“God this broke my heart, it destroyed me and oh the pain. It was so beautiful.” ~ A Book Haven.Danny O’Donaghue.Indie rock god.Lady killer.The devil with midnight hair and blue-flame eyes.After six years I thought the pain of what he’d done to me had faded. Guess not.Because I’m standing in this crowded lecture hall of the most prestigious music school in Ireland, staring at the person who … school in Ireland, staring at the person who healed me when I was broken. Right before he shattered me beyond repair.
And I still feel everything.
My ex-best friend.
My first love.
My tormentor.
…is now my professor.
Professor’s Kiss is a complete standalone contemporary romance full of angst, frustration and a broken bully. It’s going to hurt so good before you get that Happily Ever After.
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I loved this story so much. So much.
I feel bad for anyone who hasn’t read work by Sienna Blake to be honest. I stumbled upon her a while back and haven’t regretted ONE MINUTE OF READING! Not ONE! She is a master at weaving angsty love stories that consistently pull me in and wreck me. I cry every time and Professor’s Kiss was no exception.
This will fall under the category of second chance romance. It is the second book in the Irish Kiss series and you don’t need to read book one to follow along as each book is a standalone. The only thing consistent is the group of guys.
This book was highly emotional for me. The history between these two and their consistent back and forth really tugs at your heart strings. The deep pain and love that Danny and Ailis have between them paves the way for some super emotionally charged scenes! Just when you think you are in the clear and all is working out…BAM! The rug gets pulled out from under you and the emotions are intense again.
“Please,” I begged between sobs, “if you care about me at all, you’ll leave me alone. I’ve only just learned how to breathe without you.”
Gah! I can’t even.
I did actually also laugh. There is a scene in the locker room…that was a little funny to me. You’ll know when you read it.
Reading time for this story was around 5-6 hours. I lost track due to having to stop once for adulting purposes, but I did do it in one day. I would recommend clearing your schedule though. And Kleenex.
I am giving this one 5 stars.
I loved Saoirse and Diarmuids story in Irish Kiss, but this story… gutted me. In the best way! Ailis and Danny had me feeling ALL the emotions. I couldn’t stop reading until I finished the whole story. Now onto Declan’s story!
4 stars for Professor’s Kiss by Sienna Blake. This is book 2 in The Irish Kiss series. This is a college bully romance, but I would also call it a second chance romance. In this book we have Danny who used to be good friends with Ailish. They met when Ailish was fighting cancer and Danny was there with his mother who was also fighting cancer. Out of nowhere after the loss of his mother Danny was mean to Ailish and wanting nothing to do with her. She has no idea why and what she did wrong. Now she gets into the school of the arts that she ahs dreamed of. Little does she know she is going to come face to face with Danny again, and he is not the same boy she used to know. He is now a rock god and a jerk. “I survived cancer, asshole. Don’t think for a second you register on the list of fucks that I give.” While these two seem to hate each other, there is something underneath it all that still draws them to each other. They share a talent and so much more. I loved this book and everything about it. You have all the drama of a bully romance, plus the taboo part of it being a student/professor romance. If you love these types of books then you can not go wrong with this. Also, I am a huge fan of Sienna Blake and this book just shows you why.
I’d like to thank Sienna and Terrie for sending me an e-arc of this book, it is a spinoff to Irish Kiss which I read earlier this year, I really enjoyed it. I fell in love with this book it got me in the spin and it was just perfect. It is a way more better than Irish Kiss and it was fantastic!
I really enjoyed the plot to this, I also loved although Ailis did have cancer when she was younger it didn’t take a central focus to the story that she used it to gain what she wanted which I thought was really good. I liked the attraction both Ailis and Danny had for each other and how they were trying so hard to fight it.
Ailis I loved her character, the way she tried to be so strong around Danny and then eventually she was strong enough to deal with him. I loved how passionate she was about music and yet when it came to performing in front of Danny she had stage fright. I loved how she wanted to concentrate on her music.
Wow at so many times Danny was an asshole. But he always believed in Ailis and what she could do with her music and I loved that. Despite wanting to push her away he still believed in her music. So many times his emotions were in a spin because for some odd reason he was pushing away. We do discover why but I won’t spoil that for you guys!
The story is told in dual point of view and we go from the past to the present and I loved how we got to see their relationship in the past and then the rebuilding in the present. I do have to say in some stories not many quotes stick out but this one did:
“I’ve only just learned how to breathe without you.”
This absolutely destroyed me. I have never felt so much pain than when I read this line, the emotions I felt. I could totally relate. It’s such a beautiful story, and it honestly destroyed me. Something about Sienna Blake’s writing just gets to me and she writes some of the most beautiful stories. That quote will always stick with me when I think of this book!
Love this book. Wonderful characters and lots of emotion.
As always we come across a well written and engaging narrative. Capable of arousing various types of emotion. Understanding actions may be possible. Forgive and forget not so easy.
Danny O’Donaghue and Ailis Kavanagh meet in a hospital. She is a teenage girl fighting against leukemia. He visits his mother, who also fights cancer, every day. A fight that not everyone can overcome. Danny and Ailis disagree and re-encounter several times in the narrative, and gradually we understand the maturation, the traumas and problems that each one faced.
And like every Sienna’s Blake books, it could not be free from polemics. In this work we see bullying. I admit that I find it controversial and uncomfortable in the book as the protagonist remains interested in her abuser after years. The way she cares about what he says, and even what he does not talk about, shows some self-esteem issues.
This was a characteristic of the protagonist that irritated me enough until almost half of the reading. It’s the kind of thing that makes me reflect and worries because it only appears in the literature because it happens in real life. Girls and women of any age should not allow themselves to suffer such abuse.
In books, when this type of behavior appears you expect it to be from someone who has had a troublesome family. This is not the case with Ailis. And I do not know if the excuse of the emotionally disturbed cancer of the past convinces me.
But when you think it’s impossible for this couple to work out, Sienna Blake shows two wounded, close-knit hearts for a talent they both have in common: music. At this point, the author shows her talent by redirecting the reader’s emotions, writing scenes narrated by Danny with a tenderness that makes you sigh.
The characters show their fragilities little by little to each other. Walls are knocked down. Secrets are discovered. Rumors and intrigues spread at the same time that the couple’s feelings grow, although their relationship does not seem to evolve because of the lack of trust in each other and in themselves.
The torments of the past coupled with some dramas in the present can tear them away. At times it is as if the author is squeezing your heart like an orange. A torturous and at the same time delicious reading, which ends sweetly and gently. And it teaches us that it’s always worth giving a second chance. Especially for ourselves.
AAAAAHHHH!!!
Where on earth do I begin??? This is such a beautiful, slow burn, emotional second chance, frienemies to lovers type of read. And it will suck you in!
Sienna has such a way with words. She has such a way with these characters. The way she brings them to life, makes us a part of their worlds, is magical.
Danny O’Donaghue. Rock royalty because of his mega famous father, but also in his own right as the lead singer of The Untouchable. Ailis Kavanaugh is his childhood friend turned enemy turned student. Someone he’s always had feelings for but ignored. Someone he blamed for the absolute unthinkable; a childhood wish come true.
Their on again, off again, hot-cold, push and pull is written as only Sienna can. You will find yourself alternately hating them and loving them. Individually and together. That’s how well their stories are written. And never is it more apparent that two people belong together than these two.
I loved every second of this book. This is my favorite book of hers, without question.
Phenomenal read!
This unique story is so much more than a story of forbidden student teacher romance!!
Scorching hot, passionate, and emotional. This deeply intimate story of second chance love was an intense gut wrenching journey that gripped your heart from beginning to end.
The story of Danny and Ailis takes you on an emotional and poignant journey about of life, living and loving. They met years earlier under painful circumstances and from there something special developed and then it wasn’t. When they see each other again there’s a lot of unresolved stuff going on.
Their complex romance is one that certainly will leave you with a book hangover you won’t forget as the characters open their hearts and souls for you to see. The writing was spot on and the characters were well developed.
Albeit they frustrated me, once I understood their back story I could relate with their actions.
Professor’s Kiss was a wonderful story, it was so close to surpassing my feelings about the first book in the series, Irish Kiss, but just didn’t hit the high mark that was set by that book. My heart broke for Danny and all the love he lacked; it also found comfort in the way Ailis (AY-lish) did her level best to show him that love and how it shouldn’t be tied to what you get out of it.
Danny was not a nice person for most of this book. However, I never found myself hating him. I questioned his reasoning, wondered about how could see himself the way he did, even felt sympathy toward the way he kept himself so isolated, but never saw him in the same light he did. He was the epitome of a broken little boy who’d grown into a man who never learned how to cope with someone caring for him with no expectations.
I had a much harder time with Ailis. I loved her, no doubt about that, but she didn’t tug on my heart in the same way Danny did. I was constantly frustrated with what she put up with from Danny and how often she flip-flopped on her conviction not to let Danny continue to use and abuse her. While I understood how much damage Danny had done to her psyche over the years, her refusal to believe that she was worthy of anything was beyond maddening.
Professor’s Kiss was a slow-burn angstfest. While the plot, in both the present and the past, was constantly moving forward and propelling Ailis and Danny to address all the things that had transpired between them. Theirs was not a particularly happy story; there were countless traumas they’d suffered at each other’s hand and by outside forces. The connection between Ailis and Danny was undeniable, though; their dynamic was electric, and the care and concern they had for one another bled from the pages – even when they were trying to deny and suppress it.
I wish the end of this story would have matched the intensity of the first 90% or so of it. Professor’s Kiss had such an amazing build-up, and I was prepared for an epic ending to their story, but it just fell a little flat for me. If a little more of Danny’s healing had been captured in the book or there were a few more chapters of them being happily and fully committed to one another this book could have been stellar. I was so disappointed that the book fell apart, for me, in those last few moments.
Professor’s Kiss is the second book in Sienna Blake’s Irish Kiss series. These books are standalones, with some interconnected characters and overlapping timelines. These books do not have to be read in order, and there is nothing lost in reading one book without reading the others. Professor’s Kiss is written in dual first-person perspective, narrated by Ailis and Danny.
Sienna Blake is a phenomenal author. This book may not have hit all the right notes for me in the end, but it still delivered a fabulous story and was quite compelling. Ms. Blake is a skilled wordsmith. Her writing conveys a deep sense of emotion, and her style lends well to the deep, poignant stories she writes.
Danny O’Donaghue was the lead singer and lead guitarist of The Untouchable, singer-songwriter and international sex symbol, and son of mega rock star Dillan O’Donaghue of Irish rock legends, The Dublin Jar.
Ailis Kavanaugh is doomed. In the barrenness of her heart, Danny O’Donahue is like a phantasmal cloud, disllusioning and disconcerting. He jumps in and out of her life at the most inopportune times. Keeping her on her toes, her heart hanging on a hook of his soulful voice and drop dead sexy looks
It was one of those movie moments. Those moments that never really happened in real life, at least not in mine. A cluster of birds took off at once. And the crowd parted. Revealing a tall, broad-shouldered figure standing at the traffic lights waiting to cross the road. The sight of him in the flesh after six years hit me like a punch to the solar plexus. Danny O’Donaghue.
It’s like he’s the bane of her existence, choking her to the brink of death then reviving her with a kiss of life. This swinging between “He Loves Me; He Loves Me Not” is draining her heart of all the sap of forgiveness and it’s only a matter of time before she snaps and severs all ties to Danny Boy.
Bitterness mixed with longing, making it a ruinous and intoxicating cocktail in my stomach. It could eat me alive from the insides. Beautiful hatred. I could never forgive him.
I went in the story expecting really great things for Danny, whom I’d had a glimpse of in Irish Kiss #1. A broken songwriter, with dreamy looks is the stuff of legends.
Unrequited love, forbidden and doomed is my fave cloud to fall back on. Sienna crafted him with pure Assholic ingredients. Lots of tantrums, volatile temper, gigantic chip on his shoulder and his soul broken beyond repair. He’s angry at the world for taking one thing most important to him and he’s like a Bull looking for a China shop.
The on again, off again relationship was beyond frustrating and Ailis just lay at his feet like a doormat, I was not happy. Me No Likey!!
He snatched his arm away from my touch. “Go away, Ailis.” Then I realised his numbness was all false. Like how charred flesh hides the raw, marrow-ripping pain underneath. A sickness took root in my stomach, so poisonous I almost doubled over, as his pain became mine
But about 70% in, IT. HIT. ME!
I love you.
You shouldn’t.
He’s just a boy child with abandonment issues and loneliness making his body hollow. There’s absolutely nothing in there, a vacuum. He doesn’t know any better or any different. He has all these feelings and he’s absolutely inadequate dealing with them
And Ailis is just in love, she sees him like no one else, giving him her loyal support and undying promise, time and time again.
Now the story is back to making sense. I cried many times, was tearing my hair out many times and was swept away by epic love many times.
The temperature of their chemistry going from sizzling hot to icy cold, just wreaked havoc with my emotions and threw them in a hurricane. They went swirling and flying, hitting every wall, knocking all barriers. And I was left with devastated heart.
Poignant story filled to the brim with angst and spilling over!
4.5 “DeLish Dearg” stars
5 I’ll keep your secret here Stars!
One thing I can honestly say about Sienna Blake, she is totally worth the one click! Book after book I’ve read of hers and they all hold up to the highest standard. A great, well written, perfectly flowing story that pulls your emotions in every way possible.
Ailis fell in love that day in the hospital…so many years ago. She never realized it until the years have passed. She did know one thing though, music was in her blood. Not coming from any musicians in her family, she had to work for all she wanted to accomplish.
Getting accepted into the highly sought-after Dublin College of Music her senior year of college was music to her ears!!! She did it! Now to buckle down and impress each and every professor here. This could open all kinds of doors for her.
Imagine Ailis walking in to class her first day at DCM and seeing
My ex-best friend.
My first love.
My tormentor.
…is now my professor.
This story isn’t about a professor and a student.
This story isn’t about two people meeting for the first time.
This story has history.
As I was reading this beautifully written story, of a young woman wanting to make a name for herself… A young man who was forced to grow up so quickly. The demons in Danny are so hard to cover up. The demons were forced on him since that day in the hospital.
These two fight for each other. These two fight against each other. These two are meant for each other.
But with the test of time and life happening, can their fight be strong enough?
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She was his kryptonite
Danny is the ultimate prick. He was a sweet boy who had turned into a horrible, angry creature. He was in pain and broken. Danny and Ailis’s chemistry was undeniable and they both can’t stay away from each other. Ailis ached for his attention, no matter how destructive it was. She was his kryptonite. Danny stays a jerk throughout most of the story, which I find I’m still struggling with. Though he’s not a real loveable character, I found myself rooting for him to get his act together. That is the talent of author Sienna Blake. She made me love him. I was captivated as soon as I started reading. It’s an emotional read as the history between these two, full of deep pain and love, plays out and tugs at your heart.