After the Kiss by Lauren Layne

When I started my love affair with Lauren Layne’s books, I had the chance to read the last two in her Stiletto series thanks to NetGalley. I liked them so much, I went back and bought the whole series, but then got sidetracked and left them on my digital shelf. I finally decided to read the first one, which kicks off this contemporary series that I imagine has a Sex and the City vibe (though I can’t say for sure, as I never watched Sex and the City).

One-Sentence Synopsis
A columnist is given an assignment that leads her to pick a guy and reluctantly take their relationship to the “next level,” not knowing that the guy she’s picked is betting that she can be his quick fling. For a full synopsis, see this book’s Goodreads page.

The Good Stuff
Glamorous characters, such as the stars of this book, take me a little while to warm up to.. But once I get my reading groove, I have a ton of fun in this world. Julie is a commitment phobe who is completely fine with dating a guy but stopping before anything gets serious. Mitch tends to get too serious, so when a co-worker bets him he can’t just hit it and quit it, he’s determined to prove himself.

There was a lot of shades of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but that’s what made it so fun. Julie and Mitch are good together, establishing early that neither is what the other expected and falling into an ease that they don’t normally experience with other people.

I especially like that Julie willingly embraces her own private nightmare, the boring at-home movie night, when it comes to Mitch. Though it seems like such a silly thing to fear, it’s all part of Julie not wanting to fall into that boring couple relationship that she’s watched her friend fall into.

The Romance Factor
There is some delicious angst here, and the point of view change is always so good in a Layne novel because the hero has just as many emotions as the heroine, and the reader gets to experience them all. So many feels! 4/5

The Steam Factor
Julie and Mitch definitely have some sexy times, and while they’re not written in extreme detail, they’re fast and steamy and left me a bit warmish. 4/5

Final Thoughts
This series is fun, and I intend on not only reading the other one I haven’t yet read, but doing a re-read of the other two as well.

Art Immersion – Texas Vacation Day 2

It’s easy for J. Felbs and I to get lazy during vacation, especially when we’re visiting a city we’re not familiar with and when we have a comfy place to stay and watch TV. This time around, however, we decided to get out of our comfort zone this time and visit some museums in Fort Worth. We didn’t plan this ahead of time. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision at breakfast, but one that proved to be a good one.

We started with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

The museum was beautiful and we enjoyed walking through all the galleries. There was so much to look at and we kept finding rooms and hallways, like a cool, art-filled maze.

Like with anything that  involves pictures, even though I liked looking at all the art, I only took pictures of the things that really resonated with me, which meant that in many cases it was the art I found to be a bit creepy.

After that, we went to the Kimbell Art Museum across the street.

At the entrance of the Kimbell

The feel of the Kimbell was different from the feel of the Modern. It felt smaller and warmer in décor, though not necessarily warmer in atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong, everyone was super friendly (one of my favorite parts of visiting Texas), but there was definitely a more serious feel to the gallery.

We decided to leave the other museums until the next day to beat rush hour and what seemed like ominous weather. We headed back to Grandma L’s and relaxed for awhile before meeting up with more family for dinner at a restaurant called Frescos.

Besides the awesome feeling of hanging with my husband and actually getting out and doing something, I was proud of the amount of walking and standing I did. I definitely felt like I was able to get past the mobility issues and really enjoy seeing things outside of the norm. Day 2 proved to be just as successful as Day 1, if not more so.