Stella: It is funny, but annoying is the exact same word that I was looking for to describe Tess. Tess is a feisty and sometimes too belligerent young woman, but somehow her pouting and quarrelling annoyed me. I felt her a bit too forced, too much. Maybe I just complicated things and imagined how I would like to have her as a friend in real life, and my resounding no affected my opinion of her as a character.

Anna: Exactly my thoughts Stella! Plus, the way she changed her mind over ignoring ghosts to becoming the right hand of one, just left me stunned and not in a good way. Somehow everything felt rushed in this book and Tess’s reactions towards things was certainly among them.

Stella: I completely agree with you on Tess changing her ways and even her moods quite often. It felt a bit confusing and I just tried to get my footing to see what exactly was her position at the moment regarding things. Bottom line, I couldn’t connect or identify with Tess and besides the lack of any common ground I couldn’t follow the logic of her thoughts, feelings, or even lines at times.

Anna: I couldn’t identify with her either sadly. Certainly she’s not a character I despised, but not one of my favorites either.
And Kipp falls into the same category I’m afraid.  Again, I pretty much liked him but can’t say I love him. It’s one of those characters I won’t remember for long.

Stella: Kipp was intriguing and sexy but as the story is told through Tess’ point of view my impression of him remained shallow and quite incomplete. Which is a shame, because he could have been an interesting and layered hero, despite not being flesh and blood 😉

Anna: Thank you Stella! He was incomplete. I just needed more of him, more information about him, more things to make me see him as the dreamy guy he is supposed to be. As things were, there were times I just saw him as a ghost with unfinished business who decided to have some fun while waiting to cross to the other side. He was the good guy, but I needed more to be convinced.

Stella: Exactly! Kipp often comes off as a sexy player with his nonstop innuendos, flirty winks and dirty talk. And if I didn’t know he was our hero his behaviour could have been interpreted quite differently.
When reading a romance I love seeing/reading the motivations, feelings and thoughts of the parties, which can be achieved even when the story is told in the 1st person, but here I got the impression that Tess didn’t get to know Kipp any better than we did…

Anna: Sad but true… In one more department I just needed more. More info, more development, to sum it up a little bit more of everything.

Stella: And what about the secondary characters? I thought that Caley, Tess’ best friend could have come off as a quirky and funny secondary character but she just managed to irritate me. I found her too cliché and cardboard-like.

Anna: Oh, Caley… Couldn’t like her… I really wanted to. But when she stormed into Kipp’s best friend place and as soon as she laid eyes on him, she immediately broke up with her other boyfriend on the phone, in front of him and soon after started hitting on him, I was so majorly turned off with her that I couldn’t like her at all. No matter what.

Stella: Oh Anna, I almost forgot my dislike for her stemmed from that scene! Talk about being shallow! I don’t know how such behaviour could endear her to anyone, be it the new potential boyfriend or her best friend.

Anna: Exactly! And it’s sad that I had so many problems with this book, especially if you think that it was a bit of a challenge for me. You see, it’s the first adult title I read where the romance develops between a ghost and a very living and breathing person. I started feeling intrigued by the whole thing but soon after I just felt their relationship was a bit off somehow. I don’t know, the dirty talk and masturbating did nothing to put me in a romantic mood. I mean the guy is dead, has other possibly more serious issues to deal with and he actually starts sexually harassing the only person who can help him? I don’t know, I found it unbelievable.
Plus, Tess goes from being annoyed with Kipp to fall in love with him in a blink of an eye, something that didn’t help me feel real chemistry between them.

Stella: Hm, I didn’t find that she fell in love with him too quickly, but I certainly could have taken more insight into why she did. I started reading this story with this main question in my mind: how could a satisfactory romance develop and exist between a living person and a ghost? I have to say that Stacey Kennedy got me quite immediately when describing their chemistry and lust, it felt hot:

“I opened my eyes and did my best to cover myself with my arms. ―What…‖ Then I caught sight of him and lowered my arms to my sides, incapable of speech. His jaw clenched, fists tight, muscles quivering―there stood a man grasping at the last remnants of control. But all of this was gentle compared to what lay in his eyes. A look that women swooned over and fantasies were built on. His intent, hunger and focus remained on me alone. Nothing would satiate him. No one could cure him from his desires. Only my body would ease the torment he suffered now. And it could never be, which made me wonder if doing this was cruel. It was almost as if I placed a juicy steak in front of a hungry lion, but refused to let him eat.”

but when it came to the romance part, again due to the lack of development and detail I wasn’t sold. I agree with you Anna, the hottest scene in the novel was Tess’ erotic dream when she was making out and having sex with a very corporeal Kipp, because let’s face it, even though a frosty touch can be thrilling, it can’t replace or even come close to the real thing. So when after such a scorching first love scene we had to contend ourselves with an “each to their own masturbation”, it didn’t come close to the hotness of the previous sensual scene and left me quite underwhelmed.
As to the mystery plot of the book, even when I started reading Supernaturally Kissed I knew that the main focus of the story would be on the romance, so I didn’t have big expectations regarding the mystery storyline. And I did well, because it wasn’t complicated or too hard to guess who did it.

Anna: I didn’t have any expectations myself either and although the mystery wasn’t too complicated and I may add that there were some holes, it possibly was the best department of the book for me. Don’t ask me why, but it kept me reading, despite everything having “clicked” in place quite early on.

Stella: I also noticed that about 80% of the story was told through short and clipped dialogue. Which sure made the story fast paced thanks to the repartee but due to that it lacked the necessary descriptions and details that both Anna and I sorely missed. If we could have gotten a bit more depth it would have greatly helped in making us more invested in the characters’ life and their story.

Anna: You sum it up perfectly Stella. Although Stacey’s writing was flowing easily I just had the same feeling while reading the book from the first to the last page: that everything was happening way too fast.

Stella: What I enjoyed a lot was the tongue in cheek humour of Stacey Kennedy’s writing:

“He ran a hand along his scruffy chin. I hated the urge I had to touch his face myself. I shook my head to erase these thoughts from my mind. Ghost, check. Dead, check. Off the market, double check.”

A ghost girl when talking about what she will do to her cheating ex-boyfriend:

“She glanced over her shoulder with an icy glare. I‘m going to hunt him down and haunt him.”

Anna: Actually, the humorous tone was what I really enjoyed too!
To sum it up, Stacey Kennedy did indeed find a creative way to overcome the obvious problems created by having a ghost and a living person engaging in a romance but that wasn’t enough. Dirty talk can be enough for one or two sex scenes, but the problem of touching and having Kipp and Tess behaving like a normal couple remains. I don’t know what she has in mind for her heroes in the books to come, and honestly I really want to know how they will work around their problems.

I give Supernaturally Kissed 2 stars!

Stella: As the main question: how can a living person and a ghost have a satisfactory relationship wasn’t answered in Supernaturally Kissed (it mostly told the story of Tess and Kipp’s attraction and how they become a couple), I hope Stacey Kennedy will get to show us in the following books.

All in all despite its flawed heroine and the (in my opinion) not enough developed story Supernaturally Kissed was a quick and easy read. Don’t expect an epic love story or an intriguing mystery, but if you want something light and fluff Supernaturally Kissed might just be it.

I give Supernaturally Kissed 2.5 stars!