Tag: al jackson

Overall Grade: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

If you fell in love with the rock stars of Sunder in A.L. Jackson’s Bleeding Stars series, then you WANT to read Kiss The Stars, Jackson’s newest offering. A standalone in her newest series, the Falling Stars series, Kiss The Stars marries the rockstars of Jackson’s group, Carolina George, with the rock stars of Sunder. It’s a story about brokenness and finding a completion in another person when you believe your penance for past sins shouldn’t allow it. As we found with the men of Sunder, Leif, the hero of Kiss The Stars, is more of the fraught heroic type, something we adore about Jackson’s stories. He’s a compilation of pieces broken by devastating events while seeking retribution for his losses. Jackson’s heroine, Mia, has also been fractured by the death of her best friend. Grieving and feeling lost, while needing to be stalwart for her children, she’s searching. One night, these two damaged souls meet, and their chemistry is electric. It is here where Jackson does her best work. It would be easy to simply love this story, but, to be honest, Kiss The Stars has the same sensibility as her Bleeding Stars: a hero or heroine finding redemption in the love of their soulmate. This reads as an extension of that series, offering us more connection to their world. It reminds us why we loved their stories as the heroes and heroines fight to overcome life’s challenges to find their happy ending. Kiss The Stars offers all of the best parts of Jackson. So…why should you read it?

1. There is a lyricism to this book. When I first read the books from the Bleeding Stars, each book read, to a certain degree, like a songbook of sorts. Her prose reads like song lyrics. Jackson is the queen of well-placed fragments that create a cadence to her words that feel like the poetry of a song. If it isn’t intentional that her stories for rock stars would offer this lyricism, then she easily intuits the presence of these characters through her words. 
2. The characters of Mia and Leif are crafted in a way that creates an emotional connection from its start. These two are different sides of the same coin of tragedy. While their tragedies are very different, they are both struggling with living an abundant life. In meeting each other, they find life again. Jackson builds their relationship beautifully on the page, capturing them between equal parts of deflection, connection, and attraction. From one moment to the next, Jackson holds her readers captive to an emotional spectrum of frustration, tears, and happiness. Everything is here in this story, meaning this story is for everyone. 

As she has shown us in the past, A.L. Jackson is a consummate storyteller. She stamps her books with her own style, punctuated with well-placed fragments and metaphors. In Kiss The Stars, readers will find the tale of Mia and Leif, two people destined for each other yet with the potential temporality of a falling star. Thankfully, the endearing love of these two is a reminder that love will always conquer the sins of our past, even when we believe ourselves unworthy of that love. If you missed those broken heroes from Sunder, then Kiss The Stars should be at the top of your Kindle library or e-book. 

In love and romance, 

Professor A