Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Kiss at Your Own Risk
    Unavailable
    Kiss at Your Own Risk
    Unavailable
    Kiss at Your Own Risk
    Ebook391 pages6 hours

    Kiss at Your Own Risk

    By Stephanie Rowe

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    He needed a killer woman...

    Blaine Underhill is one lucky man after having recently escaped a century and a half of imprisonment at the hands of an evil witch. Now he's determined to save his still-enslaved friend, but in order to do so, he'll need the help of one of the world's most lethal women.

    She was drop dead gorgeous, literally...

    Trinity Harpswell is sick and tired of being a Black Widow. Having managed to go three years without accidentally killing anyone she loves, she's one short week away from freeing herself from this killer curse forever.

    When Blaine tracks her down and convinces her to help him, little does Trinity know that the next seven days are going to be murder!

    Praise for Stephanie Rowe's paranormal Romances:

    "A hilarious underworld romp filled with mayhem, sass, and romance to die for." -Katie MacAlister, New York Times bestselling author of Love in the Time of Dragons

    "Snappy patter, goofy good humor, and enormous imagination... [a] genre-twister that will make readers... rabid for more." -Publishers Weekly

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781402261459
    Unavailable
    Kiss at Your Own Risk
    Author

    Stephanie Rowe

    It all came to a head with the The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards, which Mrs. Tang read to our third grade class. Sure, I'd been a voracious reader beforehand, but those Whangdoodles made an impression on me that lasted forever. The story was sheer magic, and it was the start of my life revolving around how often my mom could drive me to the library. My role changed from reading other people's creations to weaving my own whimsical stories when I became a camp counselor. I spent hours telling stories to the kids, making them up as I went along. I doubt they were up to Harlequin/Silhouette standards with proper GMC (goal-motivation-conflict), but I was in high demand on rainy days to entertain large groups of kids. The logical step of turning my stories to paper took a few more years, as I became distracted by college, law school, dabbling as a corporate lawyer and then working in the footwear industry. At first, I used my computer at work, pounding away until late at night (got lots of kudos for being at work so late - little did they know...heh heh heh). Once I got through my first couple of books and determined that yes, this was my passion, I bought a computer and set up shop in our bedroom. It took over 100 rejections and 18 completed manuscripts, but my dream finally came true! The day I sold, my husband came home from work with a rubber tree as a present. He said the reason I'd made it was because I'd kept bouncing back all those times when the rejections piled up and frustration seemed overwhelming. Unfortunately, my Labrador ate the tree the next day while I was at the day job, but the thought of that rubber tree still warms my heart. Can you see why I write romance? Because I live with my own hero every day. (Did I mention we met when I picked him up in a bar almost 10 years ago? That's a whole other story....) We share our home and our king-size bed with two Labradors and two cats, who graciously entertain each other while I'm working at the computer. You can email me at stephanie@stephanierowe.com.

    Related to Kiss at Your Own Risk

    Related ebooks

    Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Six Dart Out

      Sep 10, 2023

      Marc figured the girl was a vegan. Her puke had overflowed the sink and run onto the floor—tomatoes and rice marinated in microbrew lager. He’d told Vegan Girl to slow down, but her friends had won the turning-21-peer-pressure battle. Admittedly, Mar

      9 min read

    • Article

      His Brilliant Career

      Mar 19, 2023

      His Brilliant Career
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Punning Man

      Feb 14, 2023

      I found a classical composer crouched down in the corner of our wardrobe. “What are you doing in there?” I said in shock, to which he replied, under his breath, “Shh, I’m Haydn!” I stole a bulk lot of cloth from a nunnery once, but I didn’t make a ha

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Killer

      Aug 21, 2020

      The Killer
      6 min read

    • Article

      Dirty John: The Real Thing

      Oct 2, 2017

      LOS ANGELES - Their first date was at Houston's, a restaurant in Irvine where he opened the door for her and put her napkin on her lap. Candles flickered along the polished-mahogany bar; jazz drifted from speakers; conversation purred. Debra Newell h

      10 min read

    • Article

      Listen My Dear Alones: Notes on Gina Berriault’s ‘Women in Their Beds’

      Aug 16, 2017

      Berriault must have known that good work, the best work, may not always pay the bills, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, it outlasts the counting. The post Listen My Dear Alones: Notes on Gina Berriault’s ‘Women in Their Beds’ appeared

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Ladies Book Club

      Apr 10, 2024

      “Our brains are shaped with the capability to care deeply but also to kill. This deep ambivalence is potentially problematic. A society filled with people who are inherently very compassionate and very violent might prove unstable.”1 1Emile Bruneau,

      25 min read

    • Article

      Heroes

      Nov 10, 2023

      When we hear the first shots, we are standing in the living room of Fallingwater, the Frank-Lloyd-Wright-designed home in Pennsylvania, listening to our guide’s description of the furniture. My husband and I wonder aloud about who would set off firew

      11 min read

    • Article

      St. Patrick’s Day

      Apr 10, 2022

      At university, I said I hated Nate Moore. It was an annoying-sibling hate, the kind exclusive to teenagers. I remember once we were in the living room of my and Jen’s townhouse-style dorm in the fall of my sophomore year, drinking Kahlua with coffee.

      17 min read

    • Article

      Thieves

      Apr 11, 2018

      Thieves
      25 min read

    • Article

      Echo

      Jan 10, 2024

      Once, during a depressive episode, Stanley cut out thirteen small paper stars and taped them to the ceiling of his cluttered bedroom. They were made from the construction paper left over from his youth, stored away in a basket on a shelf in the basem

      14 min read

    • Article

      The HAPPY HUNTER

      Mar 21, 2021

      The HAPPY HUNTER
      8 min read

    • Article

      These Bad Things

      Dec 23, 2019

      These Bad Things
      9 min read

    • Article

      Human Contact

      Aug 10, 2022

      Beer tasted like wet money—or maybe just bad beer did. Viola had never tried any other kind. She preferred white wine, but there was no white wine at this party. “Drink it like medicine,” the guy manning the keg said. “It’ll loosen you up.” He wore a

      18 min read

    • Article

      Dampening

      May 10, 2022

      When I first met Inspector Daria Hunt, I wanted to kill her. Not there and then; I wanted to take as long as possible over it, maximizing the pain whilst leaving her with no hope of survival. Images of horrific injuries leapt into my mind, a catalog

      16 min read

    • Article

      They Got Their Show

      Aug 10, 2021

      It is midnight in Ponderosa and Nick Velasquez can’t sleep. The public doesn’t want him to sleep. It’s been like this ever since it hit all the big streaming platforms. The viewers stay up bingeing and he… well, he has been bingeing in his own way. W

      14 min read

    • Article

      Billy Barf and the Red Fox

      Jul 18, 2020

      Billy Barf and the Red Fox
      3 min read

    • Article

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • Article

      Green Ticket To Ride

      Feb 19, 2024

      Green Ticket To Ride
      8 min read

    • Article

      'Where The Nightmares Go' Maps The Territory Of Fear

      Jun 17, 2018

      C. Robert Cargill's new story collection covers the globe and genres of horror from classic to modern, with ghost stories, thrillers, gore and puzzles that would be right at home on premium cable.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Righteous

      Jan 22, 2019

      Righteous
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Devil Inside

      Nov 16, 2023

      The Devil Inside
      5 min read

    Reviews for Kiss at Your Own Risk

    3.5/5

    39 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Stephanie Rowe has been on my Authors-to-check out list for years, so when Sourcebooks offered this one for free, I snagged it up.
      And I am glad I did. This book starts with action, and it doesn’t slow down. But the reason I loved this book was the characters. The characters were a mix of good sides, and bad sides. Their goals were grounded in their pasts. In a way, all the goals made sense, even though their methods might be frowned upon. Both Blaine and Tracy were a bit homicidal, but they fit. In fact, I loved how Blaine saw Tracy’s homicidal tendencies as a sign of love.
      I am really glad that I picked up this book, and I’ll definitely pick up the next book in the series.
    • 5/5
      This was a fun, quirky book that will have you laughing out loud in several spots. Every time I start one of Stephanie Rowe's books, I know I am going to get transported to a completely different world from anything I have read before. The characters are each so unique that I couldn't wait to turn to the next page to see what awaited me. This story is action packed, humorous and addicting! I can't wait to read the rest of the series!! Definitely recommend for anyone who likes paranormal and fun reads!
    • 3/5
      Plot:Trinity is cursed, and if she kills for the 5th time she will be unstoppable, every time she falls for a guy she kills him, but if she only makes it one more week she will be free. But then her dad gets into trouble, and there is a serial killer in town, on top of it all sexy Blaine shows up and offers her a deal. Now she must try to hate him for a week so she wont kill him by accident.My thoughts:There was sure a lot going on in this book, and I liked that. It was strange, funny and utterly weird sometimes.Trinity is really sweet and she hates her curse. Every time she falls for a man she goes into killing mode. While Blaine is angry tormented and hate women. He has been tortured for 150 years by an evil witch. Here is the funny part, I kind of understood Angelica, the evil witch doing the torturing. She just wants to create nice men that are kind to women. Ok wrong method, but still, not even when she sent her cute killer dogs after Blaine and his friends I could hate her.It was a strange world that I would have liked to explore more. There seems to be magical dimensions, and our world. Death, or Prentiss that is his real name, took over the Death contract and got that job that way. There are nasty assassins running around killing, there werewolves, vampires, trolls, it's a full world. By the way, I liked Death, sure he was an utter ass-hole that had a harem of women, and they never got any satisfaction from him, but still he was so funny.Among all this magic, there is humour and that really sets the tone for the book. It is just so amusing.One problem I had thought was that Blaine was so angry and male, did he learn nothing while tortured *coughs* silly question. But the whole I will kill you think, meh, then again it had to be that way. But he did lose a few points there.Recommendation and final thoughts:I was so amused, I do like funny paranormal romance, so I would recommend this to others. It's a 3,75, that could have been a 4. I would sure like to read more from this world and explore it, and meet Death again. Perhaps he will learn a lesson about dealing with women.Reason for reading:Sounded fun
    • 4/5
      Kiss At Your Own Risk is one of those books that I just had to pick up after reading the premise for it. It sounded like such a fun read!"Trinity Harpswell is a cursed Black Widow-death and mayhem are all part of the job description. If she can manage to go just one more week without accidentally killing someone, she'll break this killer curse and put her Black Widow days behind her. When sexy Blaine Underhill III shows up at her door and asks for her help rescuing his friend from the clutches of Death's evil grandma, Trinity gets pulled into a daring high stakes adventure." (Synopsis from Goodreads)Doesn't that sound cute and fun? And I was in the mood for a fun romance so I figured I would love this book. But really I was left with mixed feelings. Was it a fun read? Yes. But it was also a book that left me feeling a bit frustrated and to be honest I'm not quite sure why. The attraction between the two main characters worked for me and although there was obviously a huge obstacle (the Black Widow thing and all), I was interested in the relationship. I wanted to see how things would work for the two of them and how they would resolve their problems. I liked the concept of Trinity having this Black Widow curse which basically meant she killed any man that she loved. And there were some really strong parts of the story that kept me entertained throughout. But I kept finding myself with mixed feelings towards the main characters at certain points. Trinity had dated a serial killer in the past (and then killed him herself accidentally) but her reasons for dating him...the whole scenario itself...did not work for me. And it was the little things like this that took away from the reading experience for me with this book. On the whole, I did end up liking it enough that I would read more by this author but I wasn't completely sold on it. I'm interested now in reading other people's thoughts on the book just to see if anyone felt the same way. And I'm curious to see what the author will do next with these characters in future books or where the storyline may go next as there were a few things left open.
    • 4/5
      When I first started this book I was wondering what I got myself into. It started with the most absurd scene of 3 kick ass men fighting their way out of a den of torture and discussing their talents at cross-stitch, painting, etc.and then being attacked by killer schnoodles (dogs for those who may be wondering). Seriously this is where the book was going? But once I gave into the absurdity and just went with the flow I actually found this a fun book that made me laugh and I had to keep reading until I was done.The StorylineRidiculous plot#1Trinity has been cursed to kill any guy she falls for which would be bad except she keeps falling for jerks, cheaters and serial killers. The Black Widow gives her a blue print view of how to kill the guy and super human strength to complete the task. If she manages to kill 5 guys she will be doomed to remain the Black Widow for the rest of her life but if she can make it to 5 years without killing she is free of the curse. She is one week away and one murder away from either being free from the curse when Blaine finds her. He wants her to use her powers to kill the witch who has been torturing him and his buddies but tells her he plans to kill her as soon as she is done helping him. So in her twisted mind she actually gets totally into him because he turns her on and she feels safe from ever falling in love with him. So she feels free to have sex with him without having to worry about her curse. Yes, it was ridiculous but it was funny seeing the guys she falls for, how she tries to refrain from killing these jerk of a guy she keeps falling for and the interaction between Trinity and Blaine. It was a bit much that she is so against killing that she builds a coffin for an insect she accidentally smashes but oh well.Ridiculous plot #2This uber-powerful witch, Angelica, has created this house of torture and has been kidnapping boys to torture them or have her "girls" torture them. Besides stabbing them, freezing them other painful scenarios she also instills a love for girlie past times like cross-stitching, water colors, etc. She's delusional and thinks that she is actually helping these men by making them into the perfect mate for her girls. She actually claims to love both her girls and the men she tortures and that she does all of this out of love. Yes, someone seriously needs therapy. This is the evil witch Blaine and his buddies have escaped from and want Trinity's help killing.Then you throw in all these minor sub-plots like Death is Angelica's grandson but he also has a soft spot for Trinity because he used to baby sit her as a baby, there is an assassin that goes around turning his victims into pink dust and more ridiculous things but really it is a fun read.The CharactersBlaine cracked me up once he escaped from Angelica and hooks up with Trinity. After all those years of torture and forced into more feminine pursuits it was funny seeing him trying to change his thoughts and actions to be more manly. He sounds sexy as heck even if he needs a needle and thread to really meditate and relax. Trinity was also enjoyable as she desperately tries to keep from making that final kill that will doom her to a life as the Black Widow.The RomanceThings were definitely hot between Blaine and Trinity and I thought it was hilarious watching the two of them interact. I thought Blaine carried the whole "you are a woman, you will betray me" thing a little too far but other than that I thought it was a sexy, funny relationship.All in all...A great read if you need a laugh and are willing to suspend any sense of rationality.