This Chick Read: The Little French Guesthouse by Helen Pollard

Emmy books a vacation for she and her boyfriend to a B&B called La Cour des Roses in the French countryside, hoping to regain a little passion and excitement in what has become a rather stale relationship.  Unfortunately for her, he gets caught en flagrante with the B&B owners wife, Gloria, while her husband, Rupert,  is having a heart attack downstairs. Nathan ends up leaving Emmy for Gloria, and Emmy, having the majority of her vacation left and also feeling guilty about Gloria leaving her older, ailing husband behind, stays to help him run La Cour des Roses. Continue reading “This Chick Read: The Little French Guesthouse by Helen Pollard”

This Chick Read: Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick

Calista Langley, a single young Victorian woman, supports she and her brother by holding small parties where other single people can mix and mingle to find companionship, love and marriage.  Yes, basically she is a gentile matchmaker, of sorts.  Trent Hastings a writer of serial mysteries, meets with Calista under the guise of checking out her salon for his own prospects, but really he is making sure his younger sister is in good hands.  While interviewing with Calista, he stumbles on threats that are being made to her by way of some rather morbid gifts. She enlists his investigative skills and they pair up to solve the mystery. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick”

This Chick Read: Invaded (Alienated #2) by Melissa Landers

The story of Cara and Aelyx continues, but they are living on different planets.  Cara is living on L’heir, as a foreign exchange student, and Aelyx is on Earth on a PR campaign, helping the L’Heir and human relations improve after the exchange student debacle that he helped implode in the first book.  Each of them are challenged by living with a race that continues to hate them.  This novel is not as much of a romance, as they are each living a world apart, so the reader follows both of their stories individually, rooting for them to overcome the hate, and loving it when they are able to convert others to enjoy diversity, at the risk of their own lives. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Invaded (Alienated #2) by Melissa Landers”

This Chick Read: Bay of Sighs (Guardians Trilogy #2) by Nora Roberts

As I read the first novel Stars of Fortune, I was eager to read book #2.  Not that the first novel was bad, it wasn’t!  However, I felt like Nora Roberts had done some other variations of those two characters before, but Annika and Sawyer were unique.  Bay of Sighs is their story, and we get to know the back story of how a mermaid and time traveler become a part of this group, and what each of them brings to the table to keep the evil witch from gaining the star that they are trying to find and hide from her. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Bay of Sighs (Guardians Trilogy #2) by Nora Roberts”

This Chick Read: Summer House by Nancy Thayer

Summer House tells the story of a few generations of Wheelwright’s who spend every summer together on Nantucket.  Nona, who turns ninety that summer, is now living on the island year round, with her granddaughter Charlotte.  The author very cleverly weaves Nona’s love story with her now dead husband Herb, with the expectations her children have for her grandchildren, as well as telling the love stories of each set of lovers.  As with many other family saga’s I have read, this family has its own dysfunctions that unfold in a very realistic natural way. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Summer House by Nancy Thayer”

This Chick Read: All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

I will admit that I was somewhat tentative about reading a book backwards because I could not imagine how that would work.  We are introduced to the main character, Nicolette, in present time.  She goes back to her hometown because her brother has asked for her help getting their childhood home ready to sell, to help pay for their fathers living facility.  She has been back in Cooley Ridge for a couple of weeks when a local girl disappears, Continue reading “This Chick Read: All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda”

This Chick Read: All In by Simona Ahrnstedt

All In is the first foreign language romance novel to be translated and published in America.  As the first, it is a huge event in the publishing world, and every eye will be on how the American reader world reacts to this novel.  I can’t speak for the entire American population, only for myself, but if I needed to describe how I felt while reading this novel I would say I was fascinated, riveted, stunned, emotional, horrified, enraptured and involved. Continue reading “This Chick Read: All In by Simona Ahrnstedt”

This Chick Read: Sweet Little Lies: A Heartbreaker Bay novel by Jill Shalvis


Pru is shouldering guilt for the consequences of her parents actions.  She has spent years making sure the families touched by those actions do well, move on, get settled, etc.   The O’Reilly brothers are the last and she’s determined to see how she can make their lives better.  Finn O’Reilly, co owner of the pub O’Reilly’s with his brother, is immediately drawn to Pru, and an innocent flirtation soon turns into something a lot deeper. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Sweet Little Lies: A Heartbreaker Bay novel by Jill Shalvis”

This Chick Read: Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan

Shadow Riders can use shadows to travel from one place to another by catching a ride through a shadow’s tubes.  The Ferrero family has made a business of shadow riding. They provide a service, caring for the people in their neighborhood, and being paid to “take care of” those who are harming others, the dregs of society.  Female riders are rare, and when Francesca walks into Stefano’s neighborhood he immediately knows what she is, and claims her for his own.   Continue reading “This Chick Read: Shadow Rider by Christine Feehan”

This Chick Read: A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

We are introduced to Veronica Speedwell, in this first novel in this series.  Veronica is an abnormality for her time, she is a scientist, earning a living collecting butterflies.  Traveling the world, by herself, a single woman and adventurer.  She is unmarried, and enjoys taking lovers, although she has a rule that they must not be Englishmen.  In 1887, these things make her very unusual, and as this story unfolds, the mystery of Veronica Speedwell and her unusual-ness (is that a word?) gets even more strange… In a good way! Continue reading “This Chick Read: A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn”