Kiss to Defy

Blairwood University, Book 3

By: Anna B. Doe

Narrated by: Jennifer Aquino, Sean Crisden

After dedicating her entire life to figure skating, Rei Mitchell-Nagasaki is ready for a little bit of normal. And what's more normal than attending college?

Zane West has had a rough life, but he's found his way out of Ashton Heights and he isn't about to lose it all when the demons of his past come knocking at the door.

Rei has one semester to show her father that she can have it all—a normal life and making it to the Winter Games—but it's not so easy when there is a broody hockey player standing in her way. Once heated arguments turn into sharing the rink and late-night kisses, neither of them will be able to resist the pull.

Will they manage to defy the odds or was their love doomed from the very beginning?

Contains mature themes.

©2021 Anna B. Doe (P)2022 Tantor

Cute story but bad narration

The narrators (especially the female) were so monotonous and did not do well on the timing or pace of the speech. Other than that, the story was cute, even if it did seem to drag on.

Grade A for me

The book is good, I enjoyed the flow of the book. I do think that your past can cause you to be harder on yourself, than you should. I agree with that. I think that the love was there and it was a good all around book.
+++SPOILERS+++
I have a few issues, but nothing to stop me from recommending this book. The biggest one though is how Zayne didn't want to forgive his grandma for what she did. I really think that is selfish on his part. No matter what you forgive that woman because she still raised you to be a great person. Plus you don't lose love for your natural son just because he is a screwup. Another issue is Zayne saying he wanted his moms to go, but kept giving her money. It would have been better for if Zayne hated her, but some part of him loved her bc that was his mom.
I like some of the issues that come up in black communities especially if they came from a bad area. African Americans tend to think that they are less because that is what society or the media believes of them. If you continue to look passed the media/terrible society you will see actual people trying to understand the person not the just race or area you come from. stop putting yourself in a box. This book shows that so thanks for including it. Sometimes it is your own self holding you back, and that is regardless of race or privilege.
Good book, Check it out

Female Narrator sounds like a robot. Shaky landing towards the end.

In general enjoyed the book. It’s rare to find books like this with a black male protagonist, and I’m sure Asian female characters are underrepresented as well. I appreciated things not getting too heavy handed with him being black, although it does start to get a bit heavy at the end (I like these things being acknowledged, but also not shoved down your throat, which usually turns people off) The male protagonist became frustrating toward the end with his self loathing / self sabotaging nature. I say this as a black man who has seen his fair share of “harsh situations” growing up.

The difference in skills between the two narrators are like night and day. I wanted to point how the male narrator sounded a little two cocksure when speaking as Zane. However, in comparison to the other narrator, he came off like the best of the best (even without the comparison he was really good).
I don’t like tagging on narrators, so I’ll only say that I hope the other narrator practices and gets better over time.

Beware of the (One of the) Narrators

I want to be 100% clear, this book is actually pretty good! It has some technical issues (repetitive prose, specifically), but it's actually a very solid read. I really loved the last book so much and that's why I'm continuing this series. Nix and Yas' story was beautiful and you can definitely tell the theme somewhat carried over from the last two books (Loss and Found family). Rei and Zane are so cute and I love their romance. The plot does have a lot going on, but I think with these stories it works (mostly). I will say, sometimes less is more but I do enjoy the world.

That said... I saw the reviews and was very hesitant to start this book. I actually read the last book early this year and was so put off by the comments I was like maybe I can skip this book and just get to the book I actually want to get to which is Kiss Me Forever and Jade's books... and all the GoodReads reviews were like you need to read this book before you get there. And fine, I caved! (I hate reading series out of order). And listen, it's a pretty easy listen to, but whatever the FMC narrator was doing was a choice. I know there was an attempt! But when you start to realized the limited male voice they can do, it's just really noticeable. I really tried because the story is solid, but heads up.

meh

the story was ok..but I didn't care for the female narrator. Her voice was tolerable but she sounded like a child when she would do her male voice and the supporting characters

Cringy Russian accent

It was hard to listen to the female narrator do a Russian accent. Narration was ok beside those parts.

Her voice was terrible!

Omg…. The narrator for the girl was so bad. Why did all her voices sound like a baby from the rugrats?!??! Seriously the guys voice was great but the girl was terrible. Normally I feel like the guy and girl narrators try to match their voices as much as possible with the characters but it was sooo bad. Spencer’s voice sounded sexy when the guy talked but like a rugrat when the girl talked.