Kismet Paperback – November 2, 2022

We all have those books that just send us on a journey through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows; the anger, sadness and happiness. All of it. This, this is one of those books for me. Very rarely will I say a book is perfect; very rarely have I ever felt that a five out of five star rating wasn’t good enough for a book. I finished Kismet in one day. I could not put it down. I felt every single emotion from the most elated happiness to irreparable sadness, to red hot, burning lust. THIS is one of those books that a five out of five star rating is not good enough, it does NOT do this book justice. So, on that note, this book deserves ALL of the stars and all of the praise it could ever get. Kismet is absolute perfection!!We meet Cash DeMarco when he is attending college and Stone Philips so happens to be one of his professors. Cash and Stone have an almost instant attraction. There are some things that hold them back from making moves, but eventually, those feelings are just too strong and they cannot continue to hide from them. But then, things happen, Stone makes a decision and it leaves Cash absolutely broken. I felt Cash’s pain like it was my own; the way Ashley wrote these characters, you ARE going to feel what they feel. This book was like an out of body experience; you’re on the outside looking in, feeling what Stone and Cash feel, and praying they can figure it out.Flash forward and we find Cash and Stone back in each other’s lives. BUT, things are NOT the same. Ashley made these guys WORK for their happy ending; she made Stone grovel, and work through his issues; she gave Cash a strong, resilient backbone, allowing him to work through his feelings with an admirable strength. These two are absolutely my favorite of all the characters she has given us. They’re absolute heart wrenching, gut punching, beauty; I will not stop thinking about these two for a long while—I already want to reread the book.As for the spice?! I’m convinced Ashley James is in a league of her own when it comes to writing it. This book is sexy, all consuming and just downright mind numbing!! The scenes in this book had me at a loss for words; I was so flustered by the things going on across the pages, that I literally could not form words!!I could write a ten page review on this book and it would not be enough. I cannot say enough good things. I loved all the emotional turmoil, ADORED the glimpses into the lives of previous characters we’ve already met, and am so in awe of the sense of “home” that Ashley built throughout this book. Kismet IS perfection, there’s no other way to explain it!!

♥Cash & Stone♥Genre: M/M RomanceFormat: E-Book (Kindle Unlimited)Character Development: 3.9/5 • The character development of the main characters was on point. There was enough detail to understand what they were going through but not too much to overwhelm youPlot: 3.9/5 • The plot was engaging and well written. The Professor/Student trope has been done by many authors. This book did not feel recycled. It felt new and the struggles they went through were real.Writing Style: 3.9/5 • The book was well written, with no grammatical or spelling errors. The writing style was easily digestible and did not overwhelm.Spice Level: 3.5/5 • The dirty talk from Stone. OMG, so good. The spice was spicing even in their solo moments.Overall Rating: 3.9/5 • I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and everything to expect from Ashley James. Another great read!Tropes:• Professor/Student• Age Gap (10 years)• Cheating (Not between MCs)• Second Chance• Right Person/Wrong Time• HEA• Dual POV (First Person POV)♥ Favorite Quote ♥"Being with him feels right—a type of right I can’t describe—but nothing has ever felt as absolute as it feels when I’m with him. His soul sings to mine and my heart beats for him. I’ve never been able to explain the undeniable pull and connection we have, but it’s there, and this moment is proof of that."

What a ride !!! This was astonishing . Ashley James you wrote a masterpiece. Thank you for allowing us into the world of cash and stone

This is one of my favorite books ever. It is so, so good. The steamy scenes are beyond amazing, and the love story is beautiful. I felt so many emotions while reading this book. I didn't want it to ever end!

I would like to start by saying that maybe my review is based on such high expectations that were up and up and up from Goodreads.Unfortunately when one has such high expectations over a book, either you end up fascinated and reading the material 45x times or all those expectations end up inside a trash can.Why? Well…First of all I think this book could’ve used an editor, who I’m so sure could’ve reduced around 20-30% of pages.At some point the story was sinking badly, around 75% went completely downhill.-spoilers ahead-What the… I don’t even know what to say about the sex club, I didn’t expect that and was totally out of context.Interactions between mc and ml became so very repetitive and boring that I even skipped spicy scenes (and trust me, I don’t do that often) since it was over and over the same things.The nickname Bambi was creepy since it’s directly related to a children’s movie, it was so uncomfortable to read, took me out of context every time.I’m a bit sad since I thing the premise of the story was not bad, just not well executed.I couldn’t connect with Stone who is supposedly a more mature man, but acts like a restless Uni boy.The reason why Stone left Cash was interestingly build but the way stone behaved was not rational, he acted childish and selfish.I think in this case Cash was more mature (at least at the end of the book)Oh and about that…. What the…. House?… ring?…. I dunno it was strange.— end spoilers —I will never not recommend a book since there is a book for everyone and not all of us have the same interests, so I would recommend this if you like:- immature man with age gap- lots and lots of spicy scenes, few of them almost voyeuristic, with word play and so.- slow burn second chance- cheating in page (legal one)

I’ve read a few other books in this universe - I wouldn’t say series as this book could easily be read as a standalone- and I really enjoyed them. This book though. Whew. What a journey. The feelings of the MCs come through so strongly. So well written.Normally with a book with so much plot I find there isn’t as much heat - but not this one. On top of giving you a great story you get a ton of heat as these MCs can’t fight their attraction to each other.

This has been a rollicking good story from start to finish. Well written and such well developed characters, even the side characters.Cash DeMarco is a 20 year old Senior at WSU, he’s Majoring is English and his dream is to become a Professor of English and also a writer. His next step towards that goal is to graduate and become a teacher.One night while out with his friends at a club his eyes are drawn to an older guy dancing with his girlfriend/wife. He stares and whips his eyes away when the guy looks over and stares at him too. After a moment he recognises the man as Stone Phillips, one of his Professors. A while later, the dancing couple have disappeared.In order to gain some extra experience, Cash volunteers as an assistant to Teaching Staff for his final year. He would help them grade students papers and other stuff. He was very happy to hear that he was assigned to Professor Phillips in the English Department.Thus began a working relationship between a Professor and a student, which became fraught with danger when both men develop inappropriate attraction for each other.But these two just cannot stay away from each other. Sneaking out late at night to meet in field to look at the stars, attend conventions necessitating long weekend trip.Student/ Married Teacher, no no no not good. Recipe for disaster in the making.Grab a copy of Kismet and read this novel length story, you won’t regret it. There’s plenty of very steamy scenes, indoors and outside, plus an interesting storyline that will hold your interest till the end.I don’t think I’ve read anything by Ashley James before but based on this book I’ll definitely look for more of her work.

Loved every single Word of It.With a lot of tears. Happy and sad tears.Happy that this book was my last Reading of 2022.

Ashley has delivered a beautifully written story which kept me on my toes until the end.Go ahead and read it

One word For Kismet.... EPIC.... ❤❤❤❤❤❤I loved everything in this book... Writing, plot, characters. This book and the characters forever lives in my heart.... And that word "Bambi" Every time that word was used there was butterflies in my stomach and excitement in my whole body.. 😍😍I am obsessed.... ❤❤❤❤😍😍😍The Title do justice the story....because the kind of love stone and cash shares... Pure, natural unconditional & soul to soul....You can get such love only when it is in your "Kismet". Like within few chapters u can see the connection between them... The bond, that spark which is so strong like The two of them are sitting in each other's arms... Talking under the stars...simple yet beautiful... The connection and the bond they have... Deep... They love each other but didn't have any idea about it... I can see this in this particular chapter....but then the tragedy happened and they fell apart and omg that chapter was so hard to read... shit I'm not ready for that one... My heart can't take that...the angst in that chapter was too much...its feels like I'm suffocating...my chest feels heavy... I'm crying continuously. I'm a complete mess while reading that chapter....and after 5 years they met again...and things changed. Their is anger, feeling of betrayed... And guilt but there's is that connection too...and it took long time for them to coming together.... I'm glad cash didn't forgive him immediately after finding the reason...while the tragedy happened with stone is bad... And why he left is quite understandable from his part still the way he handles the situation is not justified....but at the end they got their HEA...Now if we talked about intimacy between them... Boy I feel like I'm gonna melt...normally this doesn't happen but I love all the intimate scenes in this book.The asking for Marry me scene was cheer on the top... Overall I LOVED THIS BOOK...