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Blog Tour & Book Reviews for the Love In The City series by Steph Nuss

Posted on October 23, 2014 by charmouabb

Both books received in return for an honest review

Wanted by You (Book 1 Love in the City series)

The prologue for this story had me completely captured from the start. I could tell that this wasn’t going to be any standard NA romance. The difference being, that Carter & Ellyson’s love story turns out to be years in the making. The basis of a great relationship is an amazing friendship and these two characters definitely have that in spades. From the first time they saw each other at college it was obvious that there was only going to be one way that this story was going to end. I LOVED that I wasn’t left hanging for too long, family responsibilities and life had gradually eased the two of them apart but once we were deposited into the current day it didn’t take too long for Carter and Elly to reacquaint themselves with each other…

And from here it was it was clear. There was no more game playing. There was no more pretending to ‘just’ be friends. If anything was meant to be than this was it. The author had a perfect balance of chemistry building without sending me completely over the edge with impatience, something that’s not always achieved. But don’t for a second think that it’s all going to be smooth sailing for this gorgeous couple just because we were in the thick of a romance from early on. There is always drama in these types of books, this book is no different. But this drama you won’t expect, we aren’t talking run-of-the-mill every day romance issues. I felt the twists and turns in this book really helped create a beautiful story of more than just lust and romance, it created a story of a deeper love, of real life and real feelings.

What of course made sure that this story tugged at my heart were the characters. Carter and Ellyson were as good as I could’ve hoped for. We’re not talking about a naive, good girl and a womanizing alpha male. We’re talking about two humans, flaws and all. Carter ticked all of my boxes for book boyfriend material. Sweet, but not a pushover. Manly in all the best ways and worst ways without being an asshole. Elly also was a firm fave. This girl had brains! She was fun and genuine. She was probably more the realist of the two, but one of them had to be and with her background story it made sense. She didn’t have me eye-rolling with ridiculous meltdowns, or insecurities. She, just like Carter, was realistic and it made me a team Carter & Elly cheerleader all the way.

This read was totally and completely enjoyable. I couldn’t put the book down and read it in an afternoon. The heat, the storyline, the characters…. They all created a story that is more than ‘just’ a romance. If you are wanting to curl up and escape, then this is most definitely your book, set aside some chocolate and a comfy chair and be prepared to fall in love.

Fantasized By You (Book 2 Love in the City series)

What I’m loving about this series is that we aren’t trying to drag out a story and create drama for just one couple. I see far too many of those types of series around and both my fellow blogger Kristal and I aren’t particularly fans, but this way of approaching a romance series is one I can totally get on-board with! Each one of these books focuses on a separate couple and their love story, while keeping all of the characters involved throughout. So book 1 we had Carter and Elly and in this book, we have Maverick and Harper. If you’ve read book 1 then you’ll know Maverick as Elly’s faux brother / oldest friend and Harper as Carter’s sister and I am SO happy that they have ended up with their own love story!!!

Harper and Maverick have a mutual connection, a mutual tragedy that still affects both of them today and in turn their relationship with each other. Yes we get romance, we get two people who so definitely should be together. But we also get to tackle some very real storylines, again my heart was all over the place and I LOVED it.

We were introduced to these characters in the first book and I loved delving deeper into their stories and personalities. What really struck me is that each one of these characters vividly has their own ‘voice’ you never feel like you’re reading about the same person with a different name. While so far Carter and Elly are still my favourites I still loved the way that both Maverick and Harper were written. Actually, Maverick isn’t too far behind Carter on my book boyfriend list. I can see why Elly has been friends with him for so long, he’s almost the perfect guy!

Once again in this series we are reminded that this author tackles romance in a certain way. It’s unique and I love that I’m still as excited about this series as I was when I was reading the first book, I will definitely continue reading these books and can’t wait to see where each character ends up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… If you’re a romance lover you really need to give these books a go!

Book One – Wanted By

You

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18812128-wanted-by-you

Carter was captivated by Ellyson Evans the

moment he laid eyes on her,

but she was the one girl who didn’t beg for his

attention.

He wanted her.

Ellyson vowed to never fall in love, because

love can destroy you,

but then she met Carter

Jennings.

She wanted him.

Unwilling to risk their comfortable friendship,

neither confessed their desires.

Losing touch after college, a chance meeting

reconnects them.

They want each other.

But love in the city is never quite that

easy.

<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"

Wanted By You Playlist: http://stephnuss.com/wanted-by-you/wby_the-soundtrack/

Pinterest Board for Wanted By You: http://www.pinterest.com/StephNuss13/wanted-by-you/

Book Two – Fantasized By

You

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodre

ads.com/book/show/21415529-fantasized-by-you

Celebrity fashion designer, Harper Jennings is only months away

from turning thirty, and her dream of living a happily ever after has yet to come true.

She’s given up on her

fantasy.

Personal trainer and gym owner, Maverick

Jones isn’t thrilled about having a designer mentoring in his new clinic, but after meeting the

brunette beauty face-to-face, he dreams of having his way with her.

He’s ready to turn his fantasy into

reality.

But when their fantasies collide, love in the

city becomes more complicated than they ever imagined.

<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"

Fantasized By You Playlist: http://stephnuss.com/fantasized-by-you/the-soundtrack/

Pinterest Board for Fantasized By You: http://www.pinterest.com/StephNuss13/fantasized-by-you/

The Cast of

the Love in the City series: http://stephnuss.com/loveinthecity/love-in-the-city-the-cast/

Book Three – Pleasured By

You

Expected Release Date: January 20th,

2015

The Love in the City series continues with Bayler and

Fletcher’s story.

Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21

415541-pleasured-by-you

Wanted By You (Love in the City, #1) (Currently Free)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wanted-You-Love-

City-Book-ebook/dp/B00IMILTEI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=14133135

16&sr=8-2&keywords=steph+nuss

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/wanted-by-you/id817794028?mt=11

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/wanted-by-you

Fantasized By You (Love in the City, #2)

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fantasized-You-Lov

e-City-Book-ebook/dp/B00LS6M1CK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&amp

;refRID=13F4YQ0G8F5YTQ4MT2DN

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/fantasized-by-you/id886302173?mt=11

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/fantasized-by-you

Pleasured By You (Love in the City, #3)

iBooks Pre-order: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/pleasured-by-you/id886304066?mt=11

Steph Nuss was born and raised in rural Kansas, where she currently resides

with her black Labrador son named Gunner. She grew up with a passion for reading and writing.

When she’s not immersed into the land of fiction, she enjoys listening to music that came before her

time, watching movies and reruns of her favorite shows, and hanging out with her family and friends.

She also has a bachelor’s degree in psychology that she’ll never use…unless she’s profiling her

characters of course.

CONNECT WITH

STEPH:

Website: www.stephnuss.com

Email: stephnussbooks@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StephNussAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StephNuss13

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Steph-Nuss/e/B00I

MQJW8U/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7392900.Steph_

Nuss

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/StephNuss13/

Join Steph’s Nuss’ Navy: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1499996303572117/

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Posted in 4 Stars, Charmaine, NA, Romance and tagged Girls just like us, Romanceeee, Series, that moment. Bookmark the permalink.

Book Review – Beauty and the Mustache (Knitting in the City #4) by Penny Reid

Posted on September 2, 2014 by charmouabb

This book was received from the Author in return for an honest review

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Welcome to my current obsession!!! I’m a relative newcomer to Penny Reid fandom, but from the very first book of hers I read (Neanderthal Seeks Human) I was obsessed… Every new story I read of hers I am SURE that there’s no way she could possibly top it… no way I could love anything more than what I just read. Turns out, I should know better by now.

Former beauty queen, Ashley Winston’s preferred coping strategy is escapism. She escaped her Tennessee small town, loathsome father, and six brothers eight years ago. Now she escapes life daily via her Amazon kindle one-click addiction. However, when a family tragedy forces her to return home, Ashley can’t escape the notice of Drew Runous— local Game Warden, bear wrestler, philosopher, and everyone’s favorite guy. Drew’s irksome philosophizing in particular makes Ashley want to run for the skyscrapers, especially since he can’t seem to keep his exasperating opinions— or his soulful poetry, steadfast support, and delightful hands— to himself. Pretty soon the girl who wanted nothing more than the escape of the big city finds she’s lost her heart in small town Tennessee.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect with this one. I had seen it be posted that this book was ‘different’ to her other ones, then I saw readers posting that they were crying over it and I was really starting to wonder what I was getting myself into! Turns out, that yes, this book is different, yes I did cry, but yes, in actual fact, this book is my absolute favourite of this series to date. Penny Reid doesn’t just write one type of story, or one type of character, she doesn’t even write with just one type of formula, this book proves that without a doubt.

Yes, I was a creeper, but I didn’t care. Drew brought these compulsions out in me, so he could just suffer through my leering and take it like a man.

The story of Ashley and Drew is, to put it as simply as it can get, beautiful. There is still quirky laugh out-loud humour; there are also still the one million and one things that I stop to search Google/Wikipedia about. (In this case it was mostly Nietzsche) But there is no argument that this book is all about heart, about the swoon-worthy romance, the poetry and the butterflies in my stomach that just would not quit. I’ve come out of this book with ridiculously high romantic ambitions. It’s a problem.

Meanwhile, there was a wild boar of need within me; one that he’d awakened with his quick silver eyes, poetic words, velvet baritone, heroic deeds, and expertly choreographed kisses. He’d left me to drown in want.

The situation that Ashley is in is impossible. This background, this reason why she has returned home really makes what could’ve been a relatively simple ‘girl meets boy’ situation into something which has so many layers of emotions, improbabilities and impossibilities and while this meant that I spent a great deal of time trying to not sit there and sob, it did mean that we got to explore this romance from the perfect imperfections of the universe’s timing… because as we all know, when has the universe EVER timed things to be easy. Ashley as a character is sweet and sassy all at the same time. Sometimes she definitely underestimates herself. She is loyal and it has to be said, she can be very, very stubborn. Watching her work through everything that had encouraged her to leave her small town and everything that encouraged her to return was truly like watching a friend, because that’s what she became. Oh and how awesome was it to get to see the rest of the knitting group! Honestly those girls (and men) just inject so much inappropriate fun into whatever situation they’re in; their appearance was always a nice distraction from the reality of what Ashley had to deal with.

“Tell me what you need.” He said between raining soft kisses against my hair, temple and cheek. “I’ll do anything for you.”

There is no way I could attempt to review this book and not cover the menfolk. Oh my goodness the men! Drew was written like every girls fantasy should be. He was a big Viking of a man (yes, Viking! Actually make that gorgeous Viking!) But not only is he beautiful and swoon-worthy on the outside, he’s also beautiful and swoon-worthy on the inside. I swear I was close to spontaneous combustion by the end of the book. Then we have Ashley’s brothers. Her 6 brothers… While I can understand how 6 brothers could possibly drive a girl insane, I loved them. They each brought so much to the story in their own way (although the bathroom schedule is something no sister should EVER have to be aware of!) I have too many amazing moments to list, but possibly my absolute favourite moment with any of the Winston brothers was the scene where Jethro made sure that Ashley knew that he’d ‘always do what was best for her’ I won’t give away what the circumstances were around that statement but it was just perfect. Oh, and in case we are in any doubt about these brothers… here is what Penny Reid pictures them to be…

So if you already are a fan of the Knitting in the City series then I know you’ll read this and love it. If you’re not familiar with this author and/or series and are wondering what all of the fuss is about then I suggest you get reading. If you love your romance to be different from the norm then this book and this series are definitely for you.

Beauty and the Mustache: A Philosophical Romance (Knitting in the City Book 4)

By Penny Reid

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Posted in 5 Stars, Charmaine and tagged book boyfriends, Book Series, Favourites, Girls just like us, Penny Reid Love, Romanceeee. Bookmark the permalink.

Neanderthal Marries Human (Knitting in the City #1.5) by Penny Reid

Posted on June 26, 2014 by charmouabb

Neanderthal Marries Human: A Smarter Romance (Knitting in the City #1.5)

By Penny Reid

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Sooooo you all knew after I read Neanderthal Seeks Human a few weeks back that I was DYING of anticipation to read Neanderthal Marries Human. And I had high hopes. High, high hopes! And I am happy to report this book was EVERYTHING I hoped it was going to be and more. This book is another slam dunk for Penny Reid and her writing genius and I just want to issue a disclaimer now: After reading these two books I can honestly say I will now read ANYTHING Penny Reid writes, literally anything. I am officially obsessed and I can’t hold it in. Sorry.

There are three things you should know about Quinn Sullivan: 1) He is madly in love with Janie Morris, 2) He’s not above playing dirty to get what (or who) he wants, and 3) He doesn’t know how to knit.

After just five months of dating Janie, Quinn—former Wendell and unapologetic autocrat—is ready to propose marriage. In fact, he’s more than ready. If it were up to Quinn, he would efficiently propose, marry, and beget Janie with child all in the same day—thereby avoiding the drama and angst that accompanies the four stages of pre-matrimony: engagement, meeting the parents, bachelor/bachelorette party, and overblown, superfluous wedding day traditions. But Janie, much to Quinn’s dismay, tosses a wrench in his efficacious endeavors and challenges him to prove his devotion by going through the matrimonial motions, no matter how minute and mundane.

Will Quinn last until the wedding day? Or will he yield to his tyrant impulses?

Regardless, one thing is for certain, Quinn Sullivan will have to learn to expect the Spanish Inquisition (i.e. the unexpected) if he plans to have and keep Janie Morris as his wife.

Ok so as the blurb says, Janie and Quinn are getting married. (Eeeep! Happy dance!) This timeline follows on pretty much directly from where we left them in NSH. Which is perfect really because I reeeeeally wanted to continue on the Janie/Quinn storyline and I didn’t want to miss a thing. And we don’t miss anything. Not a single thing. Thanks to NSH giving us a lot of background story it really felt like we could sit back and just focus on Janie and Quinn’s relationship.

Proposing is like giving someone your dick and a sharp knife, then waiting to see what they do next.

I really loved how in this book it we got to read from both Janie AND Quinn’s point of views. It was mostly Janie but the odd chapters where we got to hear the story from Quinn really made sure that this book was focussed on both characters. I LOVE when you get to get into the mind of multiple characters and in this book the split between the two telling the story is just right. I definitely still wanted mostly Janie because I just love her to bits and it is after all, her story that I started to follow so I didn’t want to share her page space too much. I love that she was still essentially the Janie we knew at the end of the last book, just this time we scratched beneath the surface even further. And Quinn, his voice was just spot on. He was so essentially Quinn-ish in his chapters it really bought variety and a certain edge that the story really benefited from. I also loved how between them they both didn’t just keep rehashing the story, each of them kept the pace going and the parts of the story that were assigned to Quinn to tell were perfectly selected. Only he could’ve narrated that Vegas scene (well ok, doubly so since I don’t think Janie was in any state to speak but still!)

Oh and I haven’t forgotten the other characters! I love that they are all back for this instalment and are just as awesome as ever. There were some very poignant family related developments on both sides and as far as the knitting girls go, the scene in Vegas at the beauticians has to be one of the best ‘girl talk’ moments in the book. Who knew there were so many creative terminologies for waxing ones lady garden? Also Dan was another favourite of mine and I’m so glad we got to see a bit more of him in this book

Some people say, “I can’t – I can’t even…” Some people say, “bitch, you crazy.” Some people say, “I have no words.” Dan just glances at the ceiling and takes a deep breath.

As you probably can tell from my above ramblings, this story was very character focussed. That doesn’t mean that there was little/no storyline because there definitely was. But I really feel that this book did exactly what it needed to do, it continued with the story of Janie and Quinn. After all I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that after NSH I desperately wanted more about these two characters and this book certainly delivered that. Both NSH and NMH have now been allocated to my ‘Best Books Ever’ list and I am DEFINITELY going to read them again because I know they won’t lose any of their charm no matter how well acquainted I become with them. Now please excuse me… I’m just off to add all of the other books in this series onto my wish list…

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin <a photo credit: foeock via photopin ccphoto credit: 99%: “Meh” via photopin cc

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Posted in 5 Stars, Charmaine, Chick-lit and tagged Chick-lit, Favourites, Funniest, Girls just like us, hilarious, love love love. Bookmark the permalink.

Book Review – Pooka in My Pantry (Monster Haven #2) By R.L. Narquin

Posted on April 24, 2014 by charmouabb

Ok I know I know… I just reviewed the first book in this series last week. You can read all about it HERE. But I did warn you that I had these next 2 instalments lined up to read… And sometimes you want to be reassured that the subsequent books are worth your commitment to the series. So we’re back with Zoey after she’s dealt with her Incubus issues and the fact that the ‘hidden’ have decided she can help them all. This time there may or may not be a sea serpent giving birth in her pool… and fairies laughing…a lot….

You might think fairy laughter would be light and bubbly and tinkling, like tiny bells. In truth, what greeted me on my lawn were raucous snorts, high pitched squealing and a smattering of applause from hands so small it sounded like someone popping bubble wrap two rooms away. Apparently, my purple, green and gold glitter-fairy costume was freakin’ hilarious.

This book was totally enjoyable, almost as good as the first! The style kept to the light and fun formula that made me a fan first time round. Nothing too heavy or too complicated, which is certainly the charm of this series. It’s reading for pure enjoyments sake and I’m definitely not above that! We get to see our favourite closet monster, Maurice again and I love how Zoeys relationship with him is deepening. We also see the other usual suspects; Riley is back as current love interest/Reaper and it’s actually his involvement with Zoey that is what drives most of the storyline in this book. (Insert a gripe, they seriously need to go hide somewhere just so they can pash in peace for a second! Sheesh) Throw in some new very outlandish characters such as the Pooka (had to Google that one!) and some Leprechauns and you’ve got a very interesting array of beings entertaining you.

It does delve a bit deeper into the disappearance of Zoey’s mother. I really enjoyed how the author put the time into fleshing out the past bits, because they obviously impact a lot on the current day predicaments that Zoey is facing. Nothing worse in a story than a vague reference to something in the past that then is never fully explained! So in this book we start to build up a picture on what her mum was doing and we meet some new characters that were involved and knew her. Pages well spent in my opinion. There has been effort put in to weave some long term storylines into this series and that starts to become evident in this book, this instalment ends with a bigger cliff-hanger than the last, with many more unanswered questions. It was a good attempt at layering the story with depth, because I suspect as the series progresses even though the charm of this book is it’s light and easy fairytale like quality, you still really do need something to grip onto otherwise it could start to lose pace.

All and all it was a good Easter Sunday read. It hasn’t changed my world, but I didn’t need it to. I just needed to be entertained, and Zoey, Maurice and the rest of their clique were exactly what I needed to go with my Creme Eggs.

Pooka in My Pantry (A Monster Haven Story)

By R.L. Naquin

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Posted in Charmaine, Fairytales, Urban Fantasy and tagged Girls just like us, Monsters, Quick read, Series, Urban Fantasy. Bookmark the permalink.

Book Review – Monster in My Closet (Monster Haven #1) By R.L. Naquin

Posted on April 15, 2014 by charmouabb

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Wow! So I’m back in my Fantasy headspace. I ‘accidentally’ bought a few too many books on the weekend in this genre to prove it. This book was in that bunch of purchases, I’m not even 100% sure how I stumbled across this series, but I am SO glad I did! For me this was a match made in heaven. Most of the UF I’ve been reading lately have been serious business, intense and sometimes a bit scary (I’m a big fraidy cat!) So what a welcome change it was to read one that was exactly what I’d imagine fairy tales for adults would be like.

I knew those hands. I clutched the toilet brush against myself as if it had the power to ward off nightmares. In the flash of a forgotten memory, I could see those hands grabbing at my doorframe, reaching to snatch out my eyes. My skin was clammy with terror ripened by over twenty years of repression and denial. I was five again, and monsters were real.

Erm… sounds a bit ominous doesn’t it? Real monsters! Trust me, this doesn’t turn out how you’d expect at all. Turns out that yes monsters are real, in this case the monster is a closet monster named Maurice… But don’t worry the whole thing about ‘snatching out eyes’ was a misunderstanding because actually Maurice is a big sweetheart. And a kickass chef. Which has pretty much made me certain that I in-fact NEED a closet monster in my house. Especially if he can cook like this:

The flavours mixed together on my tongue as if the muffin was made from a magical fruit that grew on an orangeberry tree situated in a vanilla-scented orchard shaded by double rainbows and watered exclusively with unicorn tears.

Uh…also there’s this…

“Did you mop the floor? It’s all…clean.” – Zoey to Maurice

So yes, I’m obsessed with Maurice. I actually need to recruit a closet monster. I cannot live another day without being able to eat such delicious sounding muffins…. and clean floors are always a bonus in life! Of course there is much more to this story than Maurice and his amazing cooking/cleaning skills! SO…. The story is based around Zoey, She’s a wedding planner who lives quite happily alone and unaware of anything even vaguely supernatural, until Maurice shows up and soon after more weird and wonderful creatures as well, all needing safe haven and help. From here life gets very very interesting!

In this book you’ll encounter everything from a demon incubus to reapers, dragons, brownies and a few things in-between. The beauty being, that all of these creatures have an almost quirky whimsical fairy tale feel to them. There are definitely good guys and bad guys, definitely serious situations and threats and death. The story is by no means one dimensional. There are poignant moments and there is sadness. But overall it’s fun. Amongst even the most serious or sad parts it’s still upbeat. It doesn’t dwell on the horrific. Even the bad guys resolution is quick and to the point so we can get back to enjoying Zoey and her strange assortment of creatures. And I LOVED this about it. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the make-believe. Like the most fictional make-believe you can lay your hands on. Nothing that could ever occur in everyday life but sometimes you wish it could. This book was like a recaptured childhood imagination.

My BBH and I have a few female lead characters who we LOVE. For me, Zoey is definitely on her way to having a spot up in my most loved lead characters. For reasons that include the following (But are certainly not limited to):

Why is it, the more you brush a Barbie’s hair, the grosser it ends up getting? – Zoey’s musings

I tried to take a swallow from my wine glass to cover my silly smile, but it didn’t work. He was making me laugh. If I took a sip now it would likely spew out my nose. Aside from the extreme embarrassment involved, it would probably hurt like crazy. Not to mention, a waste of good wine. – Zoey on a date

A woman after my own heart…

This book really was an awesome read, In fact, I’ve already got the next 2 installments ready to go on my Kindle. I was going to try and spread them out…but I’ve decided I just can’t since I saw that book #4 is out April 21st…

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Posted in Charmaine, Fairytales, Urban Fantasy and tagged Girls just like us, Monsters, Quick read, Urban Fantasy. Bookmark the permalink.

Book Review – Rock My World By Julie Shackman

Posted on April 14, 2014 by charmouabb

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When girls at school were salivating over boy bands, I was planning to run away with Tom Petty or Lindsay Buckingham and have Stevie Nicks sing at our wedding reception (although seeing as she’s allegedly had relationships with both these guys, that could have been very awkward.) The pretty boys never did it for me. When the candy smiles and slick dance routines used to send my peers into a swooning mass of teenage hormones, I was day-dreaming about kohl-eyed Buckingham serenading me with his crying guitar. Oh enough of this mental gossip! I need to get on with my work… – Ruby Cameron

Rock Music, Ghosts, Romance, Mystery… When you mix these all together what do you get? One of the coolest takes on Contemporary Romance that I’ve read in a while!

There’s a ghost in my romance book! I’ve never come across such a thing before, but this book had me HOOKED from the get-go. Now there are a few things in this world I am terrified of, sharks and ghosts are probably my top two, so even though I knew this book had a ghostly aspect to it, the moment I actually came across said ghost I was straight on my phone texting my BBH proudly that I was in-fact reading about a ghost. Me: “OMG I’m reading about a ghost” BBH: “Oh geez I hope you don’t have nightmares” Pfffft. No nightmares around here thank you very much! This ghost was far too nice to have nightmares over him…

“And you’re not in the room here with me.” “Er well I am actually.” Oh come on. This guy is a total arse. “Prove it then!” I smirk. Oh how I wish I had kept my gobby mouth well and truly shut. No sooner had those words slipped from my tongue, than I recoil in shock at the vision in front of me. First there’s a shimmer like an intense heat on a summer’s day, before I’m confronted by the sight of the Jon Bon Jovi look-a-like again, all hair, denim and baseball boots. And this time he’s standing just a few feet in front of me, crackling a little like bad TV interference.

Ghost or not, anyone who sings beautiful renditions of Rock classics over breakfast is alright in my book. The ghost in question, Stevie Vee, was the lead singer of a rock band in the 80’s. In the present day he’s hanging out in/haunting our main character Ruby Cameron’s new house hoping for a bit of closure. Now Ruby is a quite a cool eccentric chick, she’s also a reporter for the local paper, recently separated from her rather dull boyfriend and soon to be lit a-fire by her new boss… So she has quite a bit going on to say the least…

There was a lot to keep me entertained; I wasn’t bored for a second. There were no life shattering twists and turns, but I liked it that way. The story didn’t need to try and outwit. It was too busy making me fall in love with the very unlikely combo of ghosts and romance, which were so cleverly intertwined… Like, it was completely normal to be going to a masquerade ball with your (hot) boss and dealing with dating drama all while you have a ghost waiting for you at home to help him find peace. Yep, totally normal. Also I have to mention that the flashbacks into Stevie’s life were well thought out and clear. Sometimes flicking back and forth in time/place can get confusing or slow the pace down. Neither of these things happened here. This book has been one of my favourite reads in this genre so far this year. If you’re like me and looking for something fun to read that’s a bit different from the norm you should give this a go.

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Posted in 4 Stars, Charmaine, Contemporary Fiction and tagged Ghosts, Girls just like us, RocknRoll, Rom Com. Bookmark the permalink.

Book Review – Can you keep a Secret? By Sophie Kinsella

Posted on April 9, 2014 by charmouabb

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I’ve read the Shopoholic series by Sophie Kinsella, loved it! So was definitely expecting to be just as entertained by this book and I wasn’t disappointed. The basis of the book being, what happens if you blurt out all of your secrets (including ones you didn’t know you had) to a complete stranger thinking you’d never see them again?…but then you do… a lot! The result of this unlikely set of circumstances is a totally endearing read…

I’ve always had this deep down conviction that I’m not like everybody else, and there’s an amazingly exciting new life waiting for me just around the corner. – Emma Corrigan

This book was exactly what I was hoping for it to be, fun, witty and a lot of laughs. The lead character Emma is so lovable that you know you would love to have her as a bestie because life would be so darn entertaining! Also, for me a lot of Emma’s charm is that she reminded me of myself and of my BBH. For example…This next paragraph is my BBH through and through which had me giggling…

Shit. Another bloody red traffic light. I almost can’t keep still on my seat and the driver’s just sitting there, like it doesn’t matter. OK, it’s green! Go! Go now! But he’s pulling off in this leisurely way, as though we’ve got all day…he’s chuntering down the street…now he’s giving way to another driver! What is he doing? Ok. Calm down, Emma. Here’s the street. We’re finally here.

Road rage! Hilarious! And totally lovable!

Add into the mix a couple of hilarious friends ‘The mink like being made into coats’ A work place bully, a (semi) dysfunctional family, a not quite right boyfriend and a (very) magnetic boss you’ve got a recipe for success. I love Chick Lit stories that don’t take themselves too seriously, but at the same time have a lot of heart and sincerity. And this is where Sophie Kinsella is always so brilliant.

‘Slowly he leans towards me and my heart starts to pound. Oh my God. Oh my God. He’s going to kiss me. He’s going to – ‘Argh! Arrgh! Arrrgh!’ I leap up off the bench in total panic. A spider is running up my leg. A big black spider. ‘Get it off!’ I say, frantically. ‘Get it off!’

So all and all, a really enjoyable read. The pace didn’t get bogged down with anything too complex and I was entertained from the first page till the last. Once again Sophie Kinsella has put a fresh spin on typical Chick Lit and for me, it’s a winner.