Kiss at Your Own Risk

Chapter 1

When the black skull and crossbones carved into Alexander Blaine Underhill III’s left pec began to smoke, he knew tonight wasn’t the night he was going to get his newest cross-stitching tapestry finished. His escape from the Den of Womanly Pursuits, the hellhole he’d been imprisoned in by a black witch for the last hundred and fifty years, was about to get complicated. "Look pretty, boys, we’re going to be entertaining."

"Shaved two days ago. Good enough?" Nigel Aquarian was sprinting beside Blaine, his shitkick­ers thudding on the stainless steel floor of the Hall of Embroidery. He was wearing only dark leather pants and a pale pink rose tattooed on his left cheek. His palms had turned to blackened charcoal, and burning embers were sloughing off onto the floor. "Forgot the cologne, though. Never remember to smell nice after I party with starving piranhas." He held up the pinkie finger he’d had time to grow back only halfway. "I hate fish."

Blaine leapt over a breeding pit for vipers that was blocking his path. "Spiders are worse."

Nigel grimaced. "Bet the witch is good with spiders."

Blaine refused to revisit that particular hell in his mind. "Toughened me up. It was fun."

Nigel shot him a knowing look. "Yeah, I bet it was."

One hundred and fifty years at the non-existent mercy of Death’s grandma, Angelica, had given new meaning to the definition of hell. The black witch was diabolical in her quest to become the most powerful practitioner in history, and she wasn’t exactly the nurturing type when it came to her experiments. Ruthless evil bitch from hell was probably a better way to describe her. But after a century of planning their escape, it was finally hasta la vista time for Blaine and his boys.

Blaine flipped a grin at one of the security cameras he’d disabled only moments before. "Hope you miss us." He was so jonesing for a little mano a mano to make her pay for all she’d done, but his brain was the one thing she hadn’t managed to mess with, so he was hitting the road instead of gunning for a battle he couldn’t win. Embarrassing as hell that one grandma could kick the shit out of four badass warriors. Not going to be posting that on his online dating profile when he got out.

Green and pink disco lights began to flash, and the screams of men being tortured filled the air.

"The fire alarm? Come on, guys. Can’t you two keep the smoke in your pants for five minutes?" Jarvis Swain sprinted up beside them. A checkered headband was keeping his light brown hair off his face, and he was streaked with sweat and blood from the spar he’d been winning when Blaine had pulled the trigger on the escape. For Jarvis, a practice session ended only when his opponent was on the bleeding edge of death. He was clenching his samurai sword in his fist.

"Nice pants." Nigel nodded at the yellow tulip cross-stitched on the hip of Jarvis’s badass martial arts outfit. He raised an eyebrow at Blaine. "Is that your delicate touch, Trio?" His question smacked with friendly insult.

Blaine ignored Nigel’s sarcastic reference to his pedi­gree. Far as he was concerned, everyone he was related to could go to hell. Hoped they already had, in fact.
He looked over his shoulder to check on the progress of the most important member of their team, Christian Slayer, but the Hall of Embroidery was empty. "Where’s lover boy?"

"He detoured for his girlfriend when we passed through Flower Appreciation." Jarvis hurled his sword at a small black box tacked onto the seventeen-foot high ceiling. "He caught her scent, said she was nearby, and took off to get her." The blade hit cleanly, sparks ex­ploded, and the alarm went silent.

Without breaking stride, Blaine leapt up and grabbed the sword. "We’re in the middle of a daring escape from our own personal torture chamber, and he’s taking time to get a girl?"

"That’s what he claimed," Nigel said. "He can’t lie worth shit, so I tend to believe him."

They continued to haul ass toward the door at the end of the hallway. Freedom was less than fifty yards away. "Well, damn." Blaine hurled the sword blade-first at Jarvis’s heart.

"That’s really sweet of him."

Jarvis snatched the sword out of the air easily, his hand unerringly finding the handle.

"You think?"

"Sure. It’s not every man who will strand his team in a war zone so he can go rescue a girl." Still running hard, Blaine pulled out a pair of small blue balls from a sack strapped to his hip. "Of course, I’m going to have to kick the hell out of him for doing it, and there’s no way he’s going on future missions with us, but I admire that kind of choice."

Devilishly divine. Kiss At Your Own Risk is brilliantly fun, fast-paced and delightful.

Stephanie Rowe is to paranormal what Janet Evanovich is to mystery; laugh-out-loud fun and a non-stop tilt-a-whirl ride of excitement. I cannot express how much enjoyment Kiss At Your Own Risk brought to me. I literally found myself laughing out loud in the nice quiet library, while I read. Yes, for me, it was that humorous. I do have to admit that when I began reading the first few pages, I was thinking to myself "What in the world is this?!" The idea of men obsessed with cross-stitching and all things girly was a bit out there, even for me. However, once I read a bit further, I had no doubts that I was going to love this book. So, be warned, the very beginning may make you step back, but hold on, it is awesome.

Men, sex slaves, torture, the goal to make every one of the male species perfect and worthy of a woman. Yes, that is the goal of Angelica (the wicked witch, if you will). This is what Blaine Underhill and his friends have had to endure for the past century and a half. After coming together with a plan to escape, they finally find themselves free from the torture chamber of hell. However one thing went terribly wrong, Blaine’s best friend did not make it out and is still left enslaved by the diva witch of all things unholy. Blaine will stop at nothing until he is able to rescue his friend and set him free.

Trinity Harpswell has had to live with a curse her entire life - if she falls in love, she has to kill the man she loves. Not such a great thing for a long term relationship. Trinity is a Black Widow and will remain so permanently after her fifth kill. However, she has managed not to kill a man for three years and if she can hang on another week, the curse will be broken and she will be free. Little did she know that final week would test every one her skills in resistance.

When Blaine realizes the the only way to kill Angelica is with the use of a Black Widow, he goes in search of Trinity. Trinity, however has problems of her own - her father has been turned into pink dust and will die if she doesn’t kill the Smut Monster. However, if she kills Smutty, her soul will be lost forever. This doesn’t stop her, however, and she will do anything to save her father.


Needless to say, Blaine and Trinity strike up a bargain - and what a bargain it is. These two characters are fiery, feisty and combustible. I have to say that I think they are one of my favorite character couples. Blaine is hot - literary and figuratively. Trinity is saucy and a spitfire - though very human in terms of insecurities and worries (she reminds me a lot of Stephanie Plum in the Evanovich series). The secondary characters are also great - Reina, Trinity’s best friend, is delightful and it would be great to see her with a story of her own.

Overflowing with dark underworldly fun, Kiss At Your Own Risk is a book that I highly recommend to readers who enjoy paranormal and just want to lose themselves in laughter, a bit of romance and a whole lot of fun. Excellent writing and storytelling, great character development; Stephanie Rowe is an author I can’t wait to read more of!



Trinity has a difficult time with love. Whenever a certain someone comes along and strikes her fancy, the Black Widow within kicks into high gear, and before she knows it … they’re dead. Luckily, Trinity has discovered a way to break this frustrating curse and reclaim her life: simply do not kill for five years. Sounds simple enough right? Unfortunately, with one week to go, Trinity is pulled into chaos by Blaine Underhill. Blaine is looking for a Black Widow to kill Angelina. Angelina runs the Den of Womanly Pursuits, a place where men are tortured and demeaned in order to train them to be good men. This den has been running for over 100 years but it’s time for its doors to close…

Kiss At Your Own Risk is hilarious, thrilling, incredibly interesting and very well thought-out. This is not your typical paranormal romance. 4/5.



A humorous, fast paced novel, Kiss At Your Own Risk takes everything you thought you knew about paranormal romance novels and turns it upside down. Trinity Harpswell has spent her life trying to seduce and be with (but never fall in love with) men she is absolutely not attracted to. That way, her Black Widow curse won’t be invoked and she won’t murder them. (Murder never really was her thing, not even killing innocent bugs.)

Blaine Underhill thinks that the only way he could ever figure out how to finally kill the evil witch who held him captive and tortured him for the past 150 years, is through the Black Widow. So it’s only logical that he kidnaps her and forces her to do his bidding. But even the best laid plans never work out. Like, he didn’t expect to have to save Trinity from her own mother’s attempted kidnapping. Or that she might not actually want to kill anyone (at least for the next week).

The evil witch Blaine is so desperate to kill, just so happens to be Death’s Grandma. She wasn’t exactly trying to torture her boys (well mostly, sometimes it was required). No, she was trying to turn them into the perfect men. Think hunky, manly warriors who like to cross-stich and paint and aren’t too afraid to talk about their emotions.

I was laughing from the first sentence. (And anyone who has ever been stressed knows, one of the best cures is laughter.) Kiss At Your Own Risk is a wonderful, unique, hilarious novel that can and will keep reality at bay while it takes you on a wild ride.



Review: This may not be a 5.0 literary read but it is easily a 4.5 for sheer enjoyment! Picture Poison Ivy (from Batman) as a reluctant Black Widow, a powerful, twisted witch, and a band of mutant super hero warriors.

Trinity has been discouraging any man from getting close because if she falls in love there is this evil spider sense that pops out to kill them. When her spider sense is engaged she sees the weaknesses and the perfect way to kill her target.

When an assassin shows up to take her father into custody for execution, the powers that be make a deal with Trinity. If she kills a seemingly unstoppable serial killer, they will release her dad.

Blaine and two of his friends have finally escaped the nasty witch, Angelica. Unfortunately their fourth buddy was betrayed and has been caught. Blaine is a man of fire. He can use his body as an inferno of defense or use all sorts of fire bombs/weapons. Each of his friends have their own unique powers too. Blaine needs to use Trinity’s powers to find out how to kill the witch and rescue his friend.

This might work - Trinity will go with Blaine to tell him how to kill the witch if Blaine will first go with her and kill the serial killer for her. The guys are willing to take out the serial killer if Trinity can just see how to kill him without her being the instrument of death.

It’s not bad enough that they are going to face a chamaeleon monster, they are dodging ambushes as they go. Besides fighting off Angelica’s nasty minions, they have to fight off the assassin who has decided to kill Trinity rather than give her father back. Then more complications arise when the guys realize that Trinity is the chosen so Angelica plans to claim Trinity’s body.

Of course Blaine is busy trying to protect the beautiful Trinity even if he isn’t sure he can trust her and he is sure he will have to kill her after they kill the witch. His protecting her is so sweet that Trinity starts to fall...which will louse up her plans to go curse free and add to Blaine’s problems of watching his back. Needless to say it is a rollicking, crazy week and there interactions are pretty hot!

This is a very unique plot with lots of dangerous and twisted crazy characters. I will definitely be looking to read more by Ms. Rowe!


I couldn’t put down Kiss at Your Own Risk. It will have you turning the pages until the early hours of the morning. Kiss at Your Own Risk is different than anything else out there right now.

Blane comes off somewhat ruthless, but after all he has been through you can’t really blame him. Blane was the perfect hero for Kiss at Your Own Risk. He was hot and a warrior. However the whole use and kill Trinity might be a small mark against him at least at the beginning. I loved Blane’s gift of being able to lite his body on fire, and throw fireballs. Very interesting, but I would have liked to know more about it and why he was able to do it. I wanted more back story when it came to Blane and his warriors.

I loved Kiss at Your Own Risk. Trinity was perfect for it. Stephanie was really able to bring to life what it would be like to be the black widow. Trinity killed four men but she still came off engaging. It would be awful to kill the men you love after realizing you loved them. Trinity had to live with that, and not let anyone in. She couldn’t risk falling in love with someone until the curse was lifted.

Stephanie Rowe puts a whole new spin in the Black Widow myth, and the paranormal romance genre as we know it. Everything about Kiss at Your Own Risk is great. The characters are alive and jump off the page, and the story is entertaining. Kiss at Your Own Risk has everything a Paranormal Romance love wants, and none stop action. Kiss at Your Own Risk is a great read, that you wont want to put down.

I have no idea what I was expecting when I picked up this book but I know that I was not expecting what I got. This looked like one of those thriller/paranormal romances that I have read on many occasions but this was so different that it’s kind of hard to quantify.

I loved the humor in this book. However unexpectedly, this was a book that made me laugh out loud many a time. The idea of womanly pursuits (which in any other non-funny circumstance, I would find mildly offensive) being a punishment and conditioning exercise for alpha males was hilarious. Just the image of the big and burly man on the cover doing a flower emblazoned cross-stitch is enough to put me in hysterics. It did border on the ridiculous at times but what humor doesn’t.

I also liked that the romance played a huge role in Kiss At Your Own Risk in spite of the humor. Blaine and Trinity had great chemistry and they had some really sweet parts together. I love how Rowe balanced the romance and the humor. This book always had me on the edge of laughter which was really pleasant when I was sick.


Kiss at your own risk is book 1 in a new series by Stephanie Rowe and is a downright funny paranormal adventure that grabs ahold of you and makes you want more. Trinity is cursed with a Black Widow curse so any man she falls in love with she kills, but needs Blaine’s help to save her father. Blaine can make his body light on fire and needs Trinity’s help to save a member of his team who is trapped and needs rescued. Twists and Turns keep the book exciting and on the edge of your seat. I am hoping Ms Rowe brings out a book just for Reina, Trinitys BFF and one of Deaths assistants...I loved her character!




Trinity, cursed when she was young, is a Black Widow assassin and she can see how to kill anything. But the problem is that whenever she has fallen in love, the Black Widow within takes over. Trinity has found a way to break the curse and live a normal life, all she has to do is not kill anything for five years and now there is only one more week until the five years is up. She is almost free!

Blaine and his friends have been prisoners to Angelina in the Den of Womanly Pursuits for over a hundred years. Angelina feels she needs to tutor men to be good men, by giving them demeaning tasks and torturing them. Yup, she’s bats. They find that the only way to escape Angelina is to find a Black Widow to kill her. Hmmm, I see where this is going….

I thoroughly enjoyed this caper. It was funny, heartwarming, full of action and a page turner. From the first page we see Blaine working on a tapestry, this seems so out of character for a typical paranormal romance hero and it sets the tone for the whole book. Trinity is a sweetheart, and she truly hates her curse so I really wanted to see her beat it, even with all the problems she is given.

There is a lot of action going on, so you do need to pay attention and although I got lost here and there I soon got back on track with the plots. The characters are really well written, I even sympathized with Angelina (even with all the crazy she has going on), I wanted to know more about Blaine’s friends and I was cheering for Blaine and Trinity’s HEA. The writing is very tongue-in-cheek at points, the romance scenes were rather sigh-worthy too.

VERDICT:

I felt like I was pampering myself by reading this. It’s a treat! It’s full of hot Warrior men, a suitably hot woman trying to overcome something, a sympathetic, albeit bananas Villain and an interesting, well written plot.


If you like your paranormal romance served with a side of wit, a dash of danger and mixed up with killer humor then this is the book for you.

Stephanie Rowe has introduced us to a wicked cast of characters who are willing to do just about anything for love- including kill.

Trinity was kidnapped as a baby- by who or why no one knows. After missing for six months she was found in a pet shop snuggling with puppies none the worse for wear- at least they didn’t think so until Trinity turned sixteen fell in love...and killed the poor guy.

After adding another three corpses to her pile Trinity has managed to go almost five years without killing. She has one week to go. If she lasts the week the curse is broken. If she kills again- she’ll never be free of the curse. Five kills and you’re a Black Widow forever.

She’s sure she can make it through this one last week without falling in love and killing the poor guy.

Then all hell breaks loose and her dad gets turned into bubblegum. To save his life she’s offered a deal.

Enter Blaine.

He’s just escaped from the clutches of a crazy evil witch- that’s had her nasty mitts on him for 150 years forcing him to do all sorts of emasculating things- like cross stitch and knit. In a escape attempt he and his fellow prisoner/friend Nigel escape but their bud Christian gets sucked back into he clutches of evil witch Angelica- death’s grandma. They want Christian back but how?

Trinity. If he can get her to kill the witch he can have his friend back.

The two of them falling in love never occurred to either one.

Will Trinity kill for love?

The story is sometimes humorous, the situations the characters find themselves in can get downright bizarre and the whole book is a tad bit zany... in a fabulous way that’ll keep you turning the pages just to see what mayhem and mishaps will happen next.

An excellent, fast paced, high energy read full of twisted and wild characters that end up in really weird situations. You’ll love it.



KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK boasts a convoluted and topsy-turvey plot making for one hell of a thrill ride. Trinity Harpswell is in quite the predicament. Just a few short days remain before she’ll beat her killing Black Widow curse and resume the normal life she’s always wanted. Of course nothing can be easy and Trinity soon finds herself contracted to kill not one but two people or her beloved father dies. Having had the two most understanding parents in the world, what with having to relocate during the course of her life after four unplanned murders, there’s no way that Trinity is letting her father die at her expense and she’ll gladly loose her soul to the Black Widow to save him.

You see, Trinity is not a bad person. She wants to fall in love, get married and have babies one day but her blasted curse always manages to get in the way. Once Trinity looses her heart to a man, she can’t stop her curse from unveiling the perfect way to kill him and then following through with sickening glee. For the last five years she’s done her best to look totally unappealing to the opposite sex, dating only the most disgusting of men to have some kind social life in the interim as she waits for the clock to tick down to the final moment. If she makes it five whole years without killing, the curse is broken. And her plan has been a success thus far but Trinity soon becomes number one on the Otherworlder’s Most Wanted List and talk of being between a rock and a hard place is a universal understatement.

Blaine Underhill is in desperate need of a Black Widow and Trinity Harpswell is on his list as the most powerful and better yet, the closest. After he and his team of warriors escaped a centuries long imprisonment, they were forced to leave a good man behind but Blaine has every intention of rescuing his friend and killing the black witch that gleefully tortured them. Problem is, Angelica is one seriously whacked out bitch of witch and so far she’s proved to be impervious to all murder attempts hence Blaine’s need for Trinity. Her Black Widow will show them how the witch can be killed and he has plans of making very good use of Trinity’s curse.

As lusciously hot as Blaine might be, Trinity doesn’t find it all too hard to resist the bad ass warrior. The man wants to selfishly use her and then kill her! Yup, no heart-stopping, Black Window inducing attractive qualities there but Blaine’s her only chance at potentially saving her father without having to succumb to her spider. Taking whatever boon she can get, Trinity agrees to help Blaine kill Angelica if he helps her save her father in return. Now it’s just a waiting game to see who will renege first....

The Heroine:

Despite the fact that the girl has murdered four men, Trinity is immediately endearing. She doesn’t want to kill and being stuck with her Black Widow curse has been nothing short of a nightmare. Imagine murdering the man you love the moment you realize you’re in love? It helps that the reader is immediately introduced to a small but important group of people that care deeply for Trinity. She’s surrounded by people who love her no matter what and there’s obvious and deserved comfort in the arms of her parents and best friend Reina. But still, Trinity suffers understandably from low self esteem and a crippling sense that she’s just as evil as the spider that crawls around her psyche. She just wants to be normal and find a wonderful man to spend her life with. She has every day dreams just like every day women making her incredibly easy to relate to and root for.

The Hero:

Blaine is rather ruthless but understandably so. He’s also got a healthy complex where women are concerned and again, it’s understandable. But the man has a heart and despite his immediate distrust of Trinity, her blunt honesty and sad self image quickly endears her to him. It might take the man a while to admit it, but he likes her and he feels pretty awful about using her but just like Trinity, Blaine’s in a tough spot where he has to make a choice.

The best aspect of this hero is that Blaine fully and unquestionably accepts Trinity for who she is, curse and all. If there’s one thing this warrior understands its death and her curse makes sense to him in a way that has Trinity striving desperately to see herself in the same light Blaine does without succumbing to the burgeoning love she’s beginning to feel for him. There’s something about Blaine’s acceptance that make love the next step. It’s not a given like with her parents and Reina, instead his acceptance is completely optional yet he offers it freely and without a second thought.

My Final Thoughts:

KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK hosts a throw-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plot that feels a bit contrived and over the top on numerous occasions but still made for a pleasurable but often times confusing reading experience. Fast paced and more than a little overwhelming, the author throws it all at you time and again reminiscent of an automatic machine gun. Pow! Pow! Pow! In addition to the ping ball plot, the humor felt a bit forced and too rehearsed as though everything is said after much thought and while made to look witty and random, instead it comes off as pre-planned and robotic. Buuuuut, there’s a lot of page time here and a lot going on so I found that there was a teetering balance between what I liked and what I didn’t. Upon closing the last pages, I felt both disappointment and pleasure making this rating an easy smack dab in the middle.

Trinity and Blaine are enjoyable characters and surprisingly perfect foils for one another. If you didn’t notice already, I’m quite enamored with Blaine and his easy and unquestionable acceptance of Trinity. He helps her believe in herself as no one else can nor has. I think that’s what we want from people we’re close to, acceptance, and more often than not it’s the hardest reciprocating emotion we can achieve both within ourselves and from others. Besides, the already burdened plot would have collapsed if Blaine was unwilling to accept Trinity along with her curse.

Finally, I was left with some unanswered questions. This is somewhat weird and doubly disappointing considering the complex plotting but I never once understood the how’s or why’s Blaine and his band of warriors were immortal nor was there any explanation for their "gifts". For instance, Blaine can light his whole body on fire, throw fire balls, and create numerous weapons out of flames but why??? There’s no origin for anything, no back history. This is only one example but there’s many questions as to why certain people have certain paranormal abilities. I would have liked more. Perhaps a slowdown on the quips and more detail on the how.

For Paranormal Romance lovers that crave snarky and abundant humor, constant no-time-to-rest action, and a whole lot of hunky man flesh, KISS AT YOUR OWN RISK might be worth all the peril and doom that the title implies. For you, it just might be worth the risk. Enjoy!

3 STARS



Interesting plot. While I admit it was quite odd at first and I wasn’t so sure how far I’d get into the book, I’m glad I kept reading. I giggled, I sighed, I scrunched my nose up in disgust, I felt like encouraging the character to stand strong, and I cheered while reading Kiss At Your Own Risk. It was fun visioning hot “bad ass warriors” fight internally between being “manly” and too girly. The warriors all had learned feminine skills such as knitting and painting and found comfort in these skills when living under Angelica, the evil witch. We later learn that Angelica is responsible for giving Trinity the Black Widow curse where she kills any man she falls in love with. Why you ask? Oh I want to tell you but it would give it away! The reason actually makes me feel for the evil witch. Rowe creates some really sexy characters within this paranormal world; a black widow who you feel sympathy for and root on when she finally meets her match, death’s assistant who’s another strong heroine I hope Rowe gets into more, 4 sexy warriors, a stinky assassin, a very sexual assassin who has Angelica’s heart, a very hot Death that would probably make any woman melt, and loving parents. I definitely look forward to her next book.



Stephanie Rowe’s new Soulfire series starts off with a bang. The first book in the series, Kiss at Your Own Risk is a blazing adventure that will keep readers on the edge on their seats and flipping those pages. With everything from romantically challenged witches to Death in a business suit, this is great start to a new paranormal series.

Trinity Harpswell has only one week left before she will be free to live life and find love like she’s always dreamed of. But, she has to go another week without killing anyone she loves. That might sound simple if she wasn’t a Black Widow. Cursed since childhood, Trinity is almost free when she meets Blaine. Blaine has recently escaped from the same witch that cursed Trinity, but he had to leave a friend behind. He has one chance to free Christian and that’s killing the witch, but he’ll need a Black Widow to help him. Trinity and Blaine will race against time as Christian lays dying. Will true love allow Trinity to overcome the curse or will she be lost to the curse forever?

I found this book quite interesting. I always love it when an author comes up with something really unexpected. The idea of a real black widow was new and refreshing in the paranormal realm. With so much being written about vampires and werewolves this was something distinct and different. Stephanie Rowe has crafted a novel that has tons of action and adventure, while still giving readers the romance they crave.

I really enjoyed reading about Trinity and Blaine. Their relationship isn’t what you would expect. Blaine knows from the beginning that Trinity has been chosen by the witch to house her spirit once she is dead. Meaning she will basically come back to life in Trinity’s body. So he plans to let Trinity kill the witch and then he will kill her, but it doesn’t quite turn out that way. What a way to start a new relationship! Trinity fights her feelings for Blaine all along the way, and when she finds out he plans to kill her that seems the perfect solution. This is definitely a case of opposite attracting despite themselves. A very interesting love story.

One of the best parts about the book was the interesting set of supporting characters and what they could do. Trinity’s best friend Reina is Death’s assistant and lends a dark aspect to the story. Jarvis is a sword-welding friend of Blaine’s and Christian can turn his body into metal scales. The witch, Angelica is full of surprises and Augustus who smells like rotten banana’s has some serious pink dust from Hell and that’s just a few of the interesting bunch of characters Stephanie Rowe has created.

This book is witty, adventurous and actually makes a few really good points along the way about forgiveness and standing on your own two feet. I would recommend it to readers of paranormal romance who want a departure from the regular paranormal fare of hero’s with sharp teeth and heroines with fur. I liked the book a lot and I’m looking forward to the next one in the series.

Kiss at Your Own Risk is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I’m giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from book bag!



My Review: I’ll be honest, at first I really thought I was going to hate this book. I mean, we’re talking a guy that turns into a fireball falling in love with a female who is a black widow. I love the whole Vampire thing and sometimes the werewolf thing—but a fireball and a spider attribute?

Nonetheless, I gave the book a read, as I always do. You can never be certain if a book you put down has a change that takes it from not to your liking to something you love. I feel we owe every book that chance. So, I continued to read.

More and more of Trinity and Blaine’s past come out as the book moves forward. While, I still think that two main characters are a bit odd, the book turned out to be good. In the end, you find out about owning up to your past and realizing that sometimes you say things just to make someone else feel better—and the biggest thing, you can let go of your hatred to enjoy your future.

This one turned out to be a great Saturday night read for me.

RATING: ♥♥♥♥


After a century of torture, Blaine Underhill and his friends finally make a bid for escape but just as they near their goal, their arch torturer, Angelica, arrives to stop them. All of them escape except Blaine’s life long friend, Christopher. Blaine vows to return and save his buddy. The question is how can he save Christopher and haul the both of them out of the Den again? The answer is, he can’t. If he goes back in, he needs to find a way to kill Angelica. He needs a Black Widow who can find the secret to killing anyone.

Trinity Harpswell is on the verge of curing her curse with just one week to go. All she has to do is NOT fall in love with AND kill another man. Being a Black Widow is hell on a girl’s love life. But if she can keep from killing for this one week, she’ll be free to have a normal life. Then an old boyfriend shows up and the Black Widow comes to life. Luckily, her father rushes in to keep her from killing the poor guy. Unfortunately, the poor guy gets killed anyway and her father is accused of the crime. The only way she can save her father is to find a creature known as the Chameleon. The problem with that is she’ll have to kill the Chameleon before the week is out. Bad news for her, good news for the Black Widow in her.

Then she meets Blaine, a man at once honorable and with a lack of concern when it comes to killing that she finds dreadful and curious. Blaine sympathesizes with Trinity and offers an exchange. She tells him how to kill Angelica, he’ll kill the Chameleon for her. Blaine is pure warrior but all that time in Angelica’s clutches have given him certain...oddities. He can tell the difference between lavender and apricot scents, has appreciation for colors...and can do needlepoint. He’s also been trained in how to please a woman. Well trained. Very well trained, if you know what I mean.

Lest you think this is standard paranormal romance fare, let me assure you, it’s absolutely fresh and totally funny. Funny? Oh yeah. One of the evil minions is a schnoodemgon, a magical cross between schnoodles, demons and dragons. While Angelica is the big bad, these little mutant puppies are pretty nasty in their own right. But Angelica has her own problems and it’s not just her escapees. You almost feel some sympathy toward her but then you think about the schnoodemgons.

Ms Rowe gives us a hugely imaginative world that will grab you the minute you open the pages. The dialogue is brisk and snappy and shows a wealth of humor. Best of all, Blaine and his friends are simply...yummy. If you see Kiss At Your Own Risk, I suggest you buy it. It’s a fun, hot read for a cold, snowy January.

Be warned…Kiss at Your Own Risk is addicting, hilarious, and will have you craving more!

Blaine Underhill has been Angelica, the Black Witch’s prisoner for one hundred and fifty years. There is only so much womanly domination that Blaine can take. I mean Angelica has forced Blaine and his friends to take on women tasks. This is her way of taming the men. Blaine and his friends have been plotting to escape for a long time. They will only get one chance at trying to gain their freedom again. Almost everyone escapes. Blaine’s friend, Christian is left behind. Blaine vows to find a way to rescue him from the black witch.
Trinity Harpswell is the Black Widow, a deadly assassin. Trinity is ready to hang it all up. All Trinity has to do is just keep from killing anyone for at least one more week. If she can do this than she will be free.

When Blaine enters into Trinity’s life and asks for her help. Trinity will have to choose between helping Blaine or her freedom.

I have never read anything by Stephanie Rowe until now. I have to say that now that I have discovered Mrs. Rowe, I will be checking out her prior novels. Kiss at Your Own Risk is book one in the Soulfire series. It is actually very endearing to find a macho man like Blaine who is not afraid to admit that he likes to cross stitch. Though don’t get the wrong impression about Blaine as he also has your back and he is smoking hot. Trinity evenly matches Blaine move for move. She and Blaine are a perfect match together. There is plenty of action and romance for everyone. Be warned…Kiss at Your Own Risk is addicting, hilarious, and will have you craving more!

Format: Paperback

Dimensions
Length: 6.875 in
Width: 4.1875 in
Weight: 7.04 oz
Page Count: 416 pages