This Chick Read: Seeking Mansfield by Kate Watson

Finley Price is in love with her best friend Oliver, but doesn’t have the self confidence to see that he also loves her. A victim of child abuse, Finley has a tough time speaking up or being the center of attention. She lives on the fringes of life, trying to contribute as much as possible to Olivers family who has taken her in after her father dies and her mother is incapable of raising she and her brother. When two famous teenage actors move in next door, Finley watches Oliver fall under the spell of Emma, and is forced to spend more time with Harlan, Emma’s brother, than she’d like. Added to that teenage friction is the fact that Finley’s father was a famous actor, and that industry is in her blood. Seeking Mansfield uses the situation of teenage love and pain as an engine for Finley to grow within herself, face her fears and go after the life she wants, which is an admission to prestigious Mansfield Theater.

I was totally surprised by the depth in what looked at first glance to be a lighthearted romance. Finley has a lot of inner demons she needs to work through so at times this book was pretty dark. The storyline revolved around alcohol, physical abuse and broken hearts, but the story did balance those dark moments with laughter, a loving brother, and solid friendships. Her relationship with Oliver changed very slowly and I’ll admit that I got a little impatient with how the author used misdirection to make us believe that they had moved on from their feelings. Finley had suffered so much up to the start of this book, that once I found out her back story I just wanted to see her happy. Harlan, as her love him/hate him relationship didn’t ring true, so I had trouble buying into it, but he was a fun character to read, and an integral part to how Finley grew in this book. For that reason I’ll forgive this author the time she spent on that plotline. This novel is the first book in the series, so I can only hope the next one follows Finley on her education at Mansfield Theater, because she was a fascinating character and I want to know more about her!

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

❤️❤️❤️❤️


Buy it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo!

Copyright 2017 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

Blog Book Club : Kulti by Mariana Zapata (A three blog review!)

A few weeks ago on my Sunday Commentary I asked for my fellow bloggers to help me choose a book to read off my TBR. That post started a discussion with Donna @ Heron There & Everywhere about the book Kulti. It’s been sitting on my kindle for a couple of years and funny enough it was sitting on hers too! Recently I read and reviewed Zapata’s Wall of Winnipeg and Me and was loving her slow burn love stories. It wasn’t very hard for Donna to convince me to read that book together. We asked if anyone else wanted to join in and Sarah Ferguson and Choppy chimed in and we all decided to post our reviews on the same date, today!

If you would like to read all of our reviews, click on each name.

Donna @ Heron There and Everywhere

Sarah @ Travels with Choppy

This Chick’s review of Kulti by Mariana Zapata

Sal Casillas grew up idolizing star soccer player Reiner Kulti and dreaming of one day playing pro soccer. She works hard for that dream and when the story starts she is in fact an aging (at 27!)  pro soccer player whose team just hired Reiner Kulti as their assistant coach. Sal is beyond excited, never believing she’d get the chance to meet her idol in person, and be coached by him. Well, things don’t start off that well. Kulti comes to all the practices but doesn’t interact with the team at all, he’s actually kind of an ass! One day, her dad comes to watch her play, excited that he has the chance to meet Kulti. Sal hadn’t had the heart to tell her father how awful Kulti was being to the team. When Kulti is rude to her father Sal hits the wall. She walks up to him and very precisely, and with the utmost respect (he was her coach after all!) tells him off. After that moment something changed in him and they slowly started to become friends. Until they became more.

First I have to exclaim over how much fun it was to read a sports romance where the female protagonist was the pro player! It gave a whole different vibe to the story. We were given some backstory about Sals rise up through the ranks of pro soccer and a ton of backstory between she and a girl on the National team. I won’t spoil the story but I will say ” what a bitch!” I wanted to give Amber a big kick! Growing up playing soccer myself, and having those same kind of dreams about going pro I wonder if that is part of the reason why I loved this book so much. Then, I’d keep reading and realized I was really enjoying the building friendship between Sal and Rey. Sal was so surprised at their relationship, and the fact that this man wanted to be her friend that she wore blinders to the fact that he was deeply in love with her. Totally clueless and I loved her for that.  And him. After a rough start Rey ended up being my dream guy too.

If, like me, you have put this book on the back burner, PICK IT UP! It will not disappoint!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I’m going to pop on over to Donna and Sarah’s blog to see if they liked this book as much as I did. If you have read Kulti and want to chime in with your thoughts, we’d love to hear them!


Buy this book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo!

Copyright 2017 Deborah Kehoe The Reading Chick All Rights Reserved

A Happy Mother’s Day Book #Giveaway !! 

Congratulations Jennifer Dunkleman Hon-Winner!

As you all know, I spent last week at the RT Convention in Atlanta. I met some fabulous people, among them a group of Inspirational Romance authors.  These ladies were so gracious that I thought Mother’s Day would be a perfect time to do a couple of giveaways to honor their writing. I haven’t read any of these books but have read others by these authors and they were fabulous. Click on the link below to enter this contest, it’s that easy!

GIVEAWAY- US Only!

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A Portrait of Emily Price-by Katherine Reay

Art restorer Emily Price has never encountered anything she can’t fix—until she meets Ben, an Italian chef, who seems just right. But when Emily follows Ben home to Italy, she learns that his family is another matter . . .

Emily Price—fix-it girl extraordinaire and would-be artist—dreams of having a gallery show of her own. There is no time for distractions, especially not the ultimate distraction of falling in love.

But Chef Benito Vassallo’s relentless pursuit proves hard to resist. Visiting from Italy, Ben works to breathe new life into his aunt and uncle’s faded restaurant, Piccollo. Soon after their first meeting, he works to win Emily as well—inviting her into his world and into his heart.

Emily astonishes everyone when she accepts Ben’s proposal and follows him home. But instead of allowing the land, culture, and people of Monterello to transform her, Emily interferes with everyone and everything around her, alienating Ben’s tightly knit family. Only Ben’s father, Lucio, gives Emily the understanding she needs to lay down her guard. Soon, Emily’s life and art begin to blossom, and Italy’s beauty and rhythm take hold of her spirit.

Yet when she unearths long-buried family secrets, Emily wonders if she really fits into Ben’s world. Will the joys of Italy become just a memory, or will Emily share in the freedom and grace that her life with Ben has shown her are possible?

Wild Montana Skies by Susan May Warren

Bestselling Author’s New Series Delivers Romance and Adventure as an SAR Team Searches for Others–and Finds Themselves

Search and rescue pilot Kacey Fairing is home on leave in Mercy Falls, Montana, twelve years after she joined the military to escape the mistakes of her past. With a job waiting for her as the new lead pilot of Peak Rescue in Glacier National Park, Kacey hopes to reconnect with the now-teenage daughter she sees only between deployments. What she doesn’t realize is that someone else is also back in town.
Ben King has been building his country music career since the day Kacey shut him out of her life. Now all of that’s on hold when his injured father calls him home to help run Peak Rescue until he’s fully recovered. It doesn’t take long, though, to discover his father’s ulterior motives as Kacey Fairing walks into the house and back into his heart.
With Mercy Falls in a state of emergency due to flash floods, Kacey and Ben are forced to work together to save lives. But when floodwaters turn personal, can they put aside the past to save their future?
The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck

It’s the early 1930s, but Cora Scott is walking in stride as a career woman ?after having inherited her great aunt’s wedding shop in Heart’s Bend, Tennessee, where brides come from as far away as Birmingham to experience her famed bridal treatment. Meanwhile, Cora is counting down the days until her own true love returns from the river to make her his bride. But days turn into months and months to years. All the while, Birch Good continues to woo Cora and try to show her that while he is solid and dependable, he can sweep her off her feet.

More than eighty years later, former Air Force Captain Haley Morgan has returned home to Heart’s Bend after finishing her commitment to military service. After the devastating death of her best friend, Tammy, and discovering the truth about the man she loved, Haley is searching for her place in life. 

When Haley decides to reopen the romantic but abandoned wedding shop where she and Tammy played and dreamed as children, she begins a journey of courage, mystery, and love.

As Cora’s and Haley’s stories intertwine through time in the shadow of the beloved wedding shop, they both discover the power of their own dreams and the magic of everyday love. 

To Win Her Favor by Tamera Alexander

A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie Linden is determined that her horse will become a champion. But the one man who could help her has vowed to stay away from thoroughbred racing forever.

An Irishman far from home, Cullen McGrath left a once prosperous life in England because of a horse racing scandal that nearly ruined him. He’s come to Nashville for a fresh start, hoping to buy land and begin farming, all while determined to stay as far away from thoroughbred racing as possible. But starting over proves harder than he’d wagered, especially when Maggie Linden’s father makes him an offer he shouldn’t accept yet cannot possibly refuse.

Maggie is certain that her mare, Bourbon Belle, can take the top purse in the inaugural Peyton Stakes, the richest race ever run in America. Maggie only needs the chance to prove it. To give her that chance–and to save Linden Downs from being sold to the highest bidder–Maggie’s father, aging, yet wily as ever, makes a barter. His agreement includes one tiny, troublesome detail–Maggie must marry a man she’s never met. A man she never would have chosen for herself.

A Tapestry of Secrets by Sarah Loudin Thomas

This Decade-Spanning Novel of Family and Faith Will Delight

Now in her eighties, Perla Phillips has carried a secret since she was eighteen years old. When she sees her granddaughter, Ella, struggling for perfection, she decides to share her secret to show that God can use even the biggest mistakes for good. But before she can reveal what happened during that summer sixty years ago, she has a debilitating stroke. 

Carrying a secret of her own, Ella arrives back in Wise, West Virgina, to help her aunt Sadie care for Perla. Both know the woman wanted to tell them something, but she’s now locked in silence. Together they begin looking into the past, but they may learn more than they expected. 

Will they have the courage to share their hearts? Or will the truth remain buried forever?

This Chick Read: Lethal Lies (Blood Brothers #2) by Rebecca Zanetti #Giveaway

The Giveaway has finished and congratulations to the winner!

Anya Best is being stalked by a serial killer. Taunting her with pictures of his murders, she is struck by the similarity between his victims and herself. Asking for help from her FBI Agent sister only got Loretta killed as well, and Anya is out for justice! Playing the media, Anya sends a direct message to the killer.

“I’m tired of your game and am getting bored. In fact, I’m recently engaged to a real man, unlike you. My fiancé is Heath Jones of Lost Bastards Investigative Services….You don’t like anyone in law enforcement, right? I’m marrying a guy who chases down jerks like you.”

With that challenge made, Heath, only peripherally involved before, suddenly has a fiancé, and the added danger that his past may have seen Anya’s announcement on the news giving away his location. He needs to catch this killer before time runs out.

I loved that Anya was not a weak heroine. She fought all of her instincts to run away in order to get her revenge against the man who killed her sister. In the bargain, she got a hot commando alpha male who’s first instinct was to protect what was now his and make her his own. I thought Heath got the short end of the stick with Anya who was determined to use herself as bait. This book was a fun quick read and the characters were easy to root for.

The underlying sub plot that runs through both the Sin Brothers series as well as this offshoot has still to reach its conclusion. In case you aren’t familiar with these books, all of the heroes in these novels have been biologically engineered with various super abilities. Heath’s is the ability to move really quickly that gives him an edge during a fight. All of the brothers also have enhanced hearing and sight. Abilities that the doctor who created them wants to breed into a new set of super soldiers. Needless to say, we have a lot of evil running around loose and these brothers have some hard work in front of them.  Will this story ARC conclude with the next book? I can’t wait to find out!

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

Want a chance to own a copy of Lethal Lies? Click the Giveaway link below!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

GIVEAWAY- US Only, sorry! EXPIRES 5/19/17!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



This Chick Read: The Hunt (The Cage #2) by Megan Shepherd

After their escape failed in The Cage. Cora who had started to have feelings for their Kindred keeper Cassian, found out he was the one that betrayed she Lucky and Mali. A betrayal that was supposed to help enhance the psychic abilities that he thought she had. I’m not sure how that was supposed to enhance abilities, but it certainly pissed Cora off! As a punishment for their escape, she, Lucky, and Mali are put in some sort of Safari themed enclosure where Kindred go to relax and fake kill things. One scene between Lucky and one of the animals particularly struck me (and Lucky!) as sad and awful. Cora, still determined to escape, takes Cassian up on his offer to train her to use her psychic abilities but this time she will use him. She trains and is able to telepathically build her strength and plan an escape for she and her friends. Continue reading “This Chick Read: The Hunt (The Cage #2) by Megan Shepherd”

This Chick Read: The Last of August (Charlotte Holmes #2) by Brittany Cavallaro

Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes are spending the holidays together in England at Charlotte’s family estate when her mother is poisoned and her uncle Leander goes missing. Assuming the Moriarty’s are behind it, they head off to Berlin, where Milo’s company is based and Leander was undercover investigating an art theft ring. While investigating in Berlin things begin to unravel between them. Continue reading “This Chick Read: The Last of August (Charlotte Holmes #2) by Brittany Cavallaro”

A Quicky from #RT17….

Hi guys!  I have been totally remiss in sending you some photos and happenings from the RT Convention in Atlanta. I’m so sorry!  This year I have signed up as an aspiring Author and spent my first two days receiving some great,writing tips from authors like Tere Michaels, Laura Kaye, Madeline Hunter, Damon Suede and also editors, agents, etc.  Whew!  I was exhausted before this party even got started!

Once again the lobby of each convention level is covered in posters, artwork, etc. of all of your favorite authors. Bare chests galore! It’s almost too much of a good thing, really. 😉


Below are some photos from the Petticoats and Pistols social event. I’m sure it’s a rewarding business being a successful writer, but I’m not sure I’d like to be in costume while everyone else is wondering around in leggings and t-shirts! LOL. The decorations were to die for!

Joanna Shupe author of The Knickerbocker series
The dresses are made out of paper!!
Really!… Paper!

We met some really nice people, both Readers, writers and COVER MODELS!


I had to get the With kilts and w/out!  LOL.  Yes, honey, this was business!  LOL.

And my loot from last night is 26 books and a ton of swag!


I’ll send out another post tomorrow!

Deborah

This Chick Read: Devil in Spring (The Ravenals #3) by Lisa Kleypas

I had recently rediscovered the fabulous Lisa Kleypas when I read her last novel Marrying Winterborne, which I had reviewed on my blog. I read a few historical romances a year, and what I had loved about the last book, her skill at writing about intriguing characters, who weren’t the usual romantic leads in a novel, is true again in Devil in Spring. Pandora Ravenal, who we had met briefly before, is an unusual lady. She has an active mind, isn’t interested in ballrooms and a future husband. Continue reading “This Chick Read: Devil in Spring (The Ravenals #3) by Lisa Kleypas”

This Chick Read: The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

The Garden of Small Beginnings was about your every woman.  Lilian Givran has faced life’s difficulties and has soldiered through finding light raising her two small girls, and unexpectedly also finds passion while gardening. I couldn’t believe this was Abbi Waxman’s debut novel. Lili’s voice was solid, funny, exasperating, sad and sarcastic. I laughed out loud multiple times and also cried softly as Lili struggled to find her way after the loss of her husband in a tragic accident. The fact that Lili finds that path while taking a gardening class is a great analogy for how each moment in life starts with a seed.

The cast of characters in this book added to the comedic highlights. The two daughters who say everything that comes into their heads, distracted, in a good way, from some of Lili’s more serious moments. Lili’s sister, Rachel, avoids serious relationships (sleeps around) because she wants to be available if Lili needs her. Her alcoholic mother who is narcissistic and says inappropriate things that embarrass her daughters. The class full of gardener wanna be’s who don’t have anything in common but end up being great friends with each other. Then there’s the teacher who makes her think there may be a little life left in her. This was a dream ensemble cast with a ton of personality.

Each chapter started off with a note about how to grow a vegetable. You could hear Lili’s voice speaking sardonically about why strawberries or carrots, I can’t remember, should not be planted in a bed after you’ve grown dill. These charming and funny intro’s set the stage for a really enjoyable, uplifting, love your family and keep your friends close kind of story. I don’t know if I’ve done a very good job of portraying why the book was so good, or even what the plot was like, but if you are a fan of women’s fiction, like humor, and like chick flicks, then put this on your TBR. Read it.

I received an Arc of this book, through NetGalley, for my honest review, and it was honest. 

 ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️


Buy it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo!

Copyright 2017 Deborah Kehoe A Chick Who Reads All Rights Reserved

This Chick Read: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer is about a Lost City named Weep, a young Librarian named Lazlo Strange, and a journey of self discovery. Lazlo Strange is the first hero that Is normal. He doesn’t have any super powers, he just has big dreams. Dreams that he wants to make a reality. He has that chance when citizens of a lost city, now named Weep, search for people who can help them, and they arrive in the city where Lazlo resides. Lazlo almost doesn’t go on this journey, as he is not seen as important enough by his own people, to have anything to offer. However, Lazlo has been dreaming of, and researching this city for years, and he speaks up offering his services as an apprentice or secretary and they accept.

Lazlo’s journey begins when he arrives in the land of Weep. The story of each character unfolds and through Lazlo, we find understanding of what has come to pass. Through Lazlo, we dream, we love, and we find heartbreak. Las LI finds within himself the strength to dream a little bigger. 

This book took a little while to get into. Lazlo was just so ordinary. I am so used to reading magical realism fantasy novels where the hero or heroine has a power of some sort that I kind of set myself up to expect the same from this book. Strange the Dreamer is not a fantasy novel, it is a fairy tale of the Grimm variety. The monsters revealed in this book are Gods, and these Gods did horrible things to this city and its inhabitants. As the story unfolds more conflict is revealed and my expectations of Lazlo became so great, I impatiently turned the pages hoping for a solution to be revealed, for him to become my hero with a capital H.

This was such a good story, but so hard to read! Laini Taylor did an amazing job of creating a world that was alien to the reader and also the characters in this book. I think at times I was confused at what I was reading. It’s a good thing Lazlo was there to provide a solidity and strength to carry me through to its conclusion. ❤️❤️❤️❤️


Buy it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo!

Copyright 2017 Deborah Kehoe A Chick Who Reads All Rights Reserved