Natalie’s day has officially crashed and burned. She’s been fired, dumped, and is now standing in an airport security line trying not to fall apart before a week-long family reunion on the coast of Maine. She needs to show her relatives she’s not a walking disaster.
What she needs is a hero. What she gets is Jake Teller.
Career-driven Jake notices her instantly—flushed cheeks, trembling hands, heartbreak shining in her eyes. He’s built his life around work, not feelings… but something in him pulls toward her.
By the time their flight lands, he’s volunteered—no, insisted—on posing as her boyfriend for the week.
It should be simple. One cabin. One fake relationship. Zero expectations.
Except one shared bed becomes a temptation he can’t walk away from, and Natalie’s gentle heart and stolen kisses wreck every rule he’s ever lived by.
In a seaside town where legends whisper about a wishing well that reveals true love, Jake finally understands:
Loving Natalie is the one thing he never planned for—and the one thing he can’t afford to lose.
But wanting her isn’t enough. Now he has to prove it.
USA Today Bestselling Author Krista Sandor writes steamy contemporary romance with toe-curlingly hot heroes and heroines you'll want as your best friends.
A sweet and light romance read. The idea of the the legend behind the kiss keeper at the camp was wonderful. The story was enjoyable and the characters were cute. Jake and Natalie’s relationship evolved within a few days, their chemistry was obvious but it didn’t elicit emotions. Some parts were too funny that had me eye rolling...
It was insta-everything with some cringey and questionable moments but fun enough for me to finish. Would have given 3 stars if there wasn't a break up part
Great read that will have you wanting more. Loved Jake and Natalie. They were so cute together. What started out as a fake relationship was able to turn into something more real. There were some twists in the story to overcome but they were able to do just that to get their HEA. Can’t wait to read more from this author.
I read an early review copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
The Kiss Keeper by Krista Sandor (2021/01/26) Rating 3/5 Stars Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own
This story follows Natalie and a few years ago she attended her grandparents' camp. There was this tradition where a camper girl and boy have to meet at a well and kiss. But there's a catch, they also have to be blindfolded. On the last day at camp, it's her turn but things don't turn out the way she thought it was going to go.
Now years later she hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to love and life in general. When she is supposed to meet her boyfriend at the airport to celebrate her grandparents 50th anniversary she ends up bumping into Jake. She then ends up getting dumped by her boyfriend and asks Jake if he can pretend to be her fake boyfriend. Jake is a businessman and is hoping to close his next business deal so that he can move up in life. When he finds out that Natalie’s grandparents are the landowner of the land he needs to sell, he quickly agrees to be her plan. As Jake starts to get to know Natalie and her family, he starts to realize how important this farm really is and he's not too sure if he wants to close this business deal. Does he let go of his dreams or lose the woman that he loves?
I enjoyed this story. I liked to banter between the main characters, and I appreciated how funny this story was. I also loved the family aspect and how the story revolved around this tradition that happens at the family’s camp. What hindered my enjoyment of the novel was the plot twist that was thrown into the story. I found it to be predictable and not necessary.
Overall, I enjoyed this story. It was really sweet, and I cannot wait to read more by this author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Jake and Natalie draw you into their journey right from the very start even as these two are initially blind to their existence. A love story of fate, curses and finding your heart. The Kiss Keeper is a quirky story that has you enchanted with this couple as trench coats, feet and lobsters have you falling in love with Her Jake and Natalie. Their story is passionate, witty, heartfelt and one that will have you immersed in the pages. If you like a book with a beautiful ending that will have your heart soaring then this is the one for you.
From heartaching, nightmare to dream come true, Natalie and Jake give emotions a delightful experience. Sandor delivers a valuable lesson with humor, heart and hope. The Kiss Keeper manages to put an optimistic spin on a pessimistic attitude and bring a little needed joy in the process.
OMGee, what a wonderful, happy-sigh-inducing story! It’s really not a surprise, because this talented wordsmith is one of my favorites. She never fails to deliver a captivating story that takes me on the best of emotional rides.
Natalie and Jake's story is just, GAH! It has the most captivating premise with Camp Woolwich's legend of the kiss keeper, where star-crossed soul mates were once supposed to share a kiss by the well. According to legend, the girl never showed up and the broken-hearted young man cursed the well. Now, teenage campers are sent to the well to share a secret, blindfolded kiss or be cursed to never find their soul mates.
Natalie, who has been unlucky in love and life, is returning to the camp to celebrate her grandparents' fiftieth anniversary. After being dumped via text by the sixth Jake she’s dated, she meets Jake #7 at the airport and convinces him to help her out. Although Jake has his own painful history regarding the camp and dreads returning there, the cutthroat businessman has his own motives for returning.
Isn’t that a great premise for a book? The story is so phenomenal I’d love to see a whole series about people finding love because of the magic of Camp Woolwich and the kissing well! (Give us more! Please give us more!) I can’t get enough of these characters, and I’m not nearly ready to let them go. This sweet, funny, exquisite, full-of-feels story needs to go to the top of your TBR, and it will make your heart ridiculously happy!
Oh, I needed this read. This was a sweet, somewhat angsty, humorous story of a first kiss gone wrong and how to make it right. Natalie and Jake are thrust into the perfect situation by chance, and as long as Jake can get his head on straight and forget his shallow goals, it can be forever. Of course, Jake is a man and you know what that means. Yup. He messes up. But that mistake is the catalyst for everything else falling into place, so his screwup can’t be regretted at all. I adored their story and laughed at Leo every time he hit the page. Krista gave me everything I’ve learned to expect from her stories: laughs, worries, and love.
This book is fantastic. I laughed out loud (a lot!) and fell in love with Natalie and her Fake Jake Number 7! You have an art teacher who can’t keep a job or a boyfriend and 6 have been named Jake, a self absorbed real estate agent who will do whatever it takes and is power hungry (and his name is...Jake of course), his evil boss, loving grandparents, snobby twin cousins and their weird podiatrist husbands (one with a foot fetish), cute kids, a funny and naughty elderly nun, fun at camp, an instant connection, a change of heart, a huge secret, some incredible hot hot hot steamy scenes and love. You will totally enjoy this great read.
Summer camp and first love. I'd never been, so it's fun getting to read all about it. The curse of Jakes was hilarious, but kind of sad. I love the idea of kismet and second chances. I also loved the idea of finding your inner child again after the sometimes harsh world of adulting.
Credo che questo sia il primo romanzo al quale assegno il massimo dei voti. Ho trovato tutte le cose che mi piacciono: un pizzico di divertimento, tanto umorismo, battute esilaranti, amore, affetto per la famiglia, speranza e... il tocco del destino. Natalie e Jake #7 sono una coppia con i fiocchi, di quelle che non ti stuferesti mai di leggere. Il primo capitolo, il salto nel passato dove leggiamo del loro primo bacio, è scritto magnificamente. E' tutto così accattivante, è un libro così bello... così scorrevole. Assolutamente da non perdere. Vi farà venire gli occhi a cuoricino, vi spingerà a credere nel destino. E, se come me, già ci credete.... Beh, che altro dire? Questo è il libro che fa al caso vostro!
3.5 This is a beautifully written romance book that was first part of the Romantically Ever After Box set. This sweet romance book is a quick read that has some twists along the way and will also have you laughing too.
Natalie is a beautiful woman and at the moment things seem to keep going wrong and not her way at all, she kinda thinks that she may be cursed she feeling very unlucky in every way. After getting fired from her job and the dumped at the worst possible moment by her boyfriend everything seems to be going wrong. She thinks that her family think she is the screw up and she wants to prove them wrong. She is on her way to celebrate her grandparents 50th anniversary and it just so seems that this guy is going the same place as her.
Jake is a guy that all he wants to do is close that next deal and nothing will stop him doing that. Jake is at the airport on his way to close on a deal. Jake and Natalie get thrown together and are hoping in some weird way that maybe they can help each other out. She asks him to be fake Jake to try and fool her family into thinking they are actually together for real. The question is can these two pull this of and can Natalie convince her family that all is what it seems?
This book is sweet, lovely and has some secrets and twists and turns along the way and the characters do have some things hidden up there sleeves. I did love the way that this author has written these characters and I always love her style of writing. The thing I don't think that Natalie or Jake bargained for was anything happening between them both but they both have an obvious connection and there chemistry is off the charts hot. I did feel if I'm being honest that some parts were a tad far fetched and went by very fast, but that's just me, this book is still a great read. I cant wait to see what this author writes in the future. This book is a great summer read that will have you laughing out loud in parts too.
I received an ARC for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I loved this book...how much did I love it; I highlighted/tabbed this book 37 times. This is what ROM-COM should be like and Krista does a phenomenal job.
“It doesn’t feel like a long time if you’re with the right person. And once you find that person, you’ve got to be smart enough and brave enough to surrender control and give up your heart.”
Natalie Callahan spent half her life at Camp Woolwich, with her grandparents Hal and Bev Woolwich running the camp. Now older her grandparents are renewing their vows after 50 years and all the family is coming together. However, Natalie doesn’t want to go alone and decides that Jake number 6 will come along and make her look less like the newly unemployed screw up she thinks she is.
“I don’t think Lobster queen has any real powers. Unless that fancy lobster crown lets you command all those cooked lobsters to come to your defense.” “You’re awful, and I’m a vegetarian. I’d never rule over dead seafood.” “No, that’s perfect! Zombie lobsters, coming back from the dead to defend their non-lobster eating queen.”
Jake Teller hasn’t had the easiest life. He has had to work harder and be more cutthroat to get to where he is now. Helping Charles P Linton grow his real estate business Linton Holdings into a multimillion-dollar business. Having been on a roll Jake is asked by Charlie to go to Maine and buy out a camp. The same camp he went to a kid only once. That one time changed his life with a single kiss.
“Just today, we’ve saved a full-bladdered child from peeing his pants in a tree, organized a scheduling nightmare, and thwarted a group of horny nuns. I think we can handle an obstacle course.”
Legend has it that Otis Wiscasset wanted to run away with Muriel Boothe. They were supposed to meet at the well and Muriel’s family didn’t want her to settle with a lowly lighthouse keepers' son. Rumor had it Muriel’s family sent her back to Europe. Stricken with the grief of not being able to kiss Muriel, Otis cursed the well. Therefore, the Kiss Keeper Curse started.
“All right, Sister Evangeline, one drink while I run a few errands for Sister Anne, and no funny business, like the last time.” “What did she do last time?” “She signed the convent up for Netflix”
Will Natalie be able to convince her family Jake is her boyfriend before they find out they were conned? Will Jake be able to convince the camp owners to sell so can make partner or will falling for Natalie get in the way and thwart everything?
“Life is like the tides. The tide comes in, and the tide goes out. All you can do is accept what it brings and go from there.”
Seriously this book was amazing. I know I could say that about every book almost, but this one takes the cake. By far my favorite Rom-Com for 2020. There are so many parts I can’t tell you about because it would give things away or confuse the heck out of you. I must say I would have loved to have gone to a summer camp with a legend like this one. I live near Camp Crystal which is home to Friday the 13 movies. Thankfully I went there once, and we were evacuated because of a forest fire.
This is a story about Natalie and Jake. In the lead-up to a big family celebration, she’s fired from her job AND gets dumped by her boyfriend, Jake number six. She’s at the airport about to have a meltdown of possibly-epic proportions when a gorgeous guy stands behind her in line at the airport. That would be Jake number seven. His boss has asked him to fly to Maine to close on a property he’s desperate to get his hands on. And the rewards for Jake would be HUGE for his career and his bank account.
Natalie is also flying to Maine, and on the same flight, to attend her grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebrations at their family-owned and run Camp Woolwich. The large parcel of land this camp sits on is the same piece of land Jake is meant to be acquiring… She’s in a pickle, having told her family she’s bringing her boyfriend Jake to the celebrations. So now she pleads for THIS Jake to fill in for that role for a few days. This could be beneficial for both of them, so he agrees to act as Fake Jake. There are so many links and twists and turns, so buckle up!
Their ride is full of adventure, white lies/lies of omission, humour, loving and annoying family members, confessions, hilarious nuns, love, passion and summer camp memories. They have an obvious, mutual attraction to each other, and give in to it fairly quickly. It’s swift but sweet AND steamy. I think they get hooked pretty early on, and I love how Natalie’s grandparents recognise their chemistry almost immediately. The history Natalie and Jake share at the camp unravels at a good pace, but it isn’t what she expected and takes it badly. But the very wise Bev and Hal, as well as the horny nun talk some sense into the couple, who make their way back together.
There’s WAY more to it, but I don’t want to spoil the in-between and end bits, and just implore readers to give this book a go. I’ve loved everything I’ve read of Krista’s, and already can’t wait for whatever she has up her sleeve! And… I do have to say that I LOVED the little reference to those hunky Bergen Brothers (yes, they did make an appearance in my visual of this story too).
My only gripe, is that I wanted/needed more of these characters, so I gave this book four and three quarters stars ;) PLEASE write another book about them Krista! I think there’s so much possibility for them, maybe a wedding, a hot honeymoon, some kids, more about their extended family, their camp…
I received a free copy of this book from the author and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This story made me laugh out loud and swoon very hard from page to page. Natalie and Jake met once years ago and they just didn’t know who the other one was because of the kiss keeper tradition at summer camp. The tradition states one boy and one girl meet by the old well blindfolded for their first kiss but they can’t let each other know who they are and they can’t remove their blindfolds, so Jake and Natalie have their first kiss but it wasn’t by the well it was at her cabin door and years later Natalie still thinks she is cursed. Jake had a rough time at life after that summer at camp so he has worked hard to become a wealthy real estate developer and has shut all feelings and making deeper connections off even if after all this time he thinks about that kiss years ago with a girl he doesn’t know. By some serendipitous chance they meet again by strange events that lead them back to where it all started Camp Woolwich. These two have immediate attraction and go through some funny things and slowly start to fall for each other then, the bottom falls out and now Jake has to prove to Natalie he. really is her Kiss Keeper and they belong together. This was super cute, fun to read, and had amazing characters I loved it all.
This book was awesome!!! If I could rate it a million stars I would. I needed to read a book like this that made me laugh out loud! Natalie has a hard time keeping jobs and Jake’s. I think she will always be looking for that perfect Jake. Like the Kiss Keeper that kissed her and made her tingle all over. Natalie is headed to see her grandparents and celebrate their 50th Anniversary. Natalie didn’t know there would be a lot of mishaps before she get there. Jake is a wealthy man who doesn’t do relationships. Jake’s boss is sending Jake to where he remembers his kiss keepers soft lips. Jake doesn’t know that this trip is going to bring back a lot of memories. Jake didn’t know that he was going to end up being a Fake Jake #7 but he doesn’t mind at all and he is really good at it. Will Natalie and Jake find their real kiss keeper? I don’t know but read the book to find out and you will be taken to a fun and exciting place!!!
I loved this book - it had heart, it made you laugh, made you want a happy ever after and kept you turning over each page desperate to know what happens next. At 13 Natalie Callahan didn't fulfill her end of the bargain when it came to the Kiss Keepers curse, and it seems like this has haunted her for the past 15 years. And now with a string of disastrous relationships to guys called Jake, losing her job and having to spend the week with her snotty cousins who hate her, Natalie has come to accept that she can never get out from under this dark umbrella.
Jake Teller is a successful business man, with the power and the money to set him up for life, if only he was able to find some stability and purpose. When he runs into a beautiful crazy lady at the airport in sexy red heels, a trench coat and not a lot else, he decides to help her convince her family that he is Jake, her boyfriend. But Jake has ulterior motives for helping Natalie and the fact that she is gorgeous certainly helps. Can their relationship survive the deception? This book was so much fun, it really made you love the characters and encouraged you to become invested in their lives.
I loved loved loved everything about this book. I love the whole first kiss gone wrong thing. I laughed so hard with this book and I absolutely fell in love with the characters.
So if you love some quirky side characters, a great story, insta love, hilariously funny stories this five star read is for you!
**I was generously provided with an advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review**
Cannot lie bookstagram got me with this one & I kid you not this was the wildest book ever. Not one single thing was believable but that made it kind of fun to read???😂 Like it was so out of pocket and unrealistic that I just had to see how it ended. It wasn’t bad per se just… really fast paced, no details, bam they’re together the end. Oh well kept me entertained for the eve!!
This book was absolutely amazing. The storyline was so unique, yet the tropes and themes made it so familiar. It was funny, loveable and sweet. There were twists and turns but Jake and Natalie were literally made for each other. I absolutely loved every single word Krista wrote. It was absolutely beautiful.
Kiss Keeper Natalie and Jake I loved reading how the MCs go from meeting as teens, to growing up and finding each other. This was an emotional book for me...it had all the feels. And love. Lots of love. Read this as an ARC and am leaving an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book. Natalie is an art teacher that feels as if she is the family failure. Jake is a real estate broker that only believes in the power of money. When they meet at the airport Jake agrees to be Natalie's boyfriend for a family event, but he is also planning to try to buy the family property for his boss. What follows is a sweet love story that shows that the right person can make you stronger, can allow you to grow or can push you to take a risk. A story that shows that love really is the strongest currency. A really enjoyable read. I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.
I'm pretty sure I laughed so much with the Kiss Keeper that I may or may not have made it to the bathroom...this book has all of the feels and is a perfect read for any time you need a pick-me-up or a little loving. Loved it!!💞💞💞