Tag: goodreads

This Chick Read: Awakened by Fire (Dragons of Bloodfire #2) by Erin Kellison

Samantha Vine is home to see her grandfather and to be a reluctant bridesmaid in her cousin’s wedding. She hasn’t been home for years because it’s hard for her to hide what she is, and if she gets found out both she and her grandfather’s lives will be forfeit. She is a Tempus, someone who can travel through time. She was saved as an infant by her grandfather who fed her the blood of Warrick Voclain, dragon and Bloodkin Triad member, an act that also created her Tempus status. Samantha’s family has always served the Voclain’s and when she finds out that her grandfather and Warrick are in danger she stays in New York to go back through time to find out who is trying to harm them.

Warrick is a very strong dragon and when Samantha uses her magic in his presence he knows immediately what she has done. It’s against the law, but she has done it to help him which intrigues him.  After putting her own life in danger, he falls prey to the attraction they feel for each other and is willing to lay his life on the line so that she can keep hers.

I read the first novel in this series a couple of years ago and immediately purchased the second intending to read it immediately. Of course, time got away from me but this weekend I saw it on my kindle and picked it up. Wow, it was good! Even though the cover has the whole naked chest thing going on (not my favorite type of cover) this book had a great plot. It was a mystery first and relationship building story second. I loved how the author took her time to let the reader get to know these characters and let the characters get re-acquainted with each other. By the time the two of them became romantic I was all in, rooting for him to forget the fact she was human and her to also give his dragon brooding self a chance. There was a lot of action, fight scenes, and subterfuge with the romance lifting the story to the next level. A very fun weekend read! I will  definitely not wait as long to pick up the third novel in the series.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

Awakened by Fire

Click this link to purchase! Awakened by Fire: Dragons of Bloodfire 2

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you purchase through the above link.

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This Chick Read: Ain’t She a Peach (Southern Eclectic #4) by Molly Harper

Frankie McCready is kind of the oddball in her family. A Leukemia survivor, she knows what it’s like to be on the edge of death’s door, so she lives life for every moment, not really caring what anyone else thinks. She’s got multi-hued died hair, has an eclectic wardrobe and her job is the embalmer and county coroner for the family business, McCready’s Funeral Home and Bait Shop. When a one night stand moves to Lake Sackett from Atlanta to be their new sheriff, Frankie realizes that it might just be time to grow up.

Frankie has been one of my favorite characters in this series. She loves her family and cousins, and has always given great advice regarding their lives and relationships. She has allowed her parents to baby her since she has been in remission and it’s only when Eric moves to town that she realizes how unhealthy that’s been for her parents and for herself. Her cousins are eager to give her advice after being on the receiving end their whole lives and those scenes are charming and real.

Eric has his own reasons for moving to Lake Sackett. He’s running from his past and is surprised when he finds a familiar face in their county coroner. Even though they have a prickly relationship he doesn’t give up trying to win this wacky woman. Both Eric and Frankie have trauma in their pasts to overcome and it was nice to see them work together, in a somewhat crazy way, to find a way to be together. I really liked this installment of Molly Harper’s Southern Eclectic series and have yet to be disappointed in the residents of Lake Sackett. They are kooky, fun, but more importantly they all seem to really care about each other which makes it easy for the reader to care about them in return. If you are looking for an easy Chick Lit novel for a summer vacation, pick up any book in this series, you can read them as stand alone’s too!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Ain't She a Peach

Click this link to purchase! Ain’t She a Peach (Southern Eclectic)

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you purchase through the above link.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

Friday YA: Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills

At a “Last party before Senior year starts” party, Claudia has escaped to the restroom where she is the unwilling witness to favorite couple Iris and Paige’s breakup. Caught in the act, Claudia tries to stay out of the rather mean girl Iris’ way, but ends up getting paired with her for a school assignment. Iris is not over her breakup and hates Claudia for witnessing it so isn’t the greatest partner for a project and surprise!… they fail. In order to get extra credit, their teacher makes them try out for the school play A Midsummer’s Nights Dream. There, Claudia’s world is upended. She meets a flirty boy, makes new friendships, and discovers a whole world outside her comfort zone. Oh, and she totally gets William Shakespeare.

I was totally surprised by Foolish Hearts. The premise wasn’t that unusual, but the author did a great job of capturing the flavors of new friendships, betrayal and first love. Claudia was used to living in the secure world she knew. Best friends with Zoe, the girl she grew up with, she never needed any other friends. Going to an all girl school, while Zoe remained in public school, Claudia was content with her world, but it was time for a shakeup. When she witnessed Paige and Iris’ breakup, she feels bad for Iris, even though she’s really hard to be around. When they both start work on the school play Claudia becomes the friend that Iris never wanted. I really loved how Claudia just kept going back for Iris’s abuse and saw through her mean girl act.

Gideon is the class clown, but the clown everyone laughs with and not at. He is uber popular, cute and an all around nice guy. The dialog between Claudia and Gideon was written so well. Even though it was PG-13 it was clever and full of wit, I found myself smiling at the great energy these two made together. He was not all surface charm and had hidden depths that came out as the story developed. This made Gideon multi dimensional and even more enjoyable to read.

There was a lot of drama in this high school romance, but there was also a lot of fun. The story and dialog was intricate and I got totally wrapped into the plot and characters forgetting that I am not the target reader for this type of book. That is a true compliment to the author. She made me forget my age! (If only more books could do this! LOL) Truly, Foolish Hearts had a great story that was easy to love and characters that learned and grew as the story moved forward. The name Foolish Hearts was apropos for the amount of relationship drama featured in this book, but I think it’s also a play on words to the relationship drama found in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Maybe the author should rename this book Clever Hearts instead! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Foolish Hearts

Click this link to purchase! Foolish Hearts

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associates member and receive a very small stipend if you were to purchase this book through the above link.

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This Chick Read: Hot and Badgered (Honey Badger Chronicles #1) by Shelly Laurenston

Shelly Laurenston writes the most irreverent and fun shifter romance novels. Her characters do have the characteristics of the animals they shift into, but unlike other novels in the human shifting into animal paranormal genre, it doesn’t skeeve me out. I always look forward to a new release and I’ve been looking forward to reading Hot and Badgered since I read and featured the Chapter excerpt a few months ago.

If this were a normal novel I’d say that Charlie is the overprotective older sister who has taken it upon herself to protect her two younger sisters their entire lives. However, this is a shifter novel, so that same sentence should actually be, full blooded honey badger, Charlie is the overprotective sister to her half tiger/honey badger genius younger sister, and her psychotic always smiling honey badger middle sister. Sounds like a lot more fun, right? Honey badgers are notorious for not being scared of anything. They will fight a grizzly to the death even though they are bigger and more fierce. These ladies are no different they are death personified, but sweet and funny at the same time.

Berg Dunn meets Charlie when she dives naked out of her hotel bedroom and lands two flights down in his. He helps protect her from the armed men who are chasing her and she runs out the door before he learns her name. When he finds her a few days later he helps them rent a house in his bear neighborhood where they will catch the scent of any non bear who tries to sneak in. This is the start of Berg’s fascination with Charlie, but Charlie doesn’t want to bring solid, dependable Berg into her crazy life. Of course, he does finally wear her down, but not before a lot of blood is shed and food is eaten.

Shelly Laurenston has built a world that is total fantasy and 100% fun. These shifters are fierce and somewhat like their animal namesakes, so reading their reactions to each other is kind of like watching the Discovery Channel but the animals have human emotions to match their animal fierceness. Berg and Charlie were a fun couple and complemented the other. Berg was solid and nice while Charlie was a bit ADHD and a warrior. She was the most normal of the three sisters so I can’t imagine what species could possibly be matched up with either of her two crazy sisters.

If you’ve never read a Shelly Laurenston novel, I’d start with the Pride series the world might make a little more sense, however, this is a stand alone novel and there are only a couple of extraneous characters who show up where you may miss a subtle reference. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hot

Click this link to purchase! Hot and Badgered (The Honey Badgers)

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you purchase through the above link.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

This Chick Read: Lachlan (Immortal Highlander #1) by Hazel Hunter

Kinley Chandler is a wounded war veteran languishing in a hospital bed in San Diego fighting to find the will to live. She was in an explosion that embedded shrapnel in her stomache, took her leg and scarred her both physically and mentally. As an excercise in healing her therapist takes her on a car ride to a national park hoping to jump start the fight within her, but only makes Kinley more interested in ending her life. When the therapist steps away to get her phone, Kinley puts the wheels in motion to launch herself down a hillside to hopefully end her life. Instead, she lands in 14th century Scotland in the middle of a fight between some highlanders and Roman soldiers. Her body is whole again and although she’s confused, she jumps in and saves a highlanders life creating an immediate bond between the two of them.

When I read this synopsis I was intrigued by Kinley, a female wounded warrior, wondering how her skills were going to help her out in medieval Scotland. Once she had come to grips with her situation we did see those skills in play. She had been a search and rescue coordinator, so her strategies in finding the Romans who were terrorizing the inhabitants of Skye were ahead of this time. Even better was Lachlan’s acceptance of who she had been and that he took those skills for granted. I was ok with Lachlan’s immortality (yep) but what was hard for me to overlook was that the Roman soldiers were actually Roman vampires. Just to make it really clear, the good vs evil fight was between Immortal Scottish warriors and Roman soldier vampires. There was a lot going on in this novel!

The talent was apparent in the writing because, well, I stuck with it to the end. I just wish she hadn’t thrown the story at the wall to see what stuck. It would’ve been enough for me to have Kinley get thrown back in time her body whole, found a warrior who see’s her worth, comes to love her- maybe throw in a couple of fighting scenes to show off everyone’s skills and then have our happily ever after. The vampire scenes were pretty gross and vivid, so I skimmed and skipped those parts. I really just wanted to get back to what I considered the meat and potatoes, Kinley and Lachlan. However, I can see why other readers gave this novel high reviews. Kinley was an original! The female vet angle was really appealing and in the end her character is why I read this book all the way to the end.

If this plot intrigues you, you’ll be happy to know that there are a LOT of these Immortal Highlander novels. Every highlander apparently has a woman come tumbling through from our world. Lucky them! I haven’t decided yet if I am going to give the second book a chance. The writing was good, but oh those Roman vampires…

❤️❤️❤️❣️

Lachlan

Click this link to purchase!Lachlan (Immortal Highlander Book 1): A Scottish Time Travel Romance

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you purchase through the above link.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads

Friday YA: Ruthless Magic (Conspiracy of Magic #1) by Megan Crewe

At sixteen when your magic is evaluated you are either given an invitation into an elite school for training or scheduled for a procedure that will take away your magic. One other option is for you to declare yourself for the Exam a mysterious last chance to be declared Champion winning yourself eligibility into that elite school. Finn comes from a high ranking magical family and is a shoe-in to the Academy, yet he lacks the magical talent to win entrance on his own. Rocio comes from a lower class family whose parents  had their magic nulled. Her magical gifts are extraordinary yet she is denied entrance into the Academy when a spot should have been hers. When they each declare for the Exam they meet for the first time finding a friendship that will surpass all class levels.

Ruthless Magic is part Lord of the Flies or Hunger Games with magical realism elements a la Harry Potter. When these teens show up at the Exam they realize that it’s more survival of the fittest that tests their talents. Finn who declared for the exam to give the finger to the Confederation of Mages for being biased against lower level families, pretty quickly  realizes that he may have made a big mistake. His talent lies in evaluating circumstances, sweet talking, and charm more than actual magical skill. His character is so easy to like, always finding humor in a difficult situation. He is put into the same group as Rocio and is immediately taken with her talent and personality right from the start. Rocio is a little less willing to trust but Finn is the person she starts to lean on as their situation becomes more dire.

There are very few rules in these exams and some of the kids are more willing to eliminate each other than trust their magic will win them a place in the school at the end of the four days. Ruthless Magic’s theme about bigotry and social classes is told very effectively even though they are classed by their level of magic ability. Even though set in the human world, mages came out to the Nulls or humans (think muggles from HP) in order to help them through extreme times of terrorism or war. The novel has a great message about the balance of good vs evil and tells it in a magical way that was original and interesting.

The cliques in this group of “contestants” for lack of a better word were pretty typical of a high school age group.  You have the athletic bully, the pretty boy charmer, the quiet shy girl, and the do-gooder, but the way in which Megan Crewe uses these stereotypes to shine a light on difficult subjects was poignant and engaging.  I really liked this book, the characters, and it’s message! It was my first novel by Megan Crewe but it won’t be my last! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

Ruthless Magic

I was given a copy of this novel through NetGalley for my honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase! Ruthless Magic (Conspiracy of Magic)

Copyright Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you purchase a book through the above link.

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This Chick Read: Night Shifts Black (NSB #1) by Alyson Santos

Callie is contemplating what to order for breakfast at a diner when a good looking guy with a sad soulful look in his eye approaches her table and asks if she can move seats. She does, only moving to the seat across the table from the chair she had been sitting in. As she settles in her seat she watches this man stare at the chair she had been sitting in, hesitantly reach towards it and draw his hand away. Then he quickly turns around and leaves the diner. The waitress tells her that this is the third day he’s come in and done that. Intrigued, Callie shows up the next morning, sits at the same table and when the man approaches she invites him to have a seat at the next table with her. They strike up a conversation and the two of them become semi friendly, jokingly calling themselves the breakfast club. As this looks like a romance novel and I can feel Callie’s attraction to Luke, I thought ok, here’s my couple. but nope! Callie and Luke were not my romantic couple, but their relationship was the catalyst that drove Callie to find romance. Luke was the best friend. Intrigued? Hell yes!

This novel felt like a J. T. Geissinger novel. Full of great character depth, intense feelings, and agonizing pain. Just as you’d deduce from the above scene, Luke was working his way through emotional trauma. Callie, it seemed was his straight man, but she actually had a lot of depth too and together they had a solid supportive friendship. So, where is the love in this love story? There is one, it’s just not where I expected it. When it happens, it fits, and it’s wonderful.

This novel was seriously good! I loved the friendships in this novel. Dealing with serious topics like depression and suicide, the friendship and love that these characters felt for each other was what elevated the story to another level. Will I be reading the second book in this series, Tracing Holland? Yes, I have to see how Luke falls in love! Oh, did I mention this is a Rock Star romance? NSB, or Night Shifts Black is the name of their band, just in case you are wondering about that title.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Night Shifts Black

Click this link to purchase! Night Shifts Black (NSB Book 1)

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you purchase through the above link.

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This Chick Read: Then There Was You by Miranda Liasson

Sara Langdon has returned home to Angel Falls a year after her fiancee broke up with her two days before their wedding. She can’t help but blame his best man Colton for not keeping him on the straight and narrow, instead letting him fall for the girl who jumped out of the cake. Sara is now back after finishing her residency and partners up with her father at his medical practice, while living with her grandmother who has just started showing signs of dementia. When she has to sew Sheriff Colton Walker’s arm closed she has to face her past a little sooner than she’d like. She and Colton have known each other since childhood and have never gotten along, but there was always an underlying tension and now that she’s single, that tension is of the sexual variety.

Then There Was You is your typical enemies to lovers trope and Sara and Colton take their time fighting before they get to the lovers part. It creates a nice tension to their story, but also gives the reader a little time to get to know their pasts and why they always hated each other. Sara’s reason for being back in Angel Falls is a great subplot and humanizes Sara making her more three dimensional. Without dealing with the effects of dementia on a family, as well as learning how to partner with her father in a medical practice I think she would have been just like a lot of other romance heroines, pretty vanilla. Instead we see all that Sara’s got going on in her life, and there is a lot of it! She deals with those problems, while still agonizing over Colton and his behavior towards their budding relationship.

If we had not gotten those family subplots for both Sara and Colton I think I wouldn’t have liked this book as much as I did. There were a few moments between them as a couple that were pretty cliche, but how they dealt with their families, and then each other at the end of the book rounded out their characters and made me like them as a couple. There were a few moments where I wanted to kick Colton in the rear, but that added to the tension in the book very nicely.  If you are a fan of Miranda Liasson’s you will love this book- it’s a good start to a brand new series. ❤️❤️❤️❣️

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

There There was You

Click this link to purchase! Then There Was You (Angel Falls)

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend if you were to purchase this book through the above link.

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This Chicks Sunday Commentary: My new book cover! #MidnightMetamorphosis

A month ago I self published my YA Fantasy novel Midnight Metamorphosis. A week later a publisher friend offered to create a new cover and format the book for paperback. Doesn’t it look great?! I’m really excited about how it looks.

MM-Cover-Final

I had pulled it from all booksellers until we had this final format completed and I’m happy to say it is now up again for sale! You can find it exclusively in ebook format on Amazon.com. It will be available in print at all booksellers hopefully by next weekend.

This has been such an amazing journey. It feels so good to finish this novel, the first of many, I hope!

I started this blog to jump start my creative drive and it certainly worked. I am really enjoying reading, reviewing and connecting with other bloggers. I’m also enjoying writing again. Something I had given up for almost 20 years. I’m now thinking about taking a few writing courses to fine tune my skills. It’s funny, but you really discover the things you are good at and the things you really need to work hard to be even decent at. Writing my blog has honed my skills of observation, commentary, and sassy humor (well, at least I think I’m pretty funny!). Those all translated into my novel, but I discovered that I struggled with emotions. You know, reviewing books doesn’t really take you on an emotional journey, the reading of those books sure, but the reviewing is pretty straightforward.

So, I’m going to start honing this new craft of mine. Midnight Metamorphosis was an idea I had that took root and grew, but I want to keep learning and growing. Isn’t that what life is all about? My journey is definitely not ending. It’s only beginning!

If you would like to read Midnight Metamorphosis, please check it out on Amazon on the link below.  If you do read it, please leave a review!

Midnight Metamorphosis: Click HERE for Amazon.

Synopsis:

When her mother died, Avery Anderson finally had a chance to leave a runaway life behind to try to have a normal life. After she moves in with her aunt Brenna and starts her new high school in Dover, California, Avery discovers that she isn’t an average teenage girl. On her sixteenth birthday she’ll inherit a mixture of Elemental and Seer powers. There’s only one problem: at fifteen, she’s already pretty powerful.

Cole Sullivan was transplanted to Dover for a mission-and that mission is Avery. Cole is an Elemental who has trained to be a Guardian, having gained powers over three elements when he was twelve years of age. When Cole befriends Avery, he realizes that guarding her is going to be more difficult than he imagined. With her growing powers, she may be the daughter prophesied to bring about the end of his kind.

When twins Devon and Dani Finn are suddenly enrolled by their father in the same school as Avery with an order to contain her if she’s dangerous, Devon gets suspicious though his sister supports their dad. Devon realizes that he and Avery may have a lot in common through shared talismans that align their powers, and they build a friendship.

Until next Sunday!

Deb

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This Chick Read: Legendary (Caraval #2) by Stephanie Garber

Caraval is a magical game led by the ringmaster magician Legend where contestants are invited to compete for a grand prize. Legendary starts where Donatella and Scarlett and the “players” have moved on to the next Caraval. Instead of being the end result of the game Donatella is a participant. Like her sister Scarlett, Tella had been writing to Legend over the years hoping to become a participant of the game, but not for the same reasons as her sister. Tella has been haunted by a deck of cards she had seen in her mothers room as a child. A deck similar to a Tarot card but the fortunes that are told are cast by the Fates and destined to come true unless you can change your future. Tella holds one card from this deck which has shown her different futures, one of which is that her mother is still alive. Tella, with Legends help, is playing the game to set her mother free, but the other players have their own reasons for playing the game and those reasons are in direct opposition to Tella’s.

In Caraval the book, we followed Scarlett as she searched for her missing sister. If she found her she would win the game. Tella was a secondary character in Caraval, missing in action until the conclusion of the book. Legendary is centered around Tella’s journey to win the game. Stephanie Garber’s descriptive prose and colorful adjectives enhanced the magical elements of Tella’s game playing. The characters she interacted with were either cruel and evil or seductive and mysterious- no one was the girl or boy next door. Emotions were always at an extreme level creating a tension for the reader that made you eagerly turn each page. I loved this book because it was so easy to get lost in the story, the characters, and the magic.

Tella started off this novel as a young, self centered beauty used to getting her way. What started off as a game became very real very quick. When Jacks is introduced into the story he is the perfect evil counterpart to Dante’s good looking goodness and as I turned the pages the line between good and evil became smudged.

Do we find out who is the real Legend? I think so? Yes. Well, I believe I did? Hmmm. Yes. Stephanie Garber just announced that there will be a third novel. Thank goodness! I can breathe in relief that I will live in this magical world one more time and also finally get a danged conclusion! Reading Legendary is like getting a golden ticket to another world minus the chocolate river and oompa loompa’s. Legendary is a totally enjoyable escape from reality that I would highly recommend to anyone who likes magical fantasy. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

Legendary

Click this link to purchase! Legendary: A Caraval Novel

Copyright 2018 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small stipend for any purchases made through the above link.

On By deborahkehoeIn A Hot Chick Who Reads