Tag: Ashley Poston

This Chick Read: Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston

Joni Lark is one of the most coveted songwriters in Los Angeles, but she’s hiding a secret. She has writer’s block. Hoping a scenic change will help her create, she heads home to Vienna Shores, North Caroline to find her best friend acting strange, and her parents announcement they are selling The Revelry, their family-owned concert venue that helped inspire Joni to write. Mired in depression on top of her writer’s block Joni starts hearing a melody in her head, and a voice. A male voice, who is sweet, charming, and is also hearing the same melody. When Sasha shows up in Vienna Shores as a real person, he presents to her an idea to write this song together and hopefully get out of each other’s heads.

Ashley Poston always does a great job of writing gentle stories with a hint of magical realism. In this case, Joni and Sasha can hear each other’s thoughts which is awkward as heck but also creates an immediate intimacy between them. They don’t have to go through the motions of getting to know each other because they hear what the other is thinking, despite the uncomfortableness of that singular thought. The fact they met one other time and he was a complete A@@ made their current situation harder, but as they got to know each other and build that trust the magic of being able to talk to each other in their heads became secondary to the feelings they began to feel as they worked on this song together. The build-up was a slow burn, but the outcome was worth the wait.

The setting for this novel, a small beach town in North Carolina and their small concert venue The Revelry, really cast a golden, vintage light on the comings and goings of their community and Joni’s family. I loved how Joni fighting through her writer’s block was the juxtaposition against the other two story lines, her best friend’s growing discontent, and her mother’s health issues. As Joni figured out her path the conflicts in the other two plots ebbed and flowed with her decisions. It was really good writing by this author.

This novel is being hyped as one of the most looked forward to reads this summer and I can agree. It will be the perfect book to throw in your beach bag and take a step away from reality. Enjoy! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* Sounds Like Love

Copyright 2025 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads1 Comment

This Chick Read: With Any Luck (The Improbably Meet-Cute Collection) by Ashley Poston

Synopsis: Audrey Love is cursed to be the person before you find your soulmate, the girl you dump for your true love. So when her best friend disappears hours before his Valentine’s Day wedding, Audrey fears that she did the unthinkable and kissed him at last night’s bachelor party. With help from the best man, she retraces her steps to find the missing groom and, with any luck, a true love of her own.

This novel is part of a collection of short stories released for Valentine’s Day by some of my favorite authors. Ashley Poston often has a magical element to her stories and this one Audrey believes that the women in her family can kiss someone and the next day they’ll find their true love. A great thing for the one kissed, not so great for Audrey since she’s always the person before finding the soulmate. This is my third read in the series, no wait, fourth. I had to DNF one of them because I’m not into princess stories, but that aside, I’ve really enjoyed them! I’ve listened to the audiobooks and think they are just the right length for a short car or train ride into the office. Admittedly this one wasn’t quite as fleshed out as the previous two, but I still liked Audrey and Theo and loved that they found each other at their best friends wedding.

Even though this one was a little light on plot I did like that we got to see Audrey’s character evolve as she searched for her best friend (the groom) who’d gone missing. As she recalled their night of drunkenness she also did a little soul searching. It actually made me a little sad that this wasn’t a full-length novel. I liked what I was reading and could’ve loved reading more about these two characters. Since it wasn’t, I’m choosing to enjoy what this author gave me and will eagerly move on to the next book I’ve yet to read! ❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase this book!* With Any Luck

Copyright 2024 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 Princess and the Fangirl (Once Upon a Con #2) by Ashley Poston

I read Geekerella, the first in the series, back when it came out in 2018 and whereas I didn’t love it, love it, I did think it was a good read. I’m not really sure why I never read the next two books but after getting into this author’s adult fiction I’m going back and checking out this YA series and I must say, this book hit the spot.

Imogen Lovelace is a fangirl for the character Amara on Starfield a sci-fi tv show a la Star Trek. Amara got killed off and Imogen has created a hashtag that’s gone viral #saveamara and she’s at the ExcelsiCon to hand out buttons and do her thing to try to save a fan favorite. Jessica Stone is the actress who plays Amara and admittedly hates her character. She’s contracted to make the rounds at the Comic Con and is hopeful that her character really did die and won’t be back for a second season. When these two meet the interaction isn’t friendly and when Imogen gets mistaken for Jess and lands on a panel as her she takes the opportunity to speak up for saving her character. Needless to say Jess isn’t happy. Until she needs Imogen to be her again.

I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane into the weird world that are Comic Con’s. I used to help out at them when I was younger and you really do see all sorts of “characters” and they are really a lot of fun. The thought that one person could be mistaken for a movie star is a bit of a stretch but this plot was a fun bit of fantasy so I didn’t bother with breaks from reality. What made this novel work was that these two characters personalities were complete opposites that ended up sharing the same view by the end of the book. I love those converging storylines, the journey is very satisfying!

Jessica and Imogen don’t really have a lot to do with each other in this novel other than replace each other a la Parent Trap, but they each get a love interest that is related to their counterpart. In Imogen’s plot it’s Jess’s assistant/best friend and in Jess’s it’s Imogen’s virtual female friend who has never set eyes on Imogen before so can believe the swap scheme. I enjoyed the latter story better than the former but I thought the parallel storylines were a nice departure from the usual YA romance plots. Jessica seemed a little bit more mature than Imogen and her romance read more mature to me and I liked that aspect, plus making this tv star gay made her more interesting and in comparison the boy meets girl romance fell a little flat. Despite that, I really enjoyed reading this novel and loved the sci-fi aspects to the plot. I think I’ll gear up for book #3! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Princess and the Fangirl

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 Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

From the author of 2022’s bestseller, The Dead Romantics, this new novel provides the magical setting of an apartment that allows it’s inhabitant to slip through time and fall in love with a man seven years in the past.

Clementine thought she knew what she wanted in life. Her job at a publishing firm, her small circle of friends, and her once a year trips with her beloved aunt Analea. When her aunt dies, she inherits an apartment that reminds her of that loss daily until one day she comes home and a strange man is staying in her apartment.

It isn’t just the magical apartment that makes this story so wonderful, it’s also that she took the time to fully develop our main characters and gave the reader insight into their feelings both happy and sad. Clementine, when she meets Iwan is pulled into this magical moment in part because she is feeling lost and needs this magical moment to help balance those emotions after losing her aunt. Iwan is also one charming young man, and almost in spite of herself, Clementine needs his warmth to bring her out of her darkness. Unlike Iwan, the reader is aware that these moments are a slip in time but it’s so easy to get lost in their developing love. You almost forget that there is going to have to be conflict and that that seven year difference will need to take place before our characters can have their hea.

If I had read this novel before reading The Dead Romantics I would have absolutely loved it. My enjoyment was slightly dimmed because my expectations were set kind of high. However, putting my love for that previous novel aside, I can say that this story is just as good, just in a slightly different way. The element of surprise was lacking a bit because the reader was on the journey with our main characters in real time, but at the same time I loved how we saw that contrast between Iwan of seven years ago and the man he became. It helped give a contrast to Clementine’s character and who she needed to become in order to find happiness. I thought that growth was so well done and the story very satisfying.

If you love a little magic in your romance then you need to pick up this novel! I promise, you will love this novel. These characters are so special. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Seven Year Slip

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: 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.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

Friday YA: Geekerella by Ashley Poston

I love fairy tale re-tellings and Geekerella is a re-telling of one of the biggie’s. Ella is an orphan with a horrible stepmother and two stepsisters. They couldn’t be any more different. Ella is a bit of a nerd. She and her now deceased father shared a love for the show Starfield (think Star Trek) and would watch episodes for hours. Her stepmother is a country club snob and her stepsisters CC brats. I had forgotten how hard it was to watch Cinderella get treated so horribly in animation and I’ll just say that set in present time, that difficulty was doubled. Her step-everythings were just awful. Her only avenue of escape was to her job on the Magic Pumpkin food truck with her new friend Sage. There she dreams of going to Excelsicon the sci-fi comic con that her father started in Atlanta, but her step’s would never allow her to go. Scheme ensues.

I, too, am a bit of a geek when it comes to sci-fi, fantasy and comic cons. I grew up going to them and used to be able to walk the walk and talk the talk. This novel did get the Con part right. You do see people dressed in all sorts of fantasy gear. What fell a little short for me was the story between Ella and her Prince Charming, love interest Darien Freeman. Darien sends an accidental text to Ella’s cell, which used to be her fathers. They end up being pen pals (text pals?), never revealing too much about themselves yet telling each other their secrets. Ella never knew it was the famous actor on the other end of the line. Their stories are told from both of their perspectives and truly they both had pretty awful aspects to their lives. You know about Ella’s problems, but Darien’s were just as bad. His manager was his father who just took advantage and belittled him the whole time. Yuck. Really, I just wanted the two of them to be able to run away together and say “the hell with all this!”. This novel for me rode a fine line of child abuse and even when put in a fairy tale like setting it didn’t make it better. Even though there were cute parts, that aspect was just hard for me to overlook.

I know I am older than the average YA reader and most of these novels are not written for my age group. That being said, this novel was more juvenile than the characters ages. Sure, their decision making was pretty accurate. Teenagers make errors in judgement and these two made some big errors, but maybe the story was too simple? I can’t really put my finger on it. Geekerella was well written and at times playful, and I did like the walk down memory lane and maybe it didn’t ring all my bells, but that doesn’t mean it’s not for you! ❤️❤️❤️❣️

Did you read this book? What did you think?

Geekerella

Click this link to purchase*! Geekerella: A Fangirl Fairy Tale (Once Upon A Con)

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads