Review: In Your Eyes

In Your Eyes by J. Kenner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Your Eyes is the sixth 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.

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. With book six, In Your Eyes, we’re given one of the most popular romance tropes out there – the bad boy billionaire.

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 half way through the series, there are a lot of nods to past events – 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.

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. With this one, there were a few unique elements to make it stand out.

To begin, the bad boy billionaire wasn’t as bad as they often are in such stories. There are nods towards his past, but he’s very much a new man. Usually in these kinds of stories we have to deal with all his a-hole ways – but not here. It was refreshing not dealing with such an element. Another aspect that was different with this one was in relation to the way the man of the month element played out – usually we’re waiting until the end of the book to see the contest, but this time it occurs early on. It was a nice change to the way these stories have been playing out thus far, and I’m certainly interested in seeing more twists in the future books.

While I did enjoy In Your Eyes, I would not label it my favourite book in the series. There was set up for some really big scenes to play out with this one, yet I feel as though the action potential was not reached. I enjoyed the story, as I have all the books in the series, but I had been hoping for a wee bit more on the action front. It would have been enough to ensure I enjoyed this book even more than I did.

There is no doubt this was another wonderful addition to the series, ensuring my obsession stays strong. J. Kenner is such a tease in making us hold out on the stories we really want to see, giving us repeated glimpses at the characters we’re so attached to, and even though Turn Me On is not giving one of the big characters a story I am excited to see how things play out.

Bring on book seven.

Also, for fans of J. Kenner’s Stark books, there’s another nod to the series in this one. Just thought I’d let you all know.

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