No Kitten Around: A Magical Romantic Comedy by R.J. Blain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sadly, this might be the only MRC(wBC) book I wasn’t able to get behind 100% so far.
My reasoning is very spoilery, read at your own risk.

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My foremost problem is, I really don’t think Kennedy should have been forgiven.
If you are with someone seriously, and you’re serious enough and know them enough to agree to marry them and spend your life with them, you don’t just throw them away the second they get in some shit without questions. You don’t blow up and throw the ring (they saved pennies to buy) in trash, together with your relationship. And then, the moment you find out they’re actually a hero, waltz right back in (on a high authorities horse, to boot) to get back on that train.
Yes, I’ve read all the protagonist’s reasoning why he had forgiven her, I’ve read that she did change her mind and how she rummaged through a dumpster to get the ring back.
*(Also, am I blind (which is entirely possible, since I have a tendency to skip over text) or is there a plot hole where Kennedy has supposedly done something that was supposed to redeem her somewhat while he was in prison, and we get hinted about it but never actually learn what it was?)
I still don’t think it can be swept under the rug as a ‘mistake’ she made, and I remain firmly in the ‘unforgivable’ camp, where I keep not liking the character of Kennedy at all. I’m glad she herself thinks what she did was unforgivable, but it still doesn’t change the direction of the book.
To be honest, for a good chunk in the beginning I kept hoping for a twist where the Kitten would actually turn out to be the actual heroine of the book in disguise and Kennedy would be unmasked as a shallow and manipulative being I still can’t help but feel she is. (Why? Because whatever regrets she had and whatever she did to ‘make up’ for it, was never for him. She didn’t do a single thing that would actually affect Reed’s life and well being, until of course he became known as a hero and of interest to others. )
Besides, we are actually clearly told that the main character who has the sight clearly saw the hate in her. And that just the breaking point that rids me of any doubts concerning my beliefs on the subject of Kennedy.
In the book, this is supposedly explained by the whole ‘love and hate are 2 sides of the same coin’ concept. I don’t know if human beings are really operated by this concept, but I never believed it to be true and always thought it was one of those sarcastic sayings everyone knows to be a joke.
It takes me a while to reach either, but once I choose ‘love’ or ‘hate’, I can never switch to the other. Spikes of anger and frustration? Sure. Anxiety and irritation? No doubt. But actual hate towards the person you love? I don’t accept it as a realistic concept because it doesn’t work like that in my world.
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For this reason, I just couldn’t get behind the character of Kennedy with all her behaviour. It’s a personal preference. Sometimes some things just really don’t agree with you. Consequently, unfortunately, it also led to me being unable to fully get behind the main characters as well, with the whole stance on love-and-hate issue. And then…the book sort of just fell apart for me.
The amount of ‘beatings’ I found excessive and boring at the same time didn’t help either.

I still think there are a lot of fun(pun) parts in this book, and the main ‘conflict’ wasn’t bad at all, but it sort of took too much of a background role to more uninteresting parts, inho.

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