Book Review: Toxic by Kim Karr

Title: Toxic
Author: Kim Karr
Publisher: New American Library
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Pages: 378
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance

           

Phoebe St. Claire has devoted herself to saving her family’s hotel empire—but her best efforts have not been good enough. With her whole world in turmoil, the tenacious go-getter turns to the once love of her life. Far from innocent, Jeremy McQueen was a guy from the wrong side of the tracks and her parents would never have approved. Their years apart have only made the sexy bad boy more irresistible than ever—and their reunion is explosive.

When she asks Jeremy to help her salvage her family business, he agrees immediately, with only one condition—he wants her in his bed.

But soon surprising circumstances leave Phoebe reeling. Was this fairy tale romance just too good to be true? Will Jeremy’s secrets pull them apart all over again?

I have never read a Kim Karr book before Toxic, and now I need to read her others! She is a wonderful writer. Written from the first perspective, Toxic was well written and highly engaging. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning so I could finish this book!

When I initially read the blurb for the book, I thought I knew exactly what the premise of the book would be, but I was oh so wrong. We've all see these books before, bad boy and good girl, they had a history years ago, now she's in trouble and he can help, but only if she surrenders herself to him. Yeah, no, so NOT this book. Toxic is so much better than that!

The first several chapters of this book take us from present to past, through some of the best flashback scenes that I have ever read. They were so seamless and natural. I was completely able to grasp the history that our protagonists, Phoebe and Jeremy, shared.

Phoebe and Jeremy. Wow. The chemistry between these two characters...so hot! I mean seriously, heart poundingly hot! The encounters these two had had my heart racing and my breath hitching. And I'm not talking about their sexual encounters, which by they way, were ON POINT, but I'm talking about the sexual tension between Phoebe and Jeremy. I just loved all that juicy anticipation!

I loved all the side characters in this book as well. Phoebe has a great set of friends in her life, not to mention her neighbor BB, who is EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING! BB needs her own book. Pronto.

Though I did know how this book was ultimately going to end, contemporary romance does follow a set of patterned rules, I was happily surprised to find out that I was completely wrong in who I thought the antagonist was going to be be. Twice. Two times, I just knew who the "evil villain" was, but lawdy I was way wrong. I LOVE when an author can do that to me. When you have read the sheer volume of books that I have read thus far in my lifetime, it can be hard for an author to bring something new to the plate, to surprise me. Kim Karr delivered.

The only critic I have is that the book was too long for the story. The last maybe 30 or more pages were not necessary, they were just, for me, overkill. I didn't need a happily ever after to the happily ever after.