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This Chick Read: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

Florence Day is writing the final book in her four book contract as a ghostwriter for one of the most prolific and popular romance authors. After a bad breakup, she’s having trouble writing that hea. She meets with her new editor, a rather stern yet attractive man, who doesn’t relent on this novel needing a happy ending. With one day to finish the book she finds out that her father has suddenly died. She puts the book on a temporary back burner and heads home to say goodbye and help her family plan a funeral. What she doesn’t expect is for her new editor, Ben, to show up on the doorstep of the funeral home…. as a ghost.

The Dead Romantics was such a surprise. A young romance writer who can see ghosts is a rather unique choice as protagonist, but her love interest being a ghost is an even bigger leap. Despite this unique situation the novel’s story just makes sense and Ben’s confusion over what happened to him is balanced by Florence’s family and her need to give her father the funeral he wanted. As Florence and Ben take on these tasks they find a bond developing that just doesn’t make sense since he is, well, dead. I kept wondering how the author was going to make this work and she seamlessly delivered a story that was entertaining, emotional, and left the reader feeling great about their journey.

The byplay between Ben and Florence was certainly entertaining but there were some family dynamics in play throughout this novel as well. Florence left her small town behind and moved to New York to pursue her dream of writing, but never came back home. She was known for “seeing” ghosts and wanted to put that stigma behind her. Unfortunately she put her family behind her as well and her father dying didn’t allow her the time to fix things with them while he was alive. I loved her brother and sister, the family funeral home business, and this charming town who can’t help but be in everyone else’s business. Working through all of her feelings with her ghostly editor by her side made this story unique, weird, and wonderful.

I saw The Dead Romantics on a Best of Romance 2022 list and I have to say that I would agree with the decision. This unique, quietly romantic novel deserves all the accolades. If you haven’t read it yet, please pick it up and read it on vacation this year. You will love it, I promise!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Dead Romantics

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

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This Chick Read: Play For Me by Libby Hubscher

Sophie Doyle has her dream job as the head athletic trainer for the Boston Red Sox when she makes a call during the World Series that gets her fired, her boyfriend dumps her, and the city of Boston hate her. Needing to escape she takes a short term job as a trainer at a New Hampshire boarding school. She ends up roommates with three men, two of whom are wonderful, and the third, Jonas Voss, is gorgeous and surly. With a positive outlook on her new life, Sophie is determined to help her new students, even though they are more interested in music than sports, and make inroads with her attractive and grumpy roommate.

This was the perfect kind of sports romance. The sports revolved around our heroine, who rose to the pinnacle in her field in a male dominated world. When that world blows up around her she doesn’t give up and looks to redeem herself. The second thing I loved about this romance was that our hero Jonas was a musician and didn’t know a lot about sports so they were opposites who attract, but this story also had an enemies to lovers element. The story set-up was great, the character development felt full, and the romance-to-be was a lot of fun to read. Who doesn’t love a grumpy hero?

This novel took two of my favorite tropes, a sports romance, and an enemies to lovers plot and melded them into a fun story. There was also a redemption element for both characters that helped us root for their individual challenges as well. There was a great cast of characters, in particular the other two roommates who were an involved gay couple, and Sophie’s best friend, a famous movie-star. There was plenty of back story and plot to keep even the most jaded reader interested. Truly, this was a breeze to read. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Play For Me

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

Nada Syed’s life has not gone as she’d thought, still living at home with her family in the Golden Crescent neighborhood of Toronto, her start-up company Ask-Apa launched with a fizzle due to a shady business partner, and her best friend Haleema is getting married. Meeting Haleema’s fiancé Zayn for the first time at his family’s convention is off to a rocky start when she runs into his brother Baz and her past comes back to haunt her. She and Baz have a past and despite the years since she’s seen him Nada’s strong feelings remain, both the good and the bad.

Much Ado About Nada is a clever re-telling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing but set in a world and culture that is very different than the original script. Nada lives in a Muslim community and the cultural differences between her own life and the original characters while living centuries apart actually had some similarities about a woman’s role in a family and their community. I was again fascinated by this peek into a world that is so different than my own middle class caucasian life. There were also a lot of similarities between our heroine, Nada, and the regrets any woman might feel for the choices she made earlier in her life. So, I relished the differences in culture and the vibrant colors and food choices, but also found it easy to identify with Nada and care for the portrayal of this young woman trying to find her place in life.

As with Jane Austen re-telling’s, Shakespeare always seems to have a laundry list of objections, misunderstandings, and miscommunications. Much Ado About Nada held true to that formula, there was drama aplenty! There was also gentle humor, loving familial relationships, and the love of a good man. The last took a little while to get to, our heroine having to find herself and navigate the pitfalls she left in her past but the conclusion was oh so satisfying and left this reader with a good feeling when I reached the end of the story. Much Ado About Nada was wonderfully told and engaged the reader with an ease and experience. You’d never realize this is only this author’s second novel!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Much Ado About Nada

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

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This Chick Read: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Theoretical physicist, Elsie Hannaway, is an adjunct professor who hates teaching and just wants to finish her research project she’s been toiling on between teaching a million courses to undergrads and working for Faux, a fake-dating service. Being a fake girlfriend helps pay the bills but her lives are about to intersect when the brother of one of her favorite clients turns out to be the experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and rules the physics department at MIT, where there’s a job opening for her dream job. When Jack meets Elsie the theoretical physicist when he’s known her as Elsie the librarian, her two lives are about to collapse. However, the Jack she comes to know isn’t the same horrible tyrant who ruined the lives of theoretical physicists everywhere.

I love these women of STEM romance novels of Ali Hazelwood’s. Not only are they cleverly written, but the characters are flawed, real, and go through all of the self confidence issues that regular folks like you and I face on a daily basis, but perhaps even more so! Elsie had a great back story that captured my heart immediately. Diabetic since her youth, she’s always felt like she was a burden to her parents and because of this kind of lets the world walk all over her. When she meets Jack, the person who she thinks is her arch enemy, she is shocked that he doesn’t appear to be what she’s always believed. As we read further into the story, we understand Jack more and more and find him very easy to love as well. Both characters have had things shape their lives and mold them into who they are today. Totally flawed individuals who have to grow to connect with this other individual who certainly seems to be their soul mate. Their story was certainly swoon worthy!

Romance novels have certainly evolved over the years and Ali Hazelwood’s have helped that evolution by writing about a segment of our female population that aren’t usually the heroine’s in romance novels. Kind of like the first “Wallflower” books in the historical romance genre (now totally overdone btw), these women of STEM are certainly intellectual, but Ms. Hazelwood does a great job of showing how these women of STEM have the same insecurities and messed up youths as the rest of us. Underneath those white lab coats are women who just want to be loved, just like you and I. I have a Bachelor’s in English and by no means am proficient in science, math, etc. but I LOVE reading these novels and identifying our likenesses. I also love the surly men who come to love these great women. If you’re looking for a different kind of romance novel, please give this book a try.

Love, Theoretically is an exceptional romance novel. Not only does it have my favorite trope, enemies to lovers, but it has a little mistaken identity and rom-com thrown in as well. What isn’t funny about a young woman who has to fake-date men for a little extra cash to survive? Those scenes make for some great storytelling! Jack is a beast of a physicist and a prime specimen of a man and their interactions have great chemistry and heat. His direct stares followed me into my dreams and haunted me. Really!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Love, Theoretically

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Borrow My Heart by Kasie West

Wren is sitting in her favorite coffee shop sipping a brew when she sees two cute boys and overhears their conversation. One of them, Asher, has been communicating with a girl online and his friend is telling him he’s being catfished. Totally going outside her comfort zone, Wren decides to pose as this girl and save Asher from an embarrassing decision. The problem is that she never gets the chance to tell him that she isn’t that girl and ends up really liking him. How will she finally confess the truth?

Borrow My Heart was typical Kasie West with interesting characters and a story that has a huge heart. Wren’s back story made her someone who protects her heart against hurt living by a set of rules she’s made that puts a wall between she and anyone who tries to get close. On the flip side, Asher is an open book. He’s sweet, easy to talk to and seems to prop her up when her insecurities make her want to hide her heart. The perfectly complemented each other and it was easy to see how they would work as a couple. I was totally on team Wrasher!

The reader is in on Wren’s secret the entire time she’s developing a relationship with Asher which amps up the tension because we know that train wreck is coming. Although, truthfully, Asher seems like such a sweet guy that I can’t believe he wouldn’t be understanding. What actually happens, I did not see coming. Which made this story totally fun to read.

This is a young adult novel that has a lot of heart and a considerable amount of angst. It surprised me, which made me like it more than I had initially thought I would. Never underestimate this author, it’s rare that she doesn’t deliver a great story. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Borrow My Heart

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate-if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Finally Mine (Benevolence #2) by Lucy Score

Gloria has taken control of her life after ten years of being in an abused relationship. Leaving her boyfriend and getting her first job in a florist shop. Aldo has always been in love with Gloria, but used his National Guard tours as a way to remove himself from seeing her get hurt if he were to confront the man who was hurting her. When Gloria’s finally free Aldo promises them both that they will explore their future together as soon as his last tour is done. Unfortunately, he gets hurt, losing a limb and spends time recovering his strength and overcoming insecurities until he’s ready to put them back on that path together.

This is a re-release of a book Lucy Score released in 2018 and since I’ve read more recent books of hers, I have to think she’s improved as a writer A LOT since she wrote this book. Gloria’s tale and happily ever after definitely needed to be told. I love stories about women empowering themselves, and this was a classic tale of an abused woman. Aldo’s story also needed to be told. We have men and women who go on tour who come back both mentally and physically injured. I would’ve loved to have seen a fresh story about these two survivors and how they found love with each other. We got a little bit of that but I will admit to being disappointed in how this story was told.

As this is the second book in the series, you’d expect a little bit of referencing of things that had happened with the previous novels characters. Finally Mine takes this referencing 200% further, recapping huge portions of the story- in fact, I feel like the author cut and paste large chunks of the last story and included those bits into this book. I don’t know if it’s because I read these books only a few weeks apart, but there was so much repeating of what I’d already learned in the first novel that I started to not care about Gloria and Aldo’s tale. I spent my time skimming and looking for new portions of their story and then trying to piece those chunks together. I feel like the author did the reader a huge disservice in the style of writing she chose for Finally Mine. I think there are ways we could’ve learned their history where it would’ve felt fresh, or maybe picked up at some point in their plot and wrote some new content. As it stood, it felt like about 60% of this novel was re-capped. That is just not enough new content for me to develop feelings for these characters. The re-capping actually ended up being more annoying than helpful. I so wish this author hadn’t done that to these wonderful characters.

No surprise that I had trouble with this book. I think the characters should’ve been given a chance to have their own story instead of just re-telling what we’d learned in the previous novel, or shown the same plot from a different perspective. Because of that lack of new content I wasn’t able to care for these characters as much as they deserved. Maybe some day this author will re-write this novel so that these characters are allowed a chance to shine. ❤️❤️❣️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Finally Mine

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: The Sweetheart List (Sunrise Cove #4) by Jill Shalvis

After a bad breakup and needing a life change, Harper Shaw heads back to the last place she was truly happy, Sunrise Cove in Lake Tahoe. Renting a storefront, Harper wants to live her dream by opening a bakery and making her family’s recipes. When she arrives in Sunrise Cove, the place isn’t quite ready for her to inhabit, but with the help of a teenage runaway and the handsome yet grumpy bar owner next door, Harper is soon on her way to living the dream. If only she could found out the secret Ivy is keeping about why she ran away from home, and figure out what makes Brodie tick her life would be pretty sweet.

It’s funny how picking up one of Jill Shalvis’ books always makes me let out a breath of relief and relax into what I know will be a good story. The Sweetheart List’s easygoing pace and Harper’s determinedly sunny outlook plus the delicious Bodie made it so easy to relax and enjoy a great story. I wasn’t wrong, this one was a charmer!

As with all of this author’s series, the main character is a little lost, but her quickly found group of friends become a lifeline back to happiness. The Sweetheart List is a familiar plot but I never tire of reading about great friendships, quirky relationships, and finding out who you are while surrounded by people who feel like family. Harper, Bodie, and Ivy were easy to love and easy to root for…what more do you want out of a weekend of reading? ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Sweetheart List

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above list I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chicks Audio Review: Small Town, Big Magic by Hazel Beck

After seeing Small Town, Big Magic on Amazon’s Best of 2022 list I thought I’d give the audiobook a try and you know what? I liked it!

Emerson Wilde is the youngest President of the Chamber of Commerce her small town of St. Cyprian’s has ever known. What she lacks in age she makes up for in big personality and her can-do attitude, helping local business owners and checking items off lists. When she is attacked one evening by creatures that shouldn’t be real, she discovers she has magic abilities and that memories of her previous magical life have been wiped away. With the help of her also magical group of friends and long-time love Jacob, they make a plan to fight the evil in their small town. Will they succeed? Well, you’re going to have to read this book to find out!

Small Town, Big Magic is one of several witchy novels I’ve read over the past year, some good, some bad. This definitely falls on the right side of that line. The narrator is Natalie Duke, whose voice I’ve enjoyed previously. She voices Emerson well giving her that plucky-determined heroine vibe that matches the way Hazel Beck has written this character. I also enjoyed her male voice-work for Jacob and Emerson’s cousin, Xavier. There’s nothing worse than a narrator that can’t make a realistic voice for a man. Drives me crazy! Thank goodness she has that talent, so the narration was seamless.

I always enjoy a good vs evil plot. Small Town, Big Magic has a clear winner for bad guy, and gives us an edgy side character in Nicholas, who will be our hero in a follow up novel, out later in 2023. If I had any constructive criticism to give I would say that Hazel Beck leaned a little hard on the plucky heroine persona for Emerson. She was strong, but had some narcissistic qualities that often overshadowed others opinions. It got a little annoying at times, but Jacob, her love interest, smoothed her out a bit he was so even-keeled.

I enjoyed this story much more than I thought I would. Although the story ran along traditional lines, it was fun, had some great characters, and was easy to read. The perfect long weekend read!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase!* Small Town, Big Magic

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link, I’ll receive a small stipend.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick’s Audio Review: Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Writer Chani Horowitz is tired of writing puff pieces when her friends are getting book deals. She is offered the chance to interview the hot, high profile action star Gabe Parker, who just got cast as the first American James Bond. Hoping she can get info from this very private actor that will help catapult her career, she arrives at his home and is struck dumb. By his good looks, but also because he sticks to the answers about his life that everyone already knows. She is ready for failure when he invites her to accompany him to a movie opening that night that then stretches to spending the weekend together.

Ten years later, she is offered the chance to interview Gabe Parker again. This time she is a well known writer and has something different to prove, but also, does he ever think of that weekend they spent together?

I saw this novel on a “best of 2022” romance novel list and had added it to my audiobook TBR. Narrated by the very talented Kristen Sieh whom I have enjoyed listening to before, I was quickly dropped into Chani’s story, liking her character right from the start. Her inner narrative on meeting a very attractive movie star funny and very real. I mean, who wouldn’t stumble their sentences? Gabe, too, was really easy to relate to and his secretive moments made me more curious about what he was hiding. As the story moves forward and you can see their personalities click you want to jump to those moments in the future and find out why they ended up married and divorced to other people. Elissa Sussman did a great job of casting that lure because I was caught and was looking for more info on my new favorite characters.

I don’t want to give away any of this plot because it was written so well, dropping moments on the reader that all added up to a wonderful conclusion, but I will say that the story is told with flashbacks to what happened in the past and when they meet up again in the future. I usually hate flashback stories but there was something about this narrative that really captured my interest. More than likely it was the fantasy that all women have about meeting their favorite movie star and catching their eye. This story goes a step further and gives us amazing dialog that is both funny and heartbreaking, and a cast of characters who support our main protagonists with humor and love.

The problem with listening to a great book is that you never want to take out those earbuds and get back to your real life (hello job!). This novel was so good that I found myself plugging myself back into it at every free moment, waiting for that slow burn romance to reach its conclusion so that these two characters I’ve grown to love finally (finally!) have their satisfying happily ever after. Guys, if you haven’t read/listened to this book yet, you need to give it a go. It is wonderful!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Funny You Should Ask

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

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Can’t Wait Wednesday!

https://www.wishfulendings.com/: Can’t Wait Wednesday!

It’s time to talk about the books we can’t wait to read. They don’t have to be new but can be one that you just haven’t gotten around to reading yet. This one is a new book that comes out on June 13th. Rachel Morgan is a favorite fantasy heroine of mine and I love the new direction this author has taken this series.

This is book #17 in the series and there is a TON of back story. If you like light-hearted fantasy novels, you’ll love the Hollows series!

Have a great hump day!

Deb

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads