Review: Turn Me On

Turn Me On by J. Kenner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Turn Me On is the seventh book in J. Kenner’s Man of the Month series, and it’s another winner. I’ve been a fan of this series since book one, yet each additional book sucks me in ever deeper. I find myself desperately awaiting the release of the next book, counting down the days until it appears on my Kindle. Each time a new one appears, I devour it, starting the cycle all over again. They’re the perfect books to binge read, and I’m almost annoyed with myself for deciding to read them as they’re released as it is forcing a wait upon myself when all I want to do is consume them all at once. Nevertheless, the obsession is so strong that I continue the cycle of diving straight into each new release as soon as possible, only to be annoyed by each new wait. It’s a damaging cycle, especially with how I think the wait between books will be shorter than they are, yet I continue to hurt myself in the same manner every time.

The Man of the Month series is a collection of interconnected romance stories, proving individual stories as a larger story plays out. Each novel features a favourite romance trope, ensuring there is something for everyone. The first book, Down on Me, provided us with the friends-to-lovers trope; the second book, Hold on Tight, provided us with the second chance romance; the third book, Need You Now, provided us with the brother’s best friend trope; the fourth book, Start Me Up, provided us with the one-night stand; the fifth book, Get It On, provided us with the secret baby trope; the sixth book, In Your Eyes, provided us with the bad boy billionaire. With book seven, Turn Me On, we’re given a one-night stand that quickly leads to a friends with benefits situation. It’s another new trope, and another winner.

Although each book is an individual story with a start and an end, I would recommend reading these books in order. To understand some of the details of the story in full, you need to understand how things came to be throughout the prior books. You’re certainly told, to ensure you have the basic facts to understand the story, but it is not the same as experiencing all that happened – for a bigger picture, read the series in order. Now that we’re over half way through the series, there are a lot of nods to past events and other couples – plus, you start to notice when prior books were making nods towards the events that are now playing out. By no means am I saying you need to go back and read all the books, but I am saying you will appreciate this series much more if you read things in order. Plus, it’s nice to watch how the underlying story is playing out.

With each book in this series you go in with certain expectations – you have an idea of how the trope plays out and you know who is to be the man of the month. Despite this, you’re interested in seeing how the little details play out – and for those following the series, you’re interested in seeing the additional elements added to the overall story. Although we’re never given anything new to the genre, we’re always given something unique to keep us wanting more.

With Turn Me On, the difference is in relation to the rest of the series rather than being in relation to the trope. In the prior books, we’ve watched as new relationships unfolds within the bar. With Turn Me On, we are given a relationship where there is already a past in place. The story takes us back in time, giving us months of history – the man of the month aspect being the accumulation of all that has been happening between the characters, the final point in their story (well, final in so far as we reach a point where we can say ‘happily ever after’, as I’m sure we’ll see more of them in the future books).

Although I did enjoy how this story played out differently to the prior books in the series, I do feel as though it wasn’t quite given the depth it could have been given. These books are quick reads, yet I feel as though this one was even quicker than the prior books. Although there was plenty occur throughout the story, there were plenty of elements to watch play out, I feel as though we were never as sucked in as we could have been. Some of the elements seemed to be lacking, certain details seemed to go without the deserved attention when I wanted real depth. It wasn’t badly done, but I feel as though this trope was not as well done as some of the other tropes have been. Due to this, I can easily say this book was not my favourite in the series – in all honesty, I would go as far as to say it isn’t quite a full four-star rating.

Nevertheless, it was another fun quick read. I’m still having a lot of fun with this series, and I cannot wait for the next book. In fact, there is quite a bit of promise with the next book and I’m excited to see how things play out.

Bring on book eight!

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