Review: A Kiss by Design by Christy Hayes

Title: A Kiss by Design
Author: Christy Hayes
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Cah LLC
Publish Date: November 27, 2013
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a romance fan.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "What's a girl to do when her best friend is making a mistake? Stop him, of course. College sophomore Emily Dilbert has been best friends with Dylan Chamberlain since they were kids. All she wants is for him to be happy and she knows him better than anyone. That's why when she finds an engagement ring in his backpack she has to stop him from marrying the wrong girl. Dylan Chamberlain has been in love with his brother's girlfriend, Emily, since the second grade. When his brother asks for help planning a surprise proposal, Dylan knows it's time to bury his feelings and finally let Emily go. Too bad his heart refuses to cooperate. All of Emily's attempts to lure Dylan away from his girlfriend fail, forcing her to turn up the heat on their friendship. Will Dylan reveal his long-buried secret and tell Emily how he feels? Or will Emily be forced to use any means necessary to show him the error of his ways?"

My Two Cents:

"A Kiss by Design" is a new adult story about Dylan, a sort of dorky college guy, who is in love with the beautiful Emily. There's just one problem though! Emily happens to be dating Zach and Zach is Dylan's much cooler brother. When Zach gives the engagement ring that he hopes to give to Emily to Dylan to hold on for safe-keeping, Dylan knows that he really should come clean.

I've read a couple books by Christy Hayes before and she writes some pretty good romances. It took me a little while to get into this story but hang in there because you do get another sweet romance in this book. It's a sweet story and I liked that we got to see where each of the characters were coming from. Some of the book focuses on the crazy scheme that Emily and some of her girlfriends cook up to figure out what was happening with Dylan. I didn't really like that part as it didn't seem to ring true for me.

I loved the relationship between Dylan and Emily, especially when you compare it to the relationship between Emily and Zach. Zach is sort of horrible to Emily. His head is huge and he is so tied up in being the star football player for his college. He just expects Emily to wait on him and to do everything for him. Dylan and Emily seem to have a much better relationship as they have a lot of mutual respect for each other.