridiculous, so much so that Penny knew she could easily be consumed by him so she friend zoned Gavin. She had to focus on doing well in her classes, proving to her parents and herself that she could succeed. Being involved with a guy was not a good idea right now.

Gavin most definitely wants more than friendship with Penny but he gets used to the idea and realises how amazing it is to have a best friend he can talk to about anything. He still thinks she is beautiful and would love to get naked with Penny but he also respects her enough to go along with what she wants. The dynamic between them in the beginning is really interesting, there are a few moments where things could have been different for them but they both made choices that led them down different paths.

Penny settled down into married life and motherhood, whereas Gavin remained single but had a few casual relationships but no one really special enough to commit to. Penny and Gavin knew that no matter what they could count on each other. Sometimes this caused problems for Penny in her marriage, her husband knew that Gavin was not a threat but the close friendship Penny had with him sometimes got on his nerves.

In some ways I found this story was really sad. It was obvious that Gavin and Penny had an amazing connection and could have had such a different life, had it not been for choices they made. This friendship spans over about 20 years and I feel like they sentenced themselves to lives that made them really unhappy. Gavin could never really settle for anyone else because he was in love with Penny. She seemed to be living in the ‘you made your bed so now you must lay in it’ mindset. Both of them are living with regrets of what could have been and that made me really sad for them. So many wasted years where they could have shared a life together.

You need to have patience when reading this story, it goes back and forth to the here and now, building the back story behind where they are now. The only thing that doesn’t change is the love between Gavin & Penny, it just needs a chance to shine :) I guess this would be classified as a second chance love story. Sometimes the timing just isn’t right and maybe you have to fall apart to be able to come together again…

Prepare to have your heart ripped out!

The narration for this book was wonderful- both capturing the angst and heartache of the characters to perfection.

Yet, this story really messes with your emotions- it is full of so much angst and moments where I wanted to shake some sense into the characters that it left me extremely frustrated in the end. Penny and Gavin meet after participating in a blind kiss study while in college. Sparks fly during their kiss but Penny feels with school and dance she has no time for a relationship, so she asks to be just friends, telling Gavin to date if he wants. When Gavin starts dating, Penny becomes jealous and resentful of Gavin when he doesn’t have time for her or misses important events. I feel her frustration at Gavin wholeheartedly but she told him to move on and date, yet guilt trips him when he puts his girlfriends needs first. From then on, it is back and forth with moments of hurting each other and telling false truths to protect their own feelings of love towards each other.

The book was basically a retelling of all the past wrongs they had done to each other and how they maintained a close friendship despite it all. I felt a little jilted in the end only getting the epilogue with their happily ever after, feeling so much angst and only getting a moment of happiness. The writing and storytelling was spot on but in the end I can only give this book 4 stars since it left me so frustrated up until the short epilogue.

Love Renee Carlino.

Renee Carlino is becoming one of my insta-buys. She never disappoints!! Her stories are fresh and well written. And of course there was perfect narration.

Slow through the entire book.

I read this book for book club and it is the only reason I finished it. The narrators were great but the story just did not do it for me. It was too negative with a small bit of positive at the end.

Worst Book Ever!!!!!

I can’t believe I got sucked into reading this book. And once I start a book I have to finish. Years that felt like centuries of angst is the worst kind of hell, and I felt like I was living it alongside them. So glad it’s over. Are the rest of Renee Carlino’s books like this? If so I’m staying far away.

Just, no....

Not a romance in any way. Awful and depressing...I wish I would have listened to the other reviewers.