Reviewer: Rowena Undeniably Yours (Kowalski Family, #2) by Shannon Stacey
Series: Kowalski Family #2
Also in this series: All He Ever Dreamed (Kowalski Family, #6)
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: November 1st 2010
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 381
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Series Rating:
One-night stand + two percent condom failure rate = happily ever after?
Bar owner Kevin Kowalski is used to women throwing their phone numbers at him, but lately he’s more interested in finding a woman to settle down with. A woman like Beth Hansen. If only their first meeting hadn’t gone so badly...
Beth’s tending bar at a wedding when she comes face-to-face with a tuxedo-clad man she never thought she’d see again. She tries to keep her distance from Kevin but, by last call, she can’t say no to his too-blue eyes or the invitation back to his room. Then she slips out before breakfast without leaving a note and, despite their precautions, pregnant.
Kevin quickly warms to the idea of being a dad and to seeing where things go with Beth. After all, he’s not the player she thinks he is. But she’s not ready for a relationship and, given his reputation, it’s going to take a lot to convince her to go on a second date with the father of her child...
Bar owner Kevin Kowalski is used to women throwing their phone numbers at him. Even if lately he’s been more interested in finding Mrs. Right than Miss Right Now. Enter Beth Hansen.
Kevin and Beth may have started out all wrong, with an impromptu passionate encounter at a wedding, followed by a walk of shame. Yet Kevin knows there’s more to their relationship than a one-night stand. Especially when Beth turns up pregnant.
Kevin may be ready for the “next step,” but Beth doesn’t want a relationship with a former playboy, however irresistible he might be. And it’s going to take a lot to convince her to go on a second date with the father of her child….
I’ve been meaning to read this book for a very long time now because I read and enjoyed the first book, Exclusively Yours. I remember being happy that the next book in the series was going to be Kevin’s story because I loved him and his flirty spice self in Joe and Keri’s book.
So this book follows Kevin toward his happy ending. The Kowalksi’s remind me of my family. Our family gatherings are always huge and chaotic. There are kids running like crazy people all over the place and the adults are always laughing. Quiet evenings at home with family is never in the cards for our family and that’s kind of the same way things are with the Kowalski’s. I love them.
In this book, Kevin hooks up with Beth, a bartender that he had a run in with at his bar on the night of Joe and Keri’s wedding. He went to great lengths to try to hook up with her, involving his family and almost getting Joe and Beth in trouble with Beth’s boss but it all worked out at the end of the day because Beth ended up in bed with Kevin and he rocked her socks. When morning comes, Kevin says things that bring Beth up short and she bolts. She never expected to see him ever again but when she ends up pregnant from their night of naughtiness, Kevin comes storming back into her life and isn’t going anywhere. Along with Kevin comes his family. The whole Kowalski bunch and Beth is overwhelmed.
As much as I enjoyed the Kowalskis and Kevin, Beth got on my nerves. Her reasons for holding Kevin at arms length made sense in the beginning but when you’re 95% done with the book and she’s STILL not sure of Kevin’s feelings for her after EVERYTHING that he’s done for her, something’s wrong. I was starting to think that it was Beth that didn’t deserve Kevin. I get that seeing all of those women falling all over themselves in his bar and kissing napkins for him isn’t much fun to see but Kevin had done nothing in all the months that they were in their whatever that was they were in to deserve her non-trust in him. When Kevin is talking to Joe toward the end of the book and he’s telling Joe that Beth is always going to find something to hold against him and he was getting tired of it, I couldn’t help but think, “Finally!” It took him much too long to do something about the distance between him and Beth. The book was damn near over by the time he finally decides that it’s time to move the hell on. And the other thing that made me mad was how easy he caved to Beth at the end too. I wanted more groveling from her, after all of the crap that she put him through, I wanted her to suffer a little longer than she did.
But aside from my issues with the main couple, it was still nice to see the other Kowalski’s again and Kevin’s parents are the bomb. I just love them both to pieces. I was happy to see that things between Evan and Terry are getting better, the same thing with Mike and Lisa and Joe and Keri. I will definitely check out the next book because I want more Kowalski goodness (even though I hear it’s a different branch of the Kowalski’s) because, how can you not?
Grade: 2.75 out of 5
This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
This was my least favourite of the Kowalski original trilogy too, but I did still like the family dynamics. Beth didn’t work that well for me either.
I love this series but I agree this was my least favorite of the three for the same reasons.
I feel pretty much the same about the book, I liked Kevin and his family but Beth annoyed me so much. +
I liked the other two books in the series a lot more.
@Marg: I really liked the family dynamic and if it wasn’t for that, this probably would have been a DNF.
@Patti: That Beth, she was something else.
@Alex: The thing about Kevin though, was he waited much too long to try to do something about the distance between him and Beth. The longer they didn’t get together, the more pissed off I was at Beth AND Kevin. It was such a frustrating relationship.