Review: Kaleidoscope by Kristen Ashley

Kaleidoscope [Colorado Mountain #6] by Kristen Ashley

(Genre: Contemporary Romance)
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**Note: A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Jacob Decker goes to Gnaw Bone, CO for business and isn't in town more than five minutes before he unexpectedly runs into old friend, Emme Hughes, who he hasn't seen in years. They had parted ways after Deck had an intense break-up with her best friend at the time but Deck and Emme cared deeply for each other and are both eager to rekindle their friendship.  

First off, did you know that Jacob Decker is a Smarty McSmartpants of the highest order? Oh, don't worry if this fact somehow escaped your knowledge because every single character in this book will take pains to tell you about it. Even characters who have just met him will start conversations with him with "I can see you're highly intelligent." I mean, how? Do you have secret mutant powers that allow you to know a person's intelligence quota by sight? Come on, now.

Intelligence hyperbole aside, there were a lot of areas where I thought this book shone. I liked how how easy Deck and Emme's rapport with each other was and I had no problems believing that they had had a serious affection for each other in the past. That made their quick transition from old friends to new lovers seem natural to me. KA's characteristic humor was fully evident as well and she had these little one-liners strewn about the place that kept making me guffaw.

A childhood trauma that Emme has never really dealt with plays a significant role in this book and I thought it was handled pretty sensitively. I thought Ashley showed the effects of living in denial and trying to sublimate something without processing or working through it pretty realistically and I was really relieved when Emme was able to come through the other side.

So what didn't work for me? Frankly, at this point in her career, I wish Ashley would  find a better way to show a character's "macho-ness" that having him say or think sexist or patronizing crap all of the time. I only made it to the 7% mark in this book before I wrote "I'm concerned out the sexism" in my notes.  I actually thought that it dissipated mostly after that point in the book but it seriously hampered my enjoyment at the beginning.

Overall, though, I'd say that Ashley's writing (as usual) made me laugh my face off and I wore a big ole grin through large swaths of this book. Kaleidoscope is probably a middle-of-the-pack KA novel for me, but that's really not bad company to be keeping.


Grade: 3.5 stars