[Review] Last First Kiss - Julian Winters

Summary: They say you never forget your first kiss. But Jordan Carter wishes he could forget the one he shared with Jamie Peters as teens. And the one they almost shared again last year before Jamie made it clear he wasn’t the “right” man for Jordan to be with while he’s figuring himself out.

Now, Jordan’s fully focused on his career at 24 Carter Gold, his family’s event planning company, and ready to move on - until his boss assigns him to plan a new client’s high-profile wedding. The bride’s man-of-honor? None other than Jamie.

As things ramp up the closer they get to the wedding, so does Jordan’s relationship with Jamie, with sarcastic asides turning into steamy hook-ups. But can Jordan afford to pursue Jamie if he’s still unsure of who he is? Or is knowing who he loves enough? Venue shopping, cake-tastings, and dress fittings with the man he can’t forget just might change the man Jordan Carter is meant to become.

Last First Kiss by Julian Winters is a second chance romance about finding yourself–and the love of your life. (Pub Date: Jan 20 2026)

This means well, and it does fine, but it's a little messy. 

3+ because I loved the main point.

This book proposes to be for those who still haven't found their label. Our main character Jordan wants to make his family proud, find the woman he'll marry and have a great love story to tell his children. But he hates going on dates. And when one seems to have been perfectly planned he messes it all up because he thinks he saw Jamie, the guy he had his first kiss with but had rejected him. This is probably an omen because soon he does meet the real Jamie again, as he's the best friend of the woman whose high profile wedding Jordan must coordinate.

My big problem with the book it is that it tries to be non linear, but for one I don't think the flashback chapters added enough, and second they weren't so well integrated, so not only they were showing us something the story had already told, but they also disrupted the flow. 

The main couple is cute, though. It's a nice romance you will be cheering for. We do have something of a love triangle, but I'm not even sure it was needed, even if the potential story there was good, had Jordan gone the other route. 

I like the initiative of writing about a character who is still figuring himself out without the typical "How will I come out?", "Oh no, what will my parents say?" cliches. Jordan's problems are more about him than others, without the easy conflict that those clichés bring. At the same time, I wish the conflict had been more real. In the end it just felt that Jordan hadn't studied enough to know which of the letters he was, and of course that's okay for real life, but it's anticlimactic for a book centered on that. Actually, because that conflict was so minor, the problem became Jamie not being so accepting of a "noob queer", and for that I needed more resolution, I needed Jamie to work harder for his redemption.

As you can see, it's a book that does make you think, with good characters (by the way, and since I didn't get a chance here, I really loved Jordan's family!), even if I think the execution needed more work. 

Also, if I know my books well, there's a Javi story ready to be told, and I want to read it!

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.