Tag: book review

This Chick Read: Eclipse the Moon (Starlight’s Shadow #2) by Jessie Mihalik

Ever since her ship took on a group of Valoff’s permanently Kee Ildiz has been aware of the silent and deadly weapons specialist Varro Runkow. She’s been determined to keep her attitude cheerful even under his dark and slightly uncomfortable gaze. While sifting through data on the net she becomes suspicious of a gathering on a nearby planet and asks her captain and best friend to drop her off for a few weeks to check it out. Thinking this would give her a break from her feelings for the dangerous Valovian and sniff out any trouble while on the ground. Little does she know that Varro is determined to keep her safe and follows her. That distance she needs soon becomes a bit crowded when he’s sharing the small apartment she finds for her few weeks away. When she stumbles into the trouble she felt was brewing she’s thankful the tough guy is by her side.

This second series by Jessie Mihalik has grabbed my attention so much quicker than her first, Polaris Rising. I’m not sure the difference but she’s sharpened her skills in creating fun dialog, interesting characters, a hint of danger, and that little bit of tension that all good space romances need. Kee is an interesting character because on the surface she’s colorful and bright which really hides a depth of emotion and strength that’s surprising. Although being the best friend of her Captain should give away the facts that this woman’s character is true to its core. Varro is a much harder character to get to know. He really is very quiet and exudes danger and a I want to be alone vibe. When we find out his reasons for keeping that wall in place the reader can only like him more and be sympathetic to his finding someone who will be his match. I think they balanced each other out really good and loyalty was a trait that they both shared.

I found the dangerous mission aspect of this story a lot of fun. It starts off light-hearted with a fashion show and zips into guns blazing and bombs bursting pretty quickly. Our two favorite protagonists are soon the hero’s to be and their actions provide a lot of entertainment as well as eye-opening reveals about their characters. This was a really well written, fun, space opera romance. I loved every bit of it.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase!* Eclipse the Moon

Copyright 2022 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 Chicks Audio Review: Cast In Shadow (Chronicles of Elantra #1) by Michelle Sagara

This is the first novel in the Chronicles of Elantra series and was published in 2011. I think that was around the time I first read the book. The series now numbers up to sixteen and I think the seventeenth comes out this year. I read so many books in a year that it’s often hard for me to remember details but I do remember really liking this book and when I glanced at the audiobook and saw that Khristine Hvam narrates the series I knew I needed to go back and do a re-read. She is the narrator of Faith Hunters Jane Yellowrock and Soulwood series and I’m a HUGE fan of how she portrays characters. This, combined with the fact that I only read up to about book twelve in the Chronicles of Elantra made me eager to get started.

This fantasy series has everything. An intriguing main character who is somewhat of a mystery to the reader, a unique world and fabulous world-building by the author, and just a hint of a traumatic back-story that makes me want to read and explore this world and characters. Kaylin is only twenty years old but has survived a tragic upbringing. She was an orphan living in a dangerous area of Elantra called Nightshade where dangerous ferals roamed, and a murderer was killing children. Now a young adult, Kaylin is a Hawk, an officer who patrols the streets and protects its citizens. She finds that the murderer is back and more children like are being killed. She is partnered with her old friend from the fiefs, Sevren, and she has to fight her mistrust and also explore her past in order to defeat this threat from the past.

Kaylin is such a complicated character. She has magical powers that she doesn’t understand and can’t control and is somewhat of a loose cannon emotionally. She is disrespectful and mouthy but has gained the respect of her peers, made friends, and has a heart of gold. One of her gifts is as a healer, which she uses to midwife and help children be born safely, so children are her kryptonite which makes finding this killer very important to her. When Sevren shows up out of the blue, Kaylin fights her past emotions. Seven years ago he was her protector but he betrayed her in a way that she’s not sure she can forgive, but as they work together she finds herself drawn to him as she was as a child and he is to her as well. Their friendship is one of the greatest best friend portrayals in a series. It carries them down the road of heartache but also to redemption and understanding. It’s the heart of this novel.

In this world of Elantra there are many different races all living together, dragons, the immortal Barrani, Aerians who have wings and fly, and the Tha’alani who are tentacled and can read minds. This first novel helps lay the groundwork for Kaylin’s emotional growth, but also her relationship with friends, mentors, and enemies from all of different races this world holds. This novel in itself is great, the mystery is good, but I know this is only the set-up to greater stories ahead. I completely enjoyed re-emerging myself in this world and loved listening to Khristine Hvam’s take on these characters. On to book #2!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase! Cast in Shadow

Copyright 2022 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: Gossamer in the Darkness(Fantasyland #5.5) by Kristen Ashley

The Count of Derryman has a secret. His daughter, who has been betrothed since birth to the handsome and powerful Marquess of Remington, fell and hit her head when she was six and has the mental acuity of a child. Not wanting to give up that association with such a powerful house, the Count of Derryman hears of an alternate universe that twins this universe. Determined to find his daughters twin and bring her over he hires a witch, who succeeds. What the Count doesn’t realize is that this Maxine is no pushover.

The Fantasyland series is one of my favorites by this author so when I heard she was writing a novella set in that world I was excited to get my hands on it. This fairytale proves that every woman can find her prince and the modern Maxine wishes Loren could be hers. It wouldn’t be a true fairytale without an evil character and the Count certainly fits the bill. Holding her mother and “twin” sister hostage in order to make Maxine do as he pleases the author didn’t take long to resolve that short conflict. Which was great because we got to spend the rest of the book with fun characters who were falling in love, learning their new world, and spreading the joy of living in a world full of color.

What I love about Kristen Ashley’s novellas is that they are the length of a short full length novel. Her real novels are very long. You’d think she’d have a tough time get the full story arc in this short length novel but she really does a great job of developing the characters, letting the reader in on the storyline quickly, and cut down on some of the descriptions that make her regular novels so lengthy. I really enjoyed this novella a lot and didn’t feel like I was missing anything that would lead to that overall enjoyment.

Now, if you have never read a Fantasyland novel, you may have some difficulty falling into a world where cats and birds speak to women, but if you have an open mind you may find yourself totally enjoying the experience. You’ll never know unless you pick it up and give it a shot. It is very different than her contemporary romances in the best way possible, but you’ll find similar character types that will help get you settled into another amazing KA story. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this novel!* Gossamer in the Darkness

Copyright 2022 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: Dearest Rogue (Maiden Lane #8) by Elizabeth Hoyt

You all know my love for historical fiction. For me it’s the perfect diversion after reading a mystery or too many contemporary romances back to back. Dearest Rogue is an older book, written in 2015 and I do think that the genre has made a shift that is on trend with what has gone on in the world today. The MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have made diversity, equality, and historical truthfulness important to both writers and readers. So, this novel from 2015 is a little more old school. However, it does divert from the normal heroine has Duke fall in love with her theme. Our heroine, Lady Phoebe Batten, is the sister of a Duke, and is blind. Our hero is her guard, former Dragoon, Captain James Trevillion. Honorably discharged after being wounded in service. He is the security hired to keep her safe, which of course becomes an issue when someone is out to kidnap her.

Phoebe was fed up with being cushioned from life and wants to explore and live. She is a beautiful young woman whose eyesight disappeared in her teens. Capt. Trevillion has been her security for awhile but it’s only been recently that she has become curious about him. Most definitely because he’s the only man she’s allowed to be around since he’s a pretty surly guy. As we get to know the two of them together you appreciate his protective nature but also how he disagrees with the Duke’s instructions to keep Phoebe insulated from life. It’s because of him that she’s in situations where people can actually try to kidnap her but you can’t fault him for wanting her to have a life.

Other than the fact that someone is trying to kidnap her, the other conflict is more of an internal one. The Captain, with his bad leg, doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for Phoebe. It’s up to her to convince him that their class differences and his leg (and her being blind!) don’t make a difference. He’s the man for her. I really enjoyed their sweet conflict and the length of time it took for them to fall in love. This was a little bit more of a slow burn romance than you’d normally see in a historical novel.

Despite this novel being #8 in the Maiden Lane series, it can be read as a stand alone novel. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the St. Charles Robin Hood underlying plot that some of the other novels have played out. I enjoyed it and if you have a love for older historical novels I think you might too! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Dearest Rogue

Copyright 2022 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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It’s Monday, July 4th! What are you reading? (7/4/22)

Happy 4th of July to those who celebrate in the USA! It’s a national holiday and most people have the day off to celebrate our nation, hang with their families, eat junk food, watch fireworks, and hopefully get in a bit of reading! What are you doing to celebrate?

What am I reading to celebrate? Nothing patriotic or well, historical. I did just finish a fabulous romance and have just started the second in a fantasy series I’m reading. Check it out below!

JUST FINISHED

What a fabulous book! This was very different than I expected, full of treasure hunting, lost and found romance, and a father-daughter relationship that was both sad and wonderful. If you like contemporary romances you must read this one!

JUST STARTED

This is the second novel in the A Trial of Sorcerers series and it has started off pretty quick. I didn’t read the first book too long ago so luckily I remember all of the characters and where our heroine’s emotions and activities have led her. I’m looking forward to settling into what will probably be a quick read.

How are you all spending your 4th today? Starting a new book like I am?

Have a great Monday and happy reading!

Deb

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads4 Comments

This Chick Read: Sometime in Summer by Katrina Leno

Anna Bell has just turned fourteen, leaving her most unlucky year behind. After a fight with her best friend and her parents separating she’s happy to be starting fresh. Taking a trip with her mom to the east coast for two months might be stretching it but once Anna arrives in Rockport she feels immediately refreshed and the once in a lifetime meteor shower makes this visit seem magical. Anna meets two new friends who help her navigate her parents split and the loneliness she feels being away from home.

Katrina Leno’s novels are always super easy to read with characters that are easy to identify with and Sometime in Summer is no different. Anna reminded me of all of those anxious moments from my own childhood, meeting new friends, starting my period, and navigating the emotions of my parents split. The Kit-Hale meteor shower definitely adds an unreal atmosphere for her time spent in this beach town. Anna is a girl who is at that awkward stage where she feels everything deeply but doesn’t show her emotions, hiding all of her troubles from parents who are going through their own issues.

I loved the unexplained moments that this author shared in this book. Slightly magical and definitely supernatural they added an air of mystery and hope that I just couldn’t help but love. Katrina Leno definitely knows how to create magical moments in her novels. There were moments that were just lovely.

If you love young adult novels that send you back in time to your own youth and also has elements of mysticism I think you’ll love this novel, please give it a try! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* Sometime in Summer

Copyright 2022 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: The Last Dress From Paris by Jade Beer

When Lucille’s Granny Sylvie asks for her help in collecting a dress in Paris from an old friend she gladly takes on this errand. When she arrives in Paris she finds not one but eight dresses, each with a written note card and a quote, but the one dress she is expecting to find is missing. With the help of two new friends she visits each place noted on the cards to try to discover the mystery of why her granny has sent her on this mission. This story follows both Lucille’s journey and flashes back to the 1950’s where a woman named Alice wears each dress.

Alice’s story is the more dramatic of the two storylines but Lucille’s introspection and self-discovery is the raison d’être that binds the two stories together. Her new friendship with Veronique, the daughter of the woman who was holding the dresses for Sylvie, provides a parallel for Lucille to view her own life and the impetus for her to change her path. Her flirtation with Leon provides fun and joy, and a comparison to Alice’s story as it unfolds. I loved how all three of these characters interacted and the friendships they made.

Alice’s story told through her wearing each of these fabulous Dior gowns was a fascinating look into the political social scene during the 1950’s. Her job as the wife of the British Ambassador to France was to provide a setting where their peers would gather and gossip. That life sounded romantic and glamorous but as the story unfolds we see how structured and trapped that life would be. The mystery of each note card and quote tells a story that holds romance and sadness. I’ll admit to shedding a few tears and hoping for a happy outcome.

The Last Dress From Paris did what my favorite historical novels do, it took me away from my own world and dropped me into another setting in a fascinating place and allowed me to play voyeur. Like I said above I found Alice’s story more riveting but it was a great comparison to Lucille’s current day life and the journey that she herself could possibly take. The mystery of why her granny Sylvie sent her to find these dresses is the greatest story of them all and one that each reader should unwind on their own by reading this story. I would hate to unwrap this present and reveal anything that would spoil your own enjoyment of this story. It’s a good one! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Please click this link to purchase!* The Last Dress From Paris

Copyright 2022 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: For the Love of the Bard by Jessica Martin

Literary agent and YA novel author, Miranda Barnes, heads home to Bard’s Rest for a much needed break and hopefully find some inspiration to finish her third book against an upcoming deadline. When she arrives home she finds the town bustling for the upcoming Shakespeare-themed festival spearheaded by her own mother. Where she hopes to be a spectator, she suddenly finds herself directing one of the plays alongside her childhood heartbreak Adam. Facing the hurt from long-ago and partaking in a festival she loves creates plenty of drama and inspiration, her days filled with Shakespeare and her nights with writing that long elusive story. This romantic rom-com has all you want from a Shakespearean farce, and more!

I love themed rom-com’s and Bard’s Rest was a great set-up for the drama of past love reunited, but the town was also filled with some great characters who added a bit of fun to some tense situations. Miranda was very easy to like and I relished hearing how and why Adam chose to do what he did back when they were in high school. There was a lot of lead-up to the grand reveal, which was a little tiring, but you could feel their connection many years later. It was hard not to like Adam, he was so easy going and sweet.

As with many stories that take place in a small town, there was a lot of family filled moments as well as back stories for many characters. Sometimes these seques to other stories bother me, but For the Love of the Bard was very cohesive and smooth, these small stories adding to Mirandas story rather than taking away from it. I was really happy with the transitions and interested in every character.

You don’t have to have a love of Shakespeare to appreciate the characters and stories in this novel, but I’ll admit it would certainly help! The author very cheekily casts some of the townspeople in roles that were familiar to me and some of them paralleled real life, which was clever and fun to read. However if you aren’t familiar with the plays you will not miss out on the fun and cheekiness despite that lack of knowledge, and the love story is very satisfying too!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* For the Love of the Bard

Copyright 2022 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

It’s Monday, what are you reading? (6/27/22)

I have been trapped by an audiobook series. Not a bad thing because I was totally engrossed after the third book and really enjoying the new urban fantasy world. But, it did put me behind on my commitments. Oops!! I also spent a bit of time working this weekend at our local Pride Fest and want to make sure to say to all of you in the LGBTQ+ community, happy Pride month! It was a lot of fun hanging out and representing Nashville Ballet with this very creative and engaging crowd. They were sparkly, colorful, and really nice! I wish I could say the same about the weather, it was bright and hot at over 100 degrees F. We all had pink cheeks and a healthy glow. I hope you spent your weekend doing something fun too! Let’s catch up on what I’ve been reading.

JUST FINISHED

I have loved this author’s books, all of them. For some reason I had avoided this series. It’s about a girl that becomes a vampire and I thought that it wouldn’t be anything that I hadn’t read before. I think I’d picked up the first book a few times and couldn’t every get past the first few chapters but my sister said to try the audiobooks and to hang in there to book three. Quite a commitment but one that paid off. By the end of book 2 I was engaged and then the series really picked up. This novel is the most recent and was really good!

JUST STARTED

This book came out last week and I was supposed to have it reviewed by now but the above series totally stood in its way. I’m now halfway through and am seriously enjoying this half contemporary, half historical novel. Our two characters are really engaging and I love the way the plot follows a series of Dior dresses. How different and wonderful! Look for a review on this one this week.

Happy Monday and have a great week reading.

Deb

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Flirting with Fifty by Jane Porter

Paige Newson is comfortable with her life. She’s a divorced mom to three grown daughters and has a fabulous job as a professor at a Southern California college. Her comfortable life gets upended when she is paired with Professor Jack King to teach a brand new course that pairs math and biology. The catch? She knows Jack King, or at least she did when she was 20 years old. She had a short fling with him when she was a student in England for a semester. Something that affected her deeply and changed the course of her life. Will Paige allow Jack to challenge her comfortable world?

There aren’t too many romance novels written for characters in their 50’s, so I was a bit curious about how this author was going to portray the journey of Paige and Jack. I wasn’t disappointed at all to find that this was a slow burn romance. It made sense to me because at 50 you have lived a lot and have expectations for your life. I know I have and I’m 54. So, I wasn’t at all disappointed that Paige may have to work through the hangups she has from a failed marriage, her children still needing their mom although they are all grown up, and the fact that she is uncomfortable with her body. Unless you still have the body of your 20 year old self, of course you would be. Also, Jack is somewhat intimidating. She found him so attractive when she was 20 but she lacked confidence in herself at that age. Does she now have that confidence at 50?

Jack was wonderful. He was charming, charismatic,and felt real instead of like a caricature which he could so easily have been. He was also still as attracted to Paige at 50 as he was when he was in his mid 20’s. He has a surprising amount of patience for someone that is so active and is always on the go. However, in this case, opposites do make the best partners and I could easily see why these two would be so good for each other. It made it easy to buy into their love story.

At times this novel felt a little bit like a christian romance. I don’t think it’s actually classified that way, but if you like a tamer romance story then this may be a great fit for you. I find that I like both cool and warm temps when it comes to romance novels so I didn’t have any issues with the pace, or heat level of this novel. It was just right. So, how did this 54 year old like a romance about 50 somethings reconnecting? I enjoyed it a lot! It’s nice to not be reading about 20 or 30 somethings living in a world I’ve already lived. I found myself eager to read more!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Flirting with Fifty

Copyright 2022 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