Tag: contemporary romance

This Chick Read: Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler

Milli promised her elderly best friend on her deathbed that she’d reunite her ashes with the woman she fell in love with many years ago. When flights are cancelled across the country she accepts a ride to Florida with a friend of her ex’s. Novelist, Hollis Hollenbeck is on his way to Florida for a hookup that will help him shake his writer’s block. What he gets is a comedy of errors in Milli Watts-Cohen, a beautiful woman who intrigues him with her naiveté, and annoys him with her can-do attitude. This road trip novel proves that opposites attract and that the story of your own life might be worth more than the story you put down on paper.

This novel was an unexpected pleasure. The synopsis drew me in with the elderly woman having had an affair with a woman back in WWII (well told in flashbacks throughout the novel), and that Milli and Hollis would be taking a roadtrip, but I didn’t know what else I was going to get. The story was unique, charming, and although I didn’t get Milli at all, nor have ever really meet anyone like her, she was really likable and well, I loved Hollis and his gruff exterior. They were an imperfectly perfect fit.

Milli is an ex child actor who is approached by people for autographs, personal stories, etc. alot, like a LOT alot. She had gone through a bad breakup with Hollis’s friend who is more of an acquaintance, but she thinks they’re friends- so she doesn’t really want much to do with him. Milli is a bit of a mess, but she also has a kind heart. Hollis interprets that kind heartedness as being an easy target for others to take advantage of her. Begrudgingly he offers her the ride to Florida and over those next few days she talks at him and he takes it all in. There is of course, great conversations, dialog, bonding, etc, but the kind of people they are, she talks and he listens. BUT, every single tweak of his lip that indicates a smile is meaningful and the subtle shading of their conversations shapes their advancing relationship. I loved how I started out the book thinking one way about these characters but had done a 180 by the time I finished. Subtle yes, but really, really good.

If you like quirky small town romances, you will love Mrs. Nash’s Ashes. It had moments that were so tender and sweet, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters and their story.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* Mrs. Nash’s Ashes

Copyright 2023 The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

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

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Can’t Wait Wednesday!

Thanks Tressa for letting me be a part of this fun conversation because I am always looking ahead to see what books are coming out next month. After viewing the Goodreads list, I can’t wait to read this book!

I read this author’s previous novel The Dead Romantics, not too long ago and LOVED it! The Seven Year Slip also seems to have a mystical feel to the plot. Love it or hate it, but I’m reading it soon!

Synopsis: An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

Click this link to purchase this book: The Seven Year Slip

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It’s Monday, what are you reading? (5/22/23)

I’ve been on a bit of a fantasy kick over the last week so I was both reading and listening to fantasy novels. It’s funny how reading moods change on a whim. Or at least mine do. Here’s what I was up to this last week.

JUST FINISHED

I’ve read this book before but because the book is coming out in a month or so I decided to listen to the audiobook. I liked the narrators but I think I preferred the pace of reading this novel instead of listening to it. You know that does happen sometimes! LOL

JUST STARTED

Did I say I was going to start this book last week? I know it’s on my list to read and I want to get started on it. I just need to not get distracted by a different title in the meantime.

Happy Monday and happy reading!

Deb

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This Chick Read: Famous For a Living by Melissa Ferguson

When social influencer Cat Cranwell’s life implodes in a business scandal, she escapes to her favorite uncle in Kannery National Park, Montana. Her world shifting from Louboutins to snowshoes, Cat is a fish out of water, but willing to help her uncle out in revamping their social media and earning them some followers. Sharing a run-down cabin with an eager 19 year old roommate, Cat’s life couldn’t be more different. As she gets to know her new co-workers, including the handsome and rugged Zaiah, Cat is determined to use her followers to help build Kannery National Park’s numbers and help save her uncle’s job.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a book by Melissa Ferguson, and I was pleased that I really liked how she built this story! We’re introduced to Cat in her old life, which serves as a great contrast to her new life in the rugged mountains working for the park service. Time is spent showing that she is out of her element but Ferguson spends a lot of the novel showing the reader, through Cat’s eyes, the wonders of this area. I think we all feel the need to reach for our phones and check email and social media, so it was easy to relate to Cat and her addiction to the adrenaline she received with each like and comment. I thought her recovery and setting rules for that side of her life was so interesting! We all read about the dangers of social media and how it affects children, and in this novel the impression was made that it affects more than just kids and adults need to make changes too. I loved that.

What can I say about Zaiah. He was the bearded mountain warrior who won over Cat with his quiet persistence and won over this readers heart too. He was definitely a part of this story and he was a big reason for the changes Cat made in her life, but he was also not a character that drew attention. He was quiet, calm, and kind of subtle in his affection for Cat. I liked how his past was a big part of the story, but it was her need to make a change that overcame any conflict in the story. This romance really made me think and then it made me feel. Which is the reverse of how I usually feel when reading a romance.

If you like to laugh, smile, and get an adrenaline rush over silly mountain activities, this is the novel for you! If you like a quiet hero and charming heroine, than again, this is the novel for you! I turned the last page while smiling and that’s the best feeling when you’ve finished a book. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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!* Famous for a Living

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: Pretend You’re Mine (Benevolence #1) by Lucy Score

Rushing from her home with only her keys in her hand after finding her boyfriend cheating on her, Harper runs away and ends up in a bar in the small town of Benevolence, where she sees a man about to hit a woman in the parking lot. Racing straight towards danger, Harper leaps to the rescue and ends up with a bruised eye to go along with her bruised ego. She comes to looking into the eyes of Luke Garrison who rides to her rescue, allowing her to sleep at his home for the night. When his sister comes up with a crazy idea for Harper to pretend to be Luke’s new girlfriend for the month he’s on leave before shipping off to the National Guard, a plan that’s supposed to get his mother off his back, Harper hesitantly agrees. Luke’s strong protective instincts and the friendly town of Benevolence feels like the home she’s been looking for, but she’s cautious to believe in her feelings after being burned more than once before.

Pretend You’re Mine is written by the bestselling author Lucy Score and was written in 2018. Having read her more recent novels, this one does seem a little less structured and has a LOT more heat between the sheets. Harper was a pretty easy character to like. She’s had a tough life, her parents having died when she was young so she grew up in the foster care system. She wants to belong somewhere, but things never seem to work out for her. She agrees to this crazy scheme of pretending to be Luke’s girlfriend because he makes her feel safe and she is super attracted to him. Luke is just about to go back to the National Guard for a six month tour of duty. He let’s his sister talk him into this but he doesn’t really want someone in his life. He has a secret in his past that holds him back from allowing him to feel something for Harper. Of course, he does despite his best interests but he has an internal battle on his hands before they get their hea.

Lucy Score always writes great secondary characters into her novels and this one was no different. I can easily see how Benevolence will have a series of books because there are some great characters that need their stories told! I’m looking forward to reading the other books in this series. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* Pretend You’re 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.

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This Chick Read: Meet Me At the Lake by Carley Fortune

Fern’s life is not what or where she thought it would be, back where she grew up, running her mother’s lakefront resort. Her dreams of opening up her own coffee shop left behind in Toronto, along with her memories of a 24 hours she spent with Will Baxter. A 24 hours that had changed her life. Both of them young, and the timing wrong, they spend a day exploring Toronto together and agree to meet one year later at her mother’s resort. A meeting that does not end up happening until 9 years later. Will shows up at her door offering her the help she desperately needs, to fix this failing resort that her mother had loved so much.

After having read her debut novel, Every Summer After, I knew that if Carley Fortune kept writing I would keep reading her books. Her style of writing is deep, emotional, yet also has a lightness that reflects the settings that she keeps choosing- the lake. In this novel, Fern’s life has imploded with her mother’s death and her being left the resort to run. A resort that is failing and needs a new life, one that Fern isn’t sure she has to give. Until Will shows up. This 9 years older Will is much different than the artist that she fell in love with long ago. He now wears suits and runs a company, and seems to have given up his own dreams. Despite these differences their feelings for each other still lie beneath the surface waiting to be explored.

Meet Me At the Lake is one of those sneaky novels that has layers of emotions that are revealed slowly one chapter at a time. Sometimes I feel impatient when reading a slow moving novel but Carley Fortune sets a smooth pace that feels exactly right, each emotion and particular about a character revealed when it should for the utmost impact. Fern and Will’s reconnection built slowly towards that moment when they gave in to these feelings, but giving in didn’t solve all of their problems and the story didn’t end. I loved that! There were more reveals awaiting the reader and more emotions to be explored.

I’m reading this book in March but it definitely has that vacation beach vibe feel. It is the perfect novel to read when you can occasionally glance up to check the view of the ocean (or lake!) in front of you and then delve back into these fantastic characters who were meant to be together. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I was given 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!* Meet Me At the Lake

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: Two Wrongs Make A Right- by Chloe Liese

Bea and Jamie have a disastrous first meeting, with Bea dumping not one, but two drinks on Jamie and he grumpily staring and declaring his disinterest. However, their friends are in love and they keep pushing them together thinking they are the perfect match. When they find themselves on a blind date with each other they agree to pretend that they are in love in order to get their friends off their back. As they spend time with each other they quickly find their friends just might have been right.

I found this novel on an Amazon Best Romances of 2022 list and I am not going to disagree. Two Wrongs Make a Right has a premise that has been done a thousand times before but in this instance it’s with two characters who are so unique and original that the kind of tired trope becomes something new and refreshing. Artistic, tattooed Bea, lives with her sister who has recently fallen in love with conservative, glasses and sweater wearing pediatrician Jamie. So at first sight, they seem to be complete opposites, but Bea falls on the autistic spectrum and is recovering from a bad breakup. Jamie is a successful pediatrician but he has horrible anxiety and doesn’t do well in crowds- he also has a difficult family whose expectations are hard to live up to. They both are a bit of a mess, but find in each other the support that they need. It’s a wonderful love story that moves slowly but there are so many emotional reveals that impact the story that it gives the reader a feeling of moving much more rapidly than it actually does.

Once Bea and Jamie get past the awkwardness of seeing through their bad first-meet, they quickly come to realize that they have a friendship that can be concrete. They go from avoiding each other to seeking each other out, and that story is emotion filled and wonderful. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed getting to know these characters and reading their story. Don’t let the cover fool you, this novel has depth that rises above the fluff of the artwork and delivers an impact that will leave the reader surprised and completely satisfied.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Two Wrongs Make A Right

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: It Starts With Us (It Ends With Us #2) by Colleen Hoover

Co-parenting with her ex Ryle is finally moving along smoothly and although he still holds out hope for getting back together Lily is ready to move forward in her life. When she accidentally bumps into Atlas on the street it seems like fate is pushing them together. It’s something she wants but introducing him back into her life will make waves with her volatile ex and she has her little girl’s future to take into account.

It Ends With Us is the conclusion to the best-selling It Starts With Us and I’ll admit I was eager to give Lily her happily ever after, so why do I feel a little let down? Atlas was everything he needed to be. He had her back, was emotionally available, stable, and an all around likable character. Lily and her baby certainly needed that after her rocky first marriage. Colleen Hoover even gave Atlas a sweet story arc that gave her readers a reason to care for him besides his love for Lily. I did really like him, but didn’t love this story. It felt a little bland after the volatility and emotional impact in the first novel.

What did I like about this book? I really liked how Lily had such a great support group, including Ryle’s own family who took her side against his actions. They were there for her and continued to be there for her and truthfully if this were a real life situation, they were the only reason why Ryle didn’t continue with his horrible behavior. They stood by her and made him face the consequences for his actions. I loved that!

If there was a reason to write this novel it was to give fans of It Starts With Us the happy ending that they felt like Lily and Atlas deserved. This novel does that for these characters. It’s well written, but a little safe and steady. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if it was a stand alone novel where I needed only the words on these pages to identify with these characters I wouldn’t be giving this as good a rating as I did.

❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase this book!* It Starts With Us

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: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls (TNO), a comedy show that airs every Saturday night. With several broken relationships behind her Sally has given up on love, which is reflected in the scenes she writes. When her average looking male co-worker at TNO falls for a famous actress guest and asks her to marry him, Sally writes a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule about how beautiful accomplished women will date/marry average men but gorgeous accomplished men don’t date/marry average women. That weeks host and musical artist is musician, Noah Brewster. Sally and Noah work on several sketch’s together and it feels like they have a connection, but do they really?

This novel was brilliantly written. The backstage relationships of the cast and crew of TNO were interwoven with a sense of realism that I wondered if Curtis Sittenfeld hadn’t wandered backstage at SNL. It certainly seemed like a few of the characters in this novel were based on some of those famous faces we’ve seen on TV. So that immediately grabbed my interest. The way the week progressed on the show gave the story a sense of urgency that progressed to that climactic Saturday night show. I loved, loved, loved this portion of the novel.

When Sally and Noah first interact, in her office when he asks for her help in writing a sketch that he’s written you feel that immediate connection between the two of them. What I loved about it was that it was their intellect that connected. Yes, Noah was a hot musical artist, but what they had in common was how writing a sketch and writing a song were kind of similar and his appreciation for her art form was genuine. As the week goes on her curiosity over this amazing looking man and whether he could have any interest in her hooked me right in. But this was just the beginning of the book and there was more to their story, right? You bet!

I’ve read a number of novels who have tried to write the pandemic into the story and sometimes they hit the right note and other times they miss the mark entirely. Romantic Comedy was in the former category and used the pandemic to move the plot forward. It also introduced us to examples of Sally’s amazing wit and writing style, and gave Noah a chance to show his own skills in interacting with kind of awkward individuals. Sally was a two steps forward one step back kind of woman. I LOVED this section of the novel.

Needless to say, this was a romance novel, so the ending wasn’t a huge surprise but how this author took the readers on a journey through the landmines of Sally and Noah’s budding relationship was extraordinary. A truly funny, emotional, and wonderful story to read. I enjoyed this one tremendously. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* Romantic Comedy

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 Only Game in Town by Lacie Waldon

Jess Reid is a freelance editor giving up a big city job to work from home form her small town of Redford, Oregon. Staying close to her dad and best friend was an easy decision to make even though life in her small town is slow and steady. When Jasper Wilhelm, the town’s eccentric benefactor, dies, he leaves an inheritance available to the town that they have to compete in a contest to win. Carter Barclay, nephew of Jasper, is the only non-Redfordian able to compete in this contest something that causes the townspeople to eye him with suspicion. Everyone but Jess Reid who welcomes him in with her quirky smile and personality. For financial analyst Carter Barclay, Jess is a breath of fresh air and this contest is a chance to learn what made his grandfather love this small town so much.

The Only Game in Town was a welcome change from the usual small town romance. I think this was because of our heroine, Jess. She was so charming in her quirkiness, just living life with a sunny disposition, not really letting anything get her down. When she’s paired with her arch nemesis in the contest, she struggles to find a kernel of good in Nikki’s hard core and manages to keep her sunny disposition. It’s not surprising that Carter can’t resist Jess because I couldn’t either! I wanted to transplant myself into that town and/or find my own Jess best friend in my own town because she is just irresistible and good.

Did I believe that Carter’s more stoic nature and Jess’s rainbows and butterflies personality would be irresistible to each other? YES! As the book went on and more kooky scenes unfolded he loosened his tie and found himself smiling at her antics and looking forward to her personality. There’s something about a straight-laced man loosening up that is also hard to resist and in the end I think they were perfect for each other.

There was, of course, a lot of conflict in this novel. It wasn’t just a fluff contest and a small town romance. There was death, alcoholism, and rivalries to overcome, but it was all told in a way that touched my heart and made me want to keep turning the pages to see how that storyline would end. Truly, this was a well crafted novel with great characters. What’s not to like about that? ❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

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 Only Game in Town

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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