★★★✩✩

Book Blurb

When her dominant lover suddenly ends their relationship without warning, Katherine is left reeling in shock. His suggestion that she take the cruise they’d been planning for their anniversary alone and use the time to recover sounds like a good idea, but being surrounded by happy couples proves more than she can handle. Trying to cope leads to some unhealthy choices and sends her stumbling into the arms of a dominant stranger.

Jack, with his easygoing smile and a willingness to listen to her woes, is exactly what she needs to get back on her feet. But when the self-destructive behavior continues, she learns he also has a firm hand when necessary. His aura of dominance and strength draws her like a moth to flame, but one odd occurrence after another leaves her wondering about her newfound companion.

As things heat up between them, Katherine is torn between the desire to submit to her body’s hunger and throw herself into his bed, and a stubborn need to cling to the last remnants of her former relationship. She struggles to hold on, but her body cries out for his touch, and to get what she needs, she just has to let go of the past and surrender to the future.

My Review

In Time for Love is the first book in the Timeless Love series by Kessily Lewel. It is a D/s contemporary romance and the first book I’ve read by this author.  It’s novel length at 179 pages but a fairly quick read. It focuses on the main protagonists, Katherine (later called Kitty) and Jack. These two strangers meet on a cruise where Katherine has gone to forget about her failed relationship with Christopher.

I liked the setting and the knowledge the author seemed to have of the different stops along the cruise. The hot and steamy bits of the culmination of sexual tension and buildup were tantalizing and enjoyable. It interested me enough to keep reading and I’m glad that I read it. It is interesting, sweet, steamy and it’s easy to get lost in the beautifully described setting.

The characters are somewhat infuriating. Katherine, because she is petulant and whiny so often, clinging stupidly to a relationship it doesn’t sound like she is all that invested in,  and trusting a complete stranger during a time when she is supposedly totally vulnerable and self-destructive. When we first meet her, it’s difficult to determine how old she is because she acts like a middle-aged woman who mopes around until she meets Jack. And then she becomes a hormonal teenager who can’t act like a normal twenty-something in front of a new love interest.

Jack is exasperating because at a time when it is most important to be upfront and honest with a new love interest, admits to keeping things from Katherine, although he can’t abide a liar and expects her to be forthright with him from the start. Their sightseeing moments were some of the most boring and frustrating parts of the story. Katherine whined and Jack pushed and none of it seemed crucial to the development of the story.

There is never an explanation for Jack’s enormous appetite, although another mystery is solved in the form of a supernatural element that is introduced practically on the last page. That is confusing as there is literally no other mention of the supernatural or any kind of hint that the book has a supernatural element up front. For someone who is expecting a contemporary D/s romance, it might be an unpleasant surprise to find out that there are supernatural elements introduced at the end. But perhaps it will be further addressed in the additional books in the series.

In short, the book is enjoyable if you want a surprise supernatural element thrown at you at the end of the story, if you enjoy D/s relationships created aboard a cruise ship, and if you want beautifully described scenery in South America.