Queen Move

Kennedy Ryan

May 2020 · Blue Box Press

About this eBook

From Wall Street Journal, USA Today Bestselling and RITA® Award-winning Author Kennedy Ryan, comes a captivating second chance romance like only she can deliver...

The boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can't have…

 

Dig a little and you'll find photos of me in the bathtub with Ezra Stern.

Get your mind out of the gutter. We were six months old.

Pry and one of us might confess we saved our first kiss for each other. The most clumsy, wet, sloppy . . . spectacular thirty seconds of my adolescence.

Get into our business and you'll see two families, closer than blood, torn apart in an instant.

Twenty years later, my "awkward duckling" best friend from childhood, the boy no one noticed, is a man no one can ignore.

Finer. Fiercer. Smarter. 

Taken.

Tell me it's wrong. 

Tell me the boy who always felt like mine is now the man I can’t have. 

When we find each other again, everything stands in our way--secrets, lies, promises.

But we didn't come this far to give up now. 

And I know just the move to make if I want to make him mine.

Ratings and reviews

5 Queen Stars Review by Lisa Late Night Support Group Up All Night With Books Blog Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan is just that a queen move in her writing. What I absolutely love about reading Kennedy Ryan's stories is the depth of them and Queen Move does not fail. There is so much heritage in this story that I felt all the feels that Kimba was going through. The depth and connections made is like I have never read before. This story is of Kimba and Ezra, who we meet Kimba in the All the King's Men duet and is Lennox's best friend and business partner. You don't need to read All The Kings Men duet to read Queen Move but it will be much more enjoyable if you do. Kimba is at a point in her life where she needs to make life-changing decisions that can't be taken lightly. But when she crosses path with the boy she grew up and then disappears for 20 years, her world is tipped upside down and washed around. Kimba and Ezra are at pivotal points in their lives. Still trying to reach that point of fulfillment. And even though their connection is chart stopping, life has other plans for them. Ryan takes us back and forth from the past to the present and they are remarkable. The connections and chemistry that she builds throughout this story just flies off the pages. The depth of her words and history of cultures and weaving them together has produced one of my absolute favorite stories by her. What can I say about this story but, it's brilliantly written.

Queen Move is a gorgeous second chance love story with heart, soul, and power all encased in a beautifully flowing, hypnotic romance that totally captured my heart. The story unfolds layers of carefully crafted lyrical words with substance and a swoon worthy story arc that breathes life into characters to admire and love. Kennedy Ryan is adept at producing strong, empowered heroines with grit, fight, strength, power, and determination and Kimba, the heroine at the heart of this love story, ticks all of the aforementioned character traits in a big way and more. Principled, loyal, driven, ambitious, and loving. She is beautiful both inside and out and is matched perfectly by Ezra. Gorgeous EZRA..... #sigh: the strong, silent type. The type of man who will come and put his arms around you and tell you everything is going to be okay. The type of man who will give you room to breathe and celebrate your achievements. I absolutely fell in love with him and was totally rooting for Kimba and Ezra as a couple. Their story is not straightforward; their road has twists and turns and is messy in places but Kennedy Ryan effortlessly unpicks all the real-life issues with ease creating a rich and passionate world inhabited by extremely well-developed protagonists whom I wholeheartedly believed in. In addition, the wider cast of credible and engaging characters add breadth and depth to the narrative enhancing the story arc and the depiction of the main characters. As soon as I read the prologue, I knew that, ‘Queen Move,’ would be special simply because of the second chance love aspect and the visceral connection I felt between the main protagonists. Honestly, it offers the reader beauty in abundance. ♡ It is the epitome of a second chance love story. I was hooked and have read and reread and chatted about these amazing characters and their story and loved every single moment. Inspirational in so many ways; I always learn something from a Kennedy novel and I always feel better for having read her words. I always feel like I am reading about real people. They become three dimensional, alive on the page and that is an incredible talent to have. Kimba and Ezra are amazing and their story is one you will want to experience.

Firstly, let me tell you one thing, *Queen Move by Kennedy Ryan* is the sort of novel you just can't stop talking about and want everyone you know to read… EVERYONE. I gobbled it down... KR has an incredible intellectual nimbleness. Thanks to her attention to details and knowledge of the topics tackled, KR challenges us constantly and poses the question that lies within today’s society. The ups and downs in the lives of Ezra and Kimba had me gripped from start to finish. I was a mess at the prologue, I am not joking. That opening scene was so close to home and I knew that KR had set the tone for this story. When you read a KR book , it is not all about the romance but also about the roots and the heritage of the characters. The story of Ezra and Kimba holds important messages about the lives and struggles they experienced right from their childhood but they are not shoehorned in for effect. I will not spoil it for you, but when I read the words Oreo and zebra, my heart broke into pieces. Kimba is a heroine you can’t help rooting for. She is a fierce, driven and intelligent heroine and she showed her strength from a very young age, the way she protected her friend Ezra was everything… no wonder they got married at the age of 6! I was completely swept up by their amazing story. I fell in love with the way the author completely told the tale and I willingly lost myself in all that was unfolding before my eyes. I devoured it all. I felt it all. Every. Last. Word. The story is so perfectly balanced, it's angsty, beautiful, ugly, honest and completely raw. There is no sugar coating the pure emotion and the chemistry is off the scale. The first kiss was just pure perfection and again, I got emotional because the characters were so relatable. Whatever you feel from what you read, you will feel for a long time after the last page, completely and wholeheartedly. You want to know why? EASY ANSWER, the best part of this book was the skillful way the author elicited emotion from the reader. I felt EVERYTHING alongside the main characters but also their parents and Aiko. All the pain and the heartache and the hurt. The brilliance of KR's writing is enhanced by the fact that her prose is extraordinarily efficient. Not a word is wasted. I was in agony at times reading it, wanting the two main characters to wake up and get it together. And then you realise this is the way normal people fumble through life. Making decisions that seem right but are not always the best ones… and how great it is to feel that involved with the story's main characters. When they both said goodbye that summer, I knew it and what kept me going was that KR sold me a fairy tale and I wanted to believe that they were going to get their HEA, I had to, even though the prologue threw a curve ball in the story. It is all about the PACT. I loved the exact timing of the chapters too (e.g. Two years before Present etc) I have not said much about the plot because I do not want spoil it. If I had to summarise it , I would say “ The author has given us a spellbinding twenty-first-century love story, Unforgettable . . . as engrossing as it is moving”.