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I've been anticipating Jackson and Kiera's story for a long time, so I absolutely couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Now I've got a bit mixed feelings with this one, however, I've just been having an off week with the books I've been reading. So for now, I'm amounting this mixed review to my off-week, I apologize in advance.
I'm going to start off by saying that I did love this book and finally got the most anticipated happy ever after! I've been so curious as to why Jackson never made his feelings known towards Kiera, but my goodness, once everything is revealed, my heart was absolutely breaking for him. Jackson has got to be one of the most selfless, yet selfish Bishop brother ever. I understood his reasons for never telling Kiera the truth about how he felt, but it also wanted me to hit him upside the head and be like, come on! Let's just say a lot of time was wasted, but that was their story. Not always an easy one, but they got there eventually.
Jackson was a playboy-jerk and I was just waiting for someone to give him a taste of his own medicine. And I knew it wouldn't be pretty if that time came. He's not perfect and he irritated me quite a bit in this one. But the one thing you can't fight is the insane connection and relation that Jackson and Kiera have. They're childhood best friends and they're both pivotal in each other's lives. Nothing will change that, even the fact that Kiera is set to marry somebody else. Plus, it's damn near impossible to resist the ever so sexy and smooth, Jackson.
Kiera, she's sweet and deserves everything good in her life. And all Jackson ever wanted for her was to be truly happy, even if it wasn't with him. I got rather frustrated with Kiera because she constantly made up excuses for why people did the things they did. The signs or red flags were staring at her right in the face, but she chose to ignore it. She kept that going much further than I thought she would and it was leading towards something disastrous. I've always had the feeling that things with Trent were progressing too quickly.
At first, I wasn't exactly on board with the way the book was written, with the timeline starting from when they were teenagers, around the time of Kiera's engagement, her wedding and finally, present day. But we were warned that it was going to be a bit of a slow burn, we don't get to the present day until about 50ish% or so. Despite my feelings towards that, I was rather thankful for it in the end, we really got to see the progression of Kiera and Trent's relationship, which was something we don't even get a hint of in the other books in this series. Trent was not my favorite person at all and things were slowly piling against him (I was rather surprised by him in this one, he definitely wasn't who I thought he was). But Jackson's not a perfect person either, his jealousy and hate towards Trent only fueled the tension between them. Jealousy sure is a green monster and these two had it. But Trent's jealousy leads him towards something much more hateful and rather unforgivable.
So yeah, Kiera, Jackson, and Trent all had their faults in this story. I didn't agree with a lot of the things that they did. But it's evident that a lot of things would have been avoided if they were just honest with each other from the beginning. However, I know we wouldn't have a story if things didn't happen the way they did between them. And it sure is a crazy story with a bit of unexpected suspense!
Keeping Him was indeed a slow-burn of a sort because of the time it takes for them to finally admit to each other their feelings, the drama and angst are there as well, the twists and turns and a bit of suspense. Kennedy Fox definitely knows how to weave a story together to keep you hooked the entire time, it was so easy to devour this book. I'm so sad to say farewell to this series, I've loved every single one of the Bishop brothers. But at last, they all have their happy ever afters! Keeping Him wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be, but I'm overjoyed that Jackson finally pulled his head out of his ass and got his girl ;-)