Put a Ring on It (Ready or Knot #1)

Title: Put a Ring on It (Ready or Knot #1)
Author: K.A. Mitchell
Publisher: Dreamspinner Publishing
Release Date: September 9, 2015
Genre(s): Contemporary
Page Count: 204
Reviewed by: Gigi
Heat Level: 5 flames out of 5
Rating: 4.8 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Kieran Delaney-Schwartz—adoptee, underachiever, and self-professed slacker IT guy—lives his under-the-radar life by the motto: Don’t try, don’t fail. His adopted siblings are all overachievers thanks to his driven, liberal parents, but Kieran has elected to avoid disappointing anyone by not getting their hopes up. He’s coasting through his early twenties when he’s hit head-on by Theo. The successful decade-older Broadway producer sweeps him off his feet for a whirlwind thirteen months that are pretty sweet until it all comes screeching to a halt on Valentine’s Day, with an unexpected proposal via a NYC Times Square Flash mob.

Now everyone wants in on the wedding, except the grooms…

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess to being fangirl-stupid when it comes to K.A. Mitchell’s books. I’ll let the screen shot of my GoodReads ratings list of Ms. Mitchell’s books speak to that. (Right, click for full-sized image.) She tells interesting stories with complex, deeply flawed characters full of life and emotion and writes one hell of a smoking hot sex scene. She’s unique that way for me since I usually prefer my characters with a hero complex, complete with the knight in shining armor. This book confused me at first glance and brings the old saying “don’t judge a book my it’s cover” into full light. “Wait, K.A. Mitchell wrote a book about gay marriage? Love and trust and warm fuzzies? Look at that cover! Happy, smiling boys back-dropped against two intertwined wedding bands. Huh. This will be a change for her.” Well, don’t let that cover fool you. These boys had to wade through a treacherous sea of angst and claw their way to their HFN. Yep, this is definitely a K.A. Mitchell book!

We start with Theo on the eve of his graduation from college, together with his three best friends Gideon, Jax and Dean, solidifying their friendship with a last hurrah roller coaster ride on Coney Island with a promise that they will always be friends. This is the setup for the Ready or Knot series.

Flash-forward 13 years and Theo is now a successful Broadway theater director, deeply in love with IT worker Kieran. These boys are polar opposites. Theo is a showman, anyways wanting to be “on” in every situation, a perfectionist and romantic to the point of ridiculousness. Kieran is quiet, almost reclusive and has a very low drive for success. He doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body and absolutely abhors grand gestures of romance. I guess Theo didn’t quite pick up on that because he stages a Times Square flash mob to propose marriage to Kieran, which takes Kieran completely by surprise. And the angst begins…

Theo and Kieran now find themselves on different wavelengths and it threatens their relationship. Why is Theo so hell-bent on getting married? Why can’t Kieran express his love to Theo? Why does everything need to be so dramatic with Theo? Why is Kieran so hell-bent on not getting married? And of course these two don’t communicate very well. Add in Theo’s meddling best friends and boss and Kieran’s traditional Jewish grandmother and it all just plain goes to shit.

I absolutely loved this book. While Kieran took a while to warm up to, I was mesmerized by Theo’s loving, free spirit and fondly shook my head every time he got everything so incredibly, desperately wrong. In the end they finally find themselves on the same page and we get a lovely HFN. BUT, do NOT let the fact we don’t get a HEA deter you! Remember, this is a series and we’re going to see these boys again. We KNOW these boys get a HEA. It’s K.A. Mitchell. Duh!

Highly, highly recommended!

 Author Link GoodReads