The Kiss Countdown

Romance readers, listen up! Etta Easton is a new author to get into, starting with her debut novel, The Kiss Countdown. This fake dating romance puts a risk-averse event planner with a thrill-seeking astronaut, and the result is a love story that will leave you starry eyed.

Special thanks to the publicists at Penguin Random House and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Summary

Amerie Price has had a bad year, from her mom’s health scare to losing her job to losing her boyfriend. Now Amerie is trying to launch her own business, but money is tight and she’s keeping secrets from her parents. But after wrangling a stranger into a spur-of-the-moment fake dating conversation in front of her ex one day, Amerie and her new “boyfriend” Vincent decide to keep the charade going. Vincent is an astronaut, and he wants to ease his own mother’s worries about his upcoming moon mission. Having a (fake) girlfriend may convince his mother that he’s more tied down to Earth than his job suggests. But as Amerie and Vincent spend more time in their escalating fake relationship, they’re starting to realize that there’s more reality than fiction to this romance.

Review

Even though this is a debut novel, Etta Easton’s narrative voice leaps off the page from the very beginning of The Kiss Countdown. The story is told from the perspective of Amerie “Mimi” Price, an event planner who’s down on her luck. After her mother’s most recent health crisis, Amerie lost her job and her boyfriend, and her own business hasn’t taken off yet… which is no help for her medical bills and her increasing rent. When she runs into her ex at a coffeeshop one morning, Amerie makes the rash decision to pretend she’s there meeting her boyfriend, roping virtual stranger Vincent Rogers into her charade. But the joke is on her: Vincent could also use with a fake girlfriend, but for a longer term.

Fake dating isn’t my favorite romance trope; it can be hard to make it seem like a realistic choice for the characters. But here, it works really well. I also love how the stakes keep escalating. From a one-off conversation to a New Year’s party to a months-long fake dating stint, the pretend dating keeps getting extended to something more. And when Amerie moves in with Vincent (of mutual benefit to them both), they’re also effectively roommates. Later, the only-one-bed trope gets thrown in for good measure (and to good use!), further pushing this fake couple together.

Amerie and Vincent are such opposites in nearly every way. She’s prickly and grumpy; he’s easy-going and considerate. She’s highly risk-averse; he’s an adrenaline junkie with the career to prove it. I love how they even each other out… or, rather, how Vincent is such a balm to Amerie.

Both are close to their families and have complicated relationships with their mothers. Indeed, those mom relationships are a driving factor behind much of what happens between Amerie and Vincent. While Amerie has some baggage she needs to confront, with Vincent, it’s his mom who’s in need of some introspection. There are some heavy topics, from chronic illness to the loss of a loved one. Both are handled very well and add a lot to the story.

Amerie and Vincent are a couple that I was rooting for the whole time, even when Amerie got a bit frustrating! Their relationship is believable and sweet, and the book is bolstered by bigger themes, great side characters, and lots of fascinating space talk.

Final Thoughts

The Kiss Countdown is a cute and smart romance for fans of space and NASA, the importance of family, and a fake dating love story that escalates all the way into the real deal. This is a fabulous debut, and I’m counting down the days until I can read Etta Easton’s next book.

Get the Book

You can buy The Kiss Countdown here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	Texas
Number of Pages	336
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	April 9, 2024
Publisher	Berkley

Official Summary

A struggling event planner and a sinfully hot astronaut must decide if their fake relationship is worth a shot at happily-ever-after, in this starry debut.

Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie’s favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.

Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a plan: for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent’s doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.

What Amerie doesn’t plan for is Vincent’s gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he’s exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she’ll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.