Book Review, Romance Review

Review: A Kiss For A Kiss by Helena Hunting

A Kiss For A Kiss – Helena Hunting
All In series book 4

I’m Jake Masterson, single dad, and the General Manager of Seattle’s NHL team. I walked away from a career as a player so I could raise my daughter. For the last twenty-plus years, Queenie has been my main priority, but now she’s getting married.

And there’s a small complication.

A beautiful, sexy complication named Hanna.

She’s my son-in-law’s older sister. Or at least that’s how they were raised. The truth is a little more scandalous than that.

I’ve been drawn to her from the moment I laid eyes on her. And I spent months trying to keep a lid on that attraction.

Until we finally give in.

It starts with one searing kiss, but quickly ends with us between the sheets—and in the shower, and the hot tub, you get the picture—and turns into months of sneaking around.

Here’s the problem: we live on opposite ends of the country. It can’t be anything but casual. And as I’ve already said…it’s complicated.

But when Hanna finds out she’s pregnant . . . suddenly things get real serious.


This is a great story for so many reasons. I wasn’t that invested in Jake and Hanna before now but their story changed that but there was a lot more going on here than just Jake and Hanna. It’s almost an extended epilogue for the other characters from this series because we get more Alex than usual and a little bit of everyone. We see a lot of Ryan and Queenie as newlyweds, learn that Rook and Lainey now have a second child and a baby on the way, and even get some Stevie and Bishop, which I love. Shippy is great as always and this book left me wanting more. Hunting needs to give us a new book for when those two have kids because Bishop as a dad would be hilarious. The goodness continued with an actual epilogue about four years later which I adore, because I want to know what everyone’s doing in the future.

Jake and Hanna had an immediate spark and they tried to ignore it at first but that became impossible as they spent more time together. They started hooking up at Queenie and Ryan’s engagement party but managed to keep it a secret and ultimately broke it off after the wedding. They were starting to develop feelings and neither one knew what to do about it because there are very complicated family dynamics here. Jake is Queenie’s dad, Ryan’s father-in-law and Ryan’s boss. Hanna is Ryan’s mom, although he was raised with her as a sibling and just recently learned the truth. These two are smitten but the situation is just too uncomfortable for them so they end things.

Their steamy fling should be a secret memory confronted with a shocking consequence a few months later: Hanna is pregnant. This is a tricky situation because of the interpersonal relationships but that’s the least of their problems now. Hanna didn’t think she could conceive any longer to say the pregnancy is a surprise would be an understatement, but it’s not just the shock. This is a high-risk pregnancy because she’s had a previous miscarriage and because Hanna’s forty-six years old.

She’s well-established in her career and on the verge of a promotion, loving her life so this baby is immediately turning her world upside-down. Jake sacrificed a career as an NHL player to raise Queenie as a young single dad and the same day she marries, he creates a new life. He has no idea what that means for him, but he knows it’s a game-changer. His career and life are in Seattle while Hanna is thousands of miles away in Tennessee. Hanna knows she wants this baby. She was robbed of the ability to be a real mother to Ryan and lost her next pregnancy so she’d given up hope of ever being a mom, until now. The initial focus is on the viability of the pregnancy and the health of both mom and baby, but once they get a mostly-clear on those counts, these two have a lot of decisions to make.

Hanna and Jake are great together. They fit seamlessly into each other’s lives and seem to be exactly what the other needs. One of them will have to sacrifice if they want to be a family and Hanna has some issues to work through with her own family but they handle things well. The tension and suspense comes from the shocks and risks so there’s no typical conflict, which was a relief. I was braced for a falling out or silly miscommunication to complicate things but that’s not what happened. The reality of their situation was enough stress to power the story since they’re both such likeable characters. This is a sweet story about family and love of all kinds.

All of the books in the series can stand alone or be read as a series but I encourage any interested readers to start at the beginning.

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