E-galley Review: The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton
Published by Berkley on April 4, 2024
Genres: Adult Contemporary Romance
Pages: 336
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating:
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Blurb:

A struggling event planner and a sinfully hot astronaut must decide if their fake relationship is worth a shot at happily-ever-after, in this starry debut.

Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie’s favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.

Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent’s doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.

What Amerie doesn’t plan for is Vincent’s gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he’s exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she’ll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.

My Review

This book was definitely a sweet romantic/fake dating story for me. The characters were good, the storyline was what you’d expect too. One thing that might have made it even better would be getting Vincent’s POV as well. As it was though, the author did a great job of not making him someone that was unlikable at any point, at least not for me. It was obvious he was interested in her from the start, even if as Amerie noticed those things, but just pushed it aside that it couldn’t be real.

Another thing about the characters that I really liked is that they were a little more established than sometimes you see in a romance. Amerie had a pretty big career that kind of fell apart after some family issues made her miss an event and caused it to not go perfectly. Vincent had been successful in more than one career, leading up to his current one as an astronaut. The one maybe unlikable thing about him could have been the mansplaining he did at times. Amerie was totally annoyed by it, and I kind of wish maybe she’d called him out on it more? But then I also see that it could be considered part of what made Vincent who he was? And really his mansplaining was kind of like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, because it was often very scientific or technical things that no one really knew usually. But they weren’t always things anyone would have cared about.

And wow with his mother! I get how she was upset and worried about her son being an astronaut. And I understand it had to do with what had happened to his brother. But the whole giving him her ring for him to propose? That was sooooooooo crazy and out there! And I still can’t believe the way Amerie took that bit. But it all worked out in the end, and I feel the author made sure the majority of the ways people reacted made sense and was realistic.

A sweet fun read for sure!