Title: Down on Me
Author: J Kenner
Publisher/Year:  Martinin & Olive 1/11/18
Length:   238 Pages
Series:  Man of the Month #1

Overview

Tight muscles. Vibrant Ink.
Meet Mr. January. Winter’s never looked so hot …

Certified bachelor Reece Walker wants two things-to save the local bar he manages and to get Jenna Montgomery into his bed.

He has a few ideas for the bar. But Jenna . . . well, he’s going to have to rely on cold showers, because she’s been his best friend for years, and that’s a line he just can’t cross.

Until one wild kiss on a dark night changes everything. Now Reece is certain Jenna’s meant to be his.

And with long nights in bed, sensual caresses, and deep, lingering kisses, he sets out to thoroughly convince her that friends can be lovers, too.

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of J Kenner so i’m always open to a new series.  It’s interesting how this is positioned though.  I mean, in the summary, it says that it can be read as a stand alone, but knowing that there’s a story that is being set up here, something that would last long enough to encompass the entire year, it makes you wonder if there’s value to reading it all.  (which we all know that i will).

So in this first installment, we have a trio of friends, who were best friends for ages and now we start to see that feelings are getting involved.  I think that it’s safe to say that Ms Kenner isn’t going to give us a story that will make us hate one of the mains or another so that’s good news.

On top of that, we have the basis for the rest of the story – all centering around a bar called The Fix – a staple in their lives and a place that needs to be saved from a mortgage gone awry.  That’s where Brent, Reece and Jenna come into play – making it their goal for the near future to come up with enough money to make the payment and then keep the bar running.

So you can imagine a high stress story – all wrapped into a romance.  Jenna and Reece had chemistry at one point before she moved away from Austin and both had been in denial about it and well, when things happen, you see how there’s potential for so much more.  The challenge of course is that we know that Reece isn’t the kind of guy who wants commitment (he’ll happily be in a relationship but marriage isn’t an option) and while Jenna goes into it saying that’s ok, things change and we see heartache and heartbreak.

It’s a sweetly written story – lots of great chemistry and passion that we have come to expect and crave from the author but it’s still written in a way that we enjoy the romance and the potential that may come down the line.

On that note – i can’t wait for book 2 since the set up shows us that we’re going to get a lot of angst and likely a bit of pent up anger and frustration coming up for the new main characters.  Enjoy!