Kismet by Gab Tuls

 Kismet by Gab Tuls is a unique book that lets the reader decide which direction the story goes in and make decisions for the main character, Tracy. The overall story is about a lady, Tracy, who is having an affair with her boss, Mitch, who then fires her and says they will not be having any further contact because Mitch's wife has become pregnant. Tracy then tries various ways to look for new men and try various jobs, including a topless waitress. Before long she realises she needs a fresh start and so moves to a new part of the country, Australia.

Now, I did like the fact that the reader was able to choose the direction of the story, but this was also a critical weakness of this book and one of the main reasons I have had to reluctantly decide to give it a low rating, but I will get to that in a moment. I like this element of choice as it is unique, and I can't recall ever having read another book like it, as you are usually stuck with the storyline the author has set in their order. If this part of the book was better thought out, it could easily be an outstanding book. The plot was alright, and the chapters were short, which was nice, but other than the element of choice, I can't say there was much of anything that made this book special. Having said that, there were some really tense moments and some really good cliffhangers, which may make the reader want to read on.

My main problem with this book is the choice element. This is because I read the book choosing one combination of the choices available, but by the end of the book, I was prompted to essentially re-read the book and select better options. This annoyed me and was only made worse because when I was re-reading, many of the chapters were the same as my first read through the book, with very little change and nothing particularly special. The book also lacked a particularly interesting plot, especially on the correct sequence of choices, and so it just made this a bit of a boring, dull read, which did not really excite me all that much. Finally, this book is meant to be erotica, but compared to other erotica, there were not many erotic moments, and when there were, they were not very exciting or arousing. These moments would have been much better if the author included more details and imagery and actually aimed to arouse the reader much more. 

Therefore, I have reluctantly decided to rate this book 1 star as it is not overly interesting nor very gripping. It can get very repetitive and make terrible erotica. It is probably better categorised as a romance with some sex scenes rather than an erotica. I must remind the reader of this review that these are my opinions, so if you read this book, you may think differently about yourself. I would recommend that readers read this book and form their own opinions. I must thank both NetGalley and the author Gab Tuls, who independently published this book, for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) in return for an honest review. I would add that I love see independently published books as no one should be prevented from publishing a book and I would say to this author that they have massive potential, it may just be a case of either not including the element of choice or better developing this.