The Perfect Kiss ( Kissed by the Bay #2) by Susan Hatler

From Goodreads

Olivia Lane wants to become the premiere event planner for Blue Moon Bay’s rich and famous. But first she has to impress Greta von Strand—millionaire and bestselling author of Men: Who Needs Them?—by pulling off a two-week luxury getaway for women. The retreat’s all about getting women to embrace their independence by nurturing themselves and each other, and Olivia, who’s never been lucky-in-love herself, is looking forward to it.

The retreat and Olivia’s goals hit a roadblock, however, when sweet-talking firefighter, Brody Mitchell, and his smoking hot friends take up residence at the mansion next door. Now, she must successfully keep Greta and the other women away from their male neighbors, fight her attraction to Brody, and pull off the retreat of a lifetime in one fell swoop.

It’s a battle of the sexes she’s determined to win, otherwise she could lose everything—including her heart.  

My thoughts

I gave this a 3 star or 6/10. It's a well written contemporary story that can be read as a standalone, but is part of the Kissed by the Bay series by Susan Hatler.

The Perfect Kiss is a novella length story that features as a cosy romantic storyline.

Olivia Lane wants to run an Event Planning Business, she is tasked with running an event for an acclaimed author of a book, called Men: Who Needs Them? It's her job to run a retreat for women, where they can learn how to be independent and to realise that they don't need a man in their life in order to survive.

Olivia is keen to make a success of the retreat and hires a property on a beach. What she doesn't realise is that the occupants of the adjacent property are going to be a group of firefighters. Will this be to the detriment of her retreat or can she use them to her advantage? More over one of the occupants turns out to be none other than Brody, who she'd met when he was working behind the bar one night and who'd turned her eye in more ways than one.

I enjoyed the on/off relationship that began to develop between Olivia and Brody as their paths inevitably crossed.

Did Olivia manage to survive without Brody or was she acting against everything that she was trying to promote at the retreat? The answers can be found out for yourselves, if you grab a copy of this story.

This is not the first story by Susan Hatler that I've read and it probably won't be the last.