Shelf Full of Books

Battle of the Sexes cohosts Ashton Miller and Grace Vasquez battle it out daily on a 2 hour afternoon radio program that is facing cancellation when they agree to kiss to raise money for a charity.

The main focus of the story is the tension between the two hosts as they banter back and forth on the set and how Ash has a crush on Grace but can’t really do anything about it because she is in a relationship with someone else.

The author does a good job of developing the characters of both the protagonists through their interactions with secondary characters in their lives. But it’s not just that the characters develop and mature, it’s also that we get to understand better who they are because in some instances, they were already like that, we just didn’t know it.

I think that Grace learned the most about herself because what she thought she wanted she had in Phillip, her boyfriend – suave, good looking, well-mannered, well-dressed, a business man, affluent. Through a variety of circumstances her thoughts begin to change.

The battle between them really got interesting when the producers insisted that Ashton start handling some of his own social media. Then the twists and turns began to happen in the story.

I always appreciate it in a romance story when the attraction between two people is less about how “hot” they are and more about their character. To me that is a real romance story because most of us aren’t as “hot” as the characters in most of the romance stories we read. True love however, actually comes from the loving character of the two people involved, when they are willing to give more of themselves for the person they love than that person can give back at that moment. It’s in those moments when we see the real connection between Ashton and Grace.

I enjoyed Grace’s fiery spirit and Ashton’s flippant comebacks. I think their radio program would have been very interesting listening. The pacing of the book was similar to their radio show, it just kept moving along with no time for dead airspace. I thought that The Kiss That Launched a 1000 Gifs would make a good summer read. I gave it 4 stars.

Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

To see my complete review, visit Shelf Full of Books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-kiss-that-launched-1000-gifs-blog.html