Blind Kiss: A Novel

Blind Kiss was not my favorite Renee Carlino book. This told the story of Penny and Gavin, who first met during a psychology experiment where two people talk to each other blindfolded and then kiss to see if there can be chemistry without physical attraction (spoiler alert: there was!).

In typical romance/chick lit fashion, Penny and Gavin weren't together, and the book tells the story of their past mixed with their present as they weave in and out of each other's lives. Blind Kiss tries to show the connection between Penny and Gavin, but I just didn't feel it as much as I've felt a connection between two characters in other books. It seemed that they let each other down more often than they were there for each other. They each had show more questionable actions and I didn't love how it all wrapped up. show less

Penny is a suburban housewife living in a McMansion and feeling completing unsatisified with her life. On the outside, she has the perfect life--a 14 year old genius who is going to MIT in the fall, an attractive husband, volunteering at her son's school, yet nothing feels right. She loves her son Milo dearly. But he will be leaving soon for college. Penny sits outside of a Subway that used to be the ballet studio she studied at in her youth. She dreams of what could have been before her dance partner dropped her tearing two of her tendons and ending her dancing career.

Gavin has been in the friendzone since shortly after he and Penny participated in a psych study to help out Penny's best friend Ling. Gavin and Penny were blindfolded and show more asked to kiss to determine whether people can have chemistry without the physical attraction. Gavin asked Penny out immediately after the study but Penny needed to focus on her studies and dancing. But a decision Penny made her senior year changed their relationship.

Gavin has always loved Penny even after the decision she made that changed their relationship. Now, the table have turned. It's Gavin's turn to decide whether their relationship can be pursued or if they will forever be stuck in the friendzone with each other even though they both have incedible chemistry together. But horrible timing. Will Penny find that something to fulfill the emptiness in her soul? Will Gavin make the same mistake that Penny did 14 years ago? show less