Roma's 10-year high school reunion is approaching fast, and she's not ready. She knows it's shallow, but she wants to set her old classmates on their ears when the boasting starts—especially the toxic Ellie, who bullied her in the old days. She has a good job but she needs the whole package if she's going to make that killer entrance, including having a toned body, a great outfit, and, most importantly, a mouthwatering guy on her arm. An eventful visit to the gym shows her that she may be able to kill two birds with one stone, as personal trainer Jake Logan turns out to be the perfect eye candy she needs. A course of hard training begins, with Roma eager to impress Jake—but what are his plans? She can't help noticing that he flirts with all his female clients. There's one particular client who could ruin all Roma's plans—and she's getting far too close to Roma's quarry.
When taking the Myers-Briggs personality test in high school, Kimberly was rated as an INFJ (Introverted-Intuitive-Feeling-Judging). This result sent her into a panic, because there were no career paths recommended for the type. Fortunately, it turned out to be well-suited to a writing career. Since receiving that dismal outlook, Kimberly has become an award-winning author of romance and erotica. She has written for seven publishing houses, both domestic and international, and has recently focused her efforts on the exciting world of self-publishing. When not writing, she enjoys movies, sports, traveling, music, and sunshine. In her mind, a beach, some rock 'n' roll, and a good book make for a perfect day.
I received a kindle copy of this book through a giveaway and am giving an honest review of the item in return.
I went into this book expecting something entirely different from what I got. I expected it to be all about a girl who wants to get in shape and look good for her high school reunion while falling in love with her trainer.
What I got was a romance between supporting characters that I ended up liking more than the main couple and a bit of a twist that I actually liked and didn't see coming. The ending kind of made the book for me and the secondary romance between Missy and Hawk really held my attention. Also, there was some humor to the book, creative little quips here and there. The "he's a grouch," line made me smile because I thought it was clever. Those are the pros of this book.
The Cons: the main characters are annoying until the end. Tara jumps to conclusions a bit too many times. Jake basically sexually harasses Tara for the whole beginning of the book and the reader is supposed to think its cute or flirtatious. Had I been Tara in this book I would have hightailed it out of the gym quickly, end of book. I had also gone into this expecting to see some kind of slow progress for Tara, more detail in her workouts and how she makes changes in her diet. Instead, the book jumps around by weeks and really only focuses on all the lust that comes over the characters whenever they see each other, which isn't a bad thing usually. Except I really wanted to see the other side of that with love scenes sprinkled here and there. I didn't mind it but I definitely think Missy and Hawk should've had their own book and that the author would have fleshed out Tara and Jake getting together and working together to get reunion ready. Also, while the humor was a pro, it was also a con. There was too much slapstick comedy in this book and I felt a lot of the time that the author couldn't describe it well enough for me to understand it. Lastly, I found a tiny amount of grammatical errors in the book, a missing word occasionally.
In all, the book was okay. I like the premise as I understand wanting to be reunion ready and doubting yourself, but I think the story could've been told a little better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
When I was a teenager I watched Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion and wondered how my class mates and I would have changed when it came to our reunion. Well, ten years came and went and I didn’t go. Personally, I didn’t want to spend time with people who I didn’t particularly like or who gave me a hard time and equally I wasn’t (by my own standards) impressive enough. So, 17 years on from high school and I am still wondering what it would be like.
Kimberly Dean’s novel High School Reunion seems to me so true to how people think of reunions. They have to be skinny and successful with a great job and a man (or woman) by their side. There was a verisimilitude to her story which I thought was brilliant.
Her main character Tara was very relatable: she is clumsy but desperate to impress. Her name could have been Lisa.
What I didn’t expect when I started reading it was the saucy stuff. Wow. Kimberly Dean writes with unabashed glory and well done to her because I blushed all the way through reading it.
For a light, fun read on a topic that the majority all of us can relate to then pick up High School Reunion.
High School Reunion by Kimberly Dean is available now.
For more information regarding Kimberly Dean (@KDean_writer) please visit www.kimberlydean.com.
Tara has a ten year reunion in there months. She goes to the gym to lose 30 pounds. Jake the owner tells her 15 pounds and to get toned. He agrees to be her trainer if she will do his bookkeeping. While at the gym she meets Hawk, another client and the aerobic trainor, Missy. They end up as lovers first and then partners. Jake trains Tara. She finds little notes written with pink ink. She asks Jake about them. He tells her about a client he is training for All American physical contest. When Jake asks Tara why it's so important to be her best at the reunion, she tells him about her high school bully. Hawk finally have Missy the relationship she wanted. They rewarded each other with hot sex. Jake and Tara decided to spy on their friends. Each couple had great sex. While having breakfast Tara learned the identity of the client from the contest. It is the high school bully!!! Tara went to her reunion and took the high road because revenge didn't matter anymore. The sex was very erotic. Enjoy
I received High School Reunion in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for my honest review.
I have to say, the concept and idea behind High School Reunion was fun and lead to a good read. My problem with this book was that I could not stand the main character, Tara. She came off as whiny, childish and had a propensity to exaggerate or over react about everything. Other than not being able to stand Tara, the story and storyline was good and I did enjoy that. There was a lot of steamy romance, which for some may have been too much, but I found it enjoyable.
Overall, High School Reunion was a quick, fun read and I do think most romance lovers would love this book, but I just couldn't get over Tara's personality and childish behavior.
High School Reunion was fun, passionate, crackled with heat and had a hot, sexy man who works at a gym fall for a beautiful, curvy woman who thinks she NEEDS to lose weight for her High School Reunion. This book I laughed with, I understood, and had me cheering and sighing and my heart happy. Especially when our heroine gets the sexy hunk! This is an ABSOLUTE MUST read and I hope to have more stories just like this. LOVED IT!
The story was good idea about Tara wanting to slim down for her high school reunion by hiring Jake as her personal trainer but the execution was poor. There was no build-up or flirtation just bam instant connection and hook up. In addition Jake used his position as personal trainer to commit harassment to Tara at the beginning of the story. I kept reading but I couldn't like him as a character.
Though not an original idea by any means, High School Reunion is a laugh out loud romance. The bottom line is that it can be an enjoyable read if you don’t mind the predictability, instu-lust, and poor grammar/errors. That being said, the characters are funny, the leads have chemistry though their thunder is sometimes stolen by a secondary couple, and overall can be entertaining. It almost feels like an ABC movie.
I could so relate to Tara. High school was a nightmare. I loved the humor of this book. Jake is a dream. Hawk and Missy are a great addition. If you're looking for funny, charming, somewhat confused characters but entirely lovable and realistic story that includes incredibly hot chemistry, this is it! This is the first book I've read of Kimberly Dean's. I will be reading more!
*Won this in a Goodreads Giveaway*. Romance isn’t really my genre. The character development is lacking and the timeline is shaky and disjointed, but it was a fun, easy, fast read with enough funny moments to keep me entertained to the end. This gets shelved right next the Janet Evanovich books that I read when I don’t want to have to think about anything serious for a few hours.
I was not able to finish this book. This is no offense to the author it was just to Harlequin romancy for me. If you like the 50 Shades of Grey books or Harlequin romances with more blunt descriptions of items, you would like this book.
I bought the original before all the edits, so reading it now with the name change was distracting and kinda a let down. The flow was better in the original. I bought it so I’d have it on my kindle, but this is one paperback I’m keeping around.
This was a fun & flirty read with some serious chemistry between the characters, I laughed out loud at some of the banter. Be warned there is cheating in this book which I'm not particularly keen on but Tara & Jake's story more than made up for it, hence 4 star rating
I really enjoyed the friendly banter of all the different individuals in the book. The banter had me rolling by the beginning of the 1st or the second chapter! I wish more books had this much in their interactions between individuals. I was rolling throughout the entire book, I loved it!
I'm surprised that I liked it so much. It was a fun read that makes me wanna join the gym. Although I feel there is no justification for cheating so I don't really like Missy, even though she seems to be a sweet girl. I expected something entirely different and I had a great surprise.