Tag: contemporary romance

This Chick Read: To Have and To Heist by Sara Desai

Simi Chopra is buried in student loan debt, can only find entry level jobs despite her BA, and is constantly being set up with men by her South Asian parents who mean well but are too involved in her personal life. When her hacker best friend Chloe gets set up as the fall guy when an expensive necklace is stolen from a museum, Simi doesn’t hesitate to run to her aid, and meets Jack while hiding in the bushes. Jack proposes a scheme to steal back the necklace and help get she and Chloe’s off the police’s short list of suspects. Hilarity ensues.

This is my first novel by Sara Desai and I’m unsure if the style of this book is her norm but OMG Simi was sooo funny! Her inner commentary about her life and those of the people around her were laugh out loud hilarious. This novel was not at all what I was expecting. Needless to say, I loved Simi. She was a complete wild card and I really didn’t know what she was going to say next. Her crew that she pulled together for the heist were all definitely outside the spectrum of normal that it made for some really fun reading.

I didn’t really know what to think of Jack. Simi was a pretty luscious lady and she not only had her eye on Jack, but also the detective charged with solving the museum robbery and I wasn’t really sure who she was going to settle down with, they were both kind of sweet. For me, there were some problems with a Simi- Jack pairing as he seemed to always have his own agenda and for a girl who was always left on her own I wanted a lot better for her. However, he sure was charming and their scenes were a lot of fun.

The side characters in this novel were a large part of what made it so successful. Rose, her over lusty landlord was a hoot and I loved the secondary love story between Chloe and Gage. There was a lot going on in this novel but these characters didn’t make it hard to keep reading. What fun! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* To Have and To Heist

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 Prince & The Apocalypse by Kara McDowell

Wren Wheeler has anticipated her school trip abroad for years but when it finally happens she finds the experience wasn’t what she dreamed of at all. Sick with the flu, a fight with her best friend, and missing her family all contributed to her just wanting to be at home. On her last day in London she decides to grab a quick breakfast at a restaurant her sister recommended and finds herself saving the crown prince from the paparazzi making her miss her flight back home. When news gets out about a meteor strike heading towards the Atlantic, flights ground to a halt and the only person she has to turn to is the crown prince himself.

This novel was a fun bit of fantasy! Wren is not impressed by Prince Theo’s star status at all which makes for some fun dialog, and there’s nothing like an end of the world scenario to bring two people together that would never normally hang out. As they travel across Europe to Greece where a private plane can whisk Wren back home these two grow closer. Is it circumstance or are they really drawn to each other’s personalities? That’s a question the second book can and I hope will answer.

If you like young adult novels that aren’t realistic but are fun to read then The Prince & The Apocalypse may be the right novel for you! I certainly enjoyed this fun flight of fantasy remembering my own young dreams of meeting my own prince. It’s only in a book where that man could be the Crown Prince of England! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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 Prince & The Apocalypse

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: Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Portrait artist Sadie Montgomery wakes up to a temporary condition called “facial blindness” making painting portraits absolutely impossible to do. She is determined to find a way to paint her entry to the North American Portrait Artists competition, a chance to make a name for herself with her art. As she is navigating this new world she is also falling in love with not one, but two very different men. Her life is a mess and her family one big drama so she’s used to overcoming obstacles but this one might be more than she can take.

Katherine Center strikes again! Hello Stranger is more than a romance novel, it’s really about a woman trying to find her way in an obstacle filled life. Her facial blindness is just one more problem, but when she meets a very sharply dressed veterinarian she’s determined that they are the perfect match. Until she meets her very helpful neighbor. Unable to identify anyone by their faces she has to rely on all of her other senses which makes for some great comic relief. Sadie’s sad story becomes heartwarming and that humor makes a kind of unreal problem feel very real indeed.

I thought it a very clever tool to write a novel where descriptions of people’s faces just don’t happen. Just like Sadie, the reader is totally reliant upon the clothing people wear, their perfume, or even what they eat to identify friend or foe. This novel was really different and although I wasn’t surprised by where it led me I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the journey. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this link to purchase this book!* Hello Stranger

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 Dane of My Existence (A Bard’s Rest Novel #2) by Jessica Martin

On the rise lawyer, Portia Barnes, is in her hometown of Bard’s Rest on a summer sabbatical before starting her job as managing partner in Boston. While everyone else in her small town is obsessed with the bard, Portia kind of couldn’t care less. That doesn’t mean that when she spots a land developer’s interest in the island where the big production is set every year, she’s not going to do her damndest to stop it. Cozying up to the competition is not beneath her, but she doesn’t expect to fall for Benjamin Dane’s kindness and lack of arrogance.

This is the second novel in the Bard’s Rest series, and I liked it even more than the first novel. There’s something about the heroine, Portia, who disdains her kitchy hometown, but still tries to save it’s legacy theater. Seeing her walls crumbling under Ben’s charm was fun, but it was really her strong sense of family that won me over. I could imagine being that woman who wanted to leave Bard’s Rest behind her, but then finds that it means more to her than she ever understood. This story had a lot of heart!

I’m somewhat obsessed with the idea that there may be a real town out there like Bard’s Rest, but at least I know that there’s another sister who has yet to have her love story told. Can’t wait! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Click this novel to purchase this book!* The Dane of My Existence

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 Chicks Sunday Commentary: My Top 5 Most Anticipated Book Releases- July’23

It’s that time again when I take a look at all of the book releases for the upcoming month. I feel like I say the same thing every month but there’s quite a few that I need to read and didn’t know were coming out. Chime in in the comments with your own Top 5.

#5 BOOK RELEASE

A heist book that has a bit of romance? Sold!!! This sounds like a fun book.

Synopsis: To exonerate her best friend, one woman must mastermind a jewelry heist during the wedding of the season in this hilarious romantic-comedy caper from the author of The Dating Plan. 

Simi Chopra is on a bad-luck streak. She’s lost yet another job, her student loan debt won’t stop growing, her basement apartment is a certifiable flood zone, and now her best friend has been accused of stealing a multimillion-dollar diamond necklace. To put it lightly, she’s desperate for a break—that’s right when Jack waltzes out of the bushes and into her life.

Jack is just as charming as he is mysterious. When he offers to help her find the missing necklace and steal it back, Simi jumps at the chance to clear her friend’s name and collect the substantial reward. But every good heist needs a crew. All she needs to do is transform a ragtag group of strangers into an elite heist crew, infiltrate a high-society wedding and steal the necklace from a dangerous criminal before the happy couple say “I do.” Meanwhile the bride is keeping secrets, a detective with a slow-burn smile keeps showing up at her door, and the ultimate robbery might not be the wedding con, but the way Jack is stealing her heart.

Click this link to purchase this book!* To Have and to Heist

#4 BOOK RELEASE

This one was not on my radar at all, but it looks like it could be a cute rom-com with an older pair of protagonists. I’m definitely intrigued!

Synopsis:

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face—after a rocky, shocking start—the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

Click this link to purchase this book!* Role Playing

*Amazon associate- if you purchase one of these book through the link I’ll receive a small stipend!

#3 BOOK RELEASE

I’ll admit, I’ve already read this novel and it’s so cute! I love the setting of Bard’s Rest and can’t wait for the third book in the series.

Synopsis:

Portia Barnes is the youngest managing partner in her law firm’s history, and she and her stilettos are poised to step into the role of her dreams—leading the firm’s new Boston office. But first she’s taking a summer sabbatical in her hometown of Bard’s Rest, New Hampshire, where she discovers something’s rotten in the midst of the town’s annual Shakespeare festival.

Hotshot commercial developer Benjamin Dane is sniffing around Bard’s, and while Portia isn’t necessarily a Shakespeare fanatic like the rest of her family, she’s not about to let him bulldoze the town’s beloved outdoor theater. Yet to Portia’s dismay, Ben proves as skilled as she is when it comes to outworking, outmaneuvering, and one-upping the competition. While she’s never hesitated to wage war against hyper-successful alpha males, Portia is caught off guard by Ben’s openness and lack of arrogance. As her own long-constructed walls start to come down, Portia begins to wonder if he might be more than an archnemesis.

With her heart on the line and the future of the town hanging in the balance, Portia faces an impossible decision—Ben or Bard’s?—unless she finds a way to broker the merger of her life, and ensures the curtain falls on a happy ending for everyone.

Click this link to purchase this book!* The Dane of My Existence

#2 BOOK RELEASE

You can’t go wrong with a book by Katherine Center. Her book sometimes make me laugh and sometimes make me cry, but I know I’m going to connect with the characters and be completely entertained.

Synopsis: Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life―placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition―the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into―love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?―with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Hello Stranger

MY MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FOR JULY 2023

I love, love, love Jane Porter’s novels. The characters are close to my own age and the story always hits that emotional button. I can’t wait to read Flirting with Fire, I just know I’m going to love it.

Synopsis: Love isn’t just an act in this captivating and flirty romance by New York Times bestselling author Jane Porter.

Forty-nine-year-old Margot Hughes has lived and breathed theater for the past twenty-five years. After a devastating breakup with her playwright fiancé, she wants nothing to do with the industry. She has sworn off New York, theater, actors—all of it. She returns to her hometown on California’s central coast and takes a job in real estate, where she manages significant investment properties. But Margot’s suddenly thrown back into the theater world when Sally, her friend and boss, who had been restoring and funding Cambria’s historic theater, has a heart attack. Before she knows it, Margot is tapped to take over the troubled summer production of Barefoot in the Park.

But the play is no walk in the park—the leads and director have all quit, and Margot struggles to find new actors…until Max Russo arrives. Forty-five-year-old Max is a former soap opera star turned rugged cowboy on TV’s most popular western series.  Max has a huge following and is the perfect hero to step up and save the play, provided Margot stars opposite him.   Although adamant she would never return to theater, Margot enjoys the long hours of rehearsal with a professional like Max, who is charming, witty, and passionate. But when the curtains close, can Margot allow herself to fall for Max when he represents everything she left behind?

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

July will be a romance reading month for me! What books are you looking forward to being released?

Have a great Sunday!

Deb

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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.

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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.

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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.

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