In Chasing Red, she was supposed to be his ruin but he was more than happy to let her be.
About Chasing Red
Caleb Lockhart has everything―wealth, adoration, a brilliant future. Until a chance encounter with a siren in a red dress changes everything. Until he meets the woman he dubs Red.
Veronica Strafford’s past makes it hard for her to trust anyone. Now, kicked out of her apartment, she reluctantly accepts Caleb’s offer for a place to stay.
Caleb feels intensely drawn to Veronica. And, for the first time in his life, he really wants something―someone. Too bad Veronica’s heart might just be the one thing Caleb can’t win.
My Thoughts
Chasing Red was chosen as one of Goodreads’ 21 Big Books of Fall and I can definitely see why! It is sexy, witty and a breath of fresh air.
We have two characters that on the outside are complete opposites. One is super rich, very attracted and used to getting what he wants from women. His whole future is already set up for him once he graduates because of how influential his family is. On the outside he has it all but on the inside could he be yearning for more? On the other hand, we have Veronica (Red), who grew up with her Mother poor and with an abusive Father who blamed her for their social economic status. She has had to work hard for everything she has and consequently has thrown up walls to keep others out so not to cause her any more hurt.
While on the outside they are so different, on the inside they are both yearning for more. They want people to see them for who they really are and not the image they portray in society. They are both longing for love and yet so scared of it because of their past. Neither of them are good at opening up, admitting what it is they are truly feeling and consequently trusting the other person with their heart and feelings.
This novel was well written, witty, sexy and full of life. You feel as though you are right there with the characters, Caleb had me laughing at his comments and you can just picture that care free (but underneath full of heart) man who would do anything for Red. In this first book, we watch as our characters struggle with opening up and trusting each other. We learn just enough of their past to understand why they are hesitant but makes you wish that they can find a way to get over their past. The ending leaves you craving for more! I could not wait to start book two, Always Red.
Chasing Red is a definite must read for young adults and adults a like who love romance, humour and real life struggles built-in. You can purchase a copy of Chasing Red on Amazon.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Isabelle Ronin is the author of Wattpad reader phenomenon CHASING RED. With over 150 million reads, Chasing Red was Wattpad’s top-read story of 2016. The story continues to attract one million reads per week. When she’s not writing, Isabelle can be found hanging out in bookstores, cafes, and whenever possible, the beach. Isabelle lives in Manitoba, Canada. Her stories can be found on Wattpad, www.wattpad.com/isabelleronin.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Can Cassia and Theo end the mortal war and return balance to the earth and heavens? Or, will their game of fate lead down a path of destruction, betrayal, and romance neither of them saw coming?
About Fragile Chaos
Every fiber of my being is woven from the rage of mortals.
Theodric, the young God of War, has a talent for inciting conflict and bloodshed. After being stripped of his powers by his older brother, King of Gods, he sets out to instigate a mortal war to prove himself worthy of being restored to power.
I loved Kisk once; it was my home… But that was before. This is now.
Sixteen-year-old Cassia, like many in the modern era, believes gods and goddesses to be just a myth. Enemy to her country and an orphan of the war, she has no time for fairy tales. That’s until religious zealots from Theo’s sect offer her up as a sacrifice.
Can Cassia and Theo end the mortal war and return balance to the earth and heavens? Or, will their game of fate lead down a path of destruction, betrayal, and romance neither of them saw coming?
My Thoughts
This was an AMAZING audiobook from the start, I was hooked and could not stop listening. It was full of power, strength, romance and myth – everything I love and more.
The setting takes place in a mythical world with people praying and sacrificing to the Gods but so many of them have actually forgotten the Gods themselves or have dreamed up a different version of the Gods in their own minds. Cassia is a young woman who is betrayed by her country who view her as an enemy. Her parents are gone and she has lost everything she held dear.
Near the beginning of the book, Cassia is sacrificed to the God of War by her fellow citizens. You can just imagine her shock, pain and the sting of betrayal. Theo, the God of War, accepts her as a sacrifice and brings her to his home. While he does this he doesn’t initially full accept her as his “bride”.
Theo is full of raw power, strength and an almost anger. War and fighting is in his blood and he is plagued with sibling rivalry and his own betrayals. Cassia, with her innocence and proud nature, brings out a new side of him. One of hope and trusting. We watch as his character evolves and he slowly begins to fall in love with her.
The pair are thrown together not by choice but soon discover they have a strong attraction towards each other. They have to learn to trust but with their past history and the current political and war going on this makes it very difficult. They would tend to take one step forward and two steps back.
The plot in this story is amazing and I loved every moment of it. What I really enjoyed was having the two narrators, male and female. This made a huge difference in the telling of this story and really helped to bring the story to life. They also included background noise (chatter/rocks crumbling, etc..) which made the novel that much more real. I have never listened to that type of book before and it was fantastic.
This is a definite must listen to audiobook, you will not be disappointed.
Amber R. Duell was born and raised in a small town in Central New York. While it will always be home, she’s spent the last six years living in Germany and Maine as a military wife where the next step is always an adventure.
When Amber isn’t writing, she’s wrangling her two young sons. She is a lover of history, a fan of snowboarding, and a travel enthusiast. In her downtime, she can be found curling up with a good book and a cat or two.
About the Narrators
Bradley Pittman is a producer and freelance musician living and working in Atlanta. He received a bachelor’s degree in audio production from Georgia State University in 2016. Though he most commonly works on musical projects, he began self-producing audiobook chapters in 2015 as a way to unite his love of studio production with his love of literature.
Jamie-Lee Lewis, aka Jaylew, hails from the island of Jamaica. Since a small child, she’s always had a hyper imagination. She enjoys writing and telling stories, singing and composing songs, entertaining and edifying, playing different characters as well as creating them through drawings, and finding the beauty and fun in everything she does. She is currently a professional and passionate Youtuber.
To Hear the Forest Sing is an invitation to break free of any or all of your spiritual confinements and find your own path to kindness and mindful living.
About To Hear the Forest Sing
Mindfulness and conscious living as not cut and dry. Oneness with nature and the universe can be attained through patience, trust and prayer that is unique to you. Throughout this book, Dulaney demonstrates that a life of mindfulness and kindness can be achieved by any person. It offers a fresh outlook on traditional religious constraints. Dulaney shares memorable, touching and beautiful essays written from aspects of her childhood, family members and her love of nature and animals. Themes throughout the book are love, enlightenment and hope as we are all continuing to endlessly evolve.
To Hear the Forest Sing includes:
Unfreezing the conventional notions of how the divine works
Overcoming our obsession with negative news
The undervalued value of restoration over punishment in society
Concepts of more open ideas of faith and a no rules form of prayer
The opportunity for advancement by unlearning certain dogma
The compelling and profound aspects of nature and animals which make you pause, reflect and repeat
My Thoughts
I love reading books and essays that really make you pause and think. I am Catholic and I love my faith. I have always felt welcome and accepted in my parish (I have been a member of two parishes since birth). When I am sad, full of anxiety and despair and at my lowest points, I have always looked to my faith and felt a sense of peace. I also believe that you don’t have to fit into the pre-determined boxes that people make for people of a certain faith. I may be Catholic but I support marriage in all forms, I am pro-choice, I use birth control (in fact this was taught in Catholic school contrary to what many people believe are taught in Catholic school) and I don’t believe religion is there to make you feel guilty or bad about your choices and actions. I never did get the jokes about Church making you to feel guilty about your life choices – Church to me is about opening up to God, offering up your sorrows and allowing Him to shoulder some of your pain, worries and fears.
Faith (I prefer to use this word over religion) has evolved and I think so many people have overlapping ideology and beliefs that can grow together. I think we all believe in someone looking out for us, our loved ones who have passed on being present in moments, that we are all connected in some manner, we pray in a similar manner and we all harbour so many similar wishes and hopes. How could our faiths not all be connected in some manner?
I strongly believe that there is a God (and God can be whatever name you want God to go by) and we can view this God every day in our lives IF we are listening. One of these examples for me, was when I was suffering through a really bad period of depression and anxiety. It was one of the lowest times in my life and I was having a hard time forgiving myself. It was about three weeks into this period that I was in Church and it was getting near to Palm Sunday. After we took our seats, in the back of the pew in front of us where the missals are kept, was an olive branch. Our Church doesn’t usually hand out Olive branches and there were definitely none at that mass. My kids had yet to see or touch the branch. I picked it up and felt this moment of release. I was able to let go of so much of my self-hate, despair and forgave myself. To me this olive branch was God telling me that I was forgiven and I need to forgive myself to move forward. This was over five years ago and I still carry that branch in my car visor as a reminder that God is always there.
I felt like this book was exactly like that branch. A reminder of all the ways we are connected, how to listen and how to accept a more open view of faith and understanding. There is compassion, understanding, acceptance and common sense. So many things that I find lacking in the world today – every one is so busy and so on the go that we forget to stop and really see and listen to the presence around us. I bet if you stopped and really thought hard, you would find small moments of God (by whatever name you call God by) in your daily life.
This book shares so many intimate stories and reflections of the life of Margaret – she doesn’t hold back. Her life hasn’t been perfect but she finds the perfect moments to cherish, guide and assist her. She doesn’t put herself into a narrow box but instead opens her mind and heart to new ideas and concepts, which I think is so important! We should never become so narrow-minded that we can’t see nor hear what is around us. This is a truly beautiful story to one person’s faith, openness, love and hope. I felt truly blessed after having read it and it came to me in a moment that I really needed to hear these important reminders of faith and hope.
Margaret Dulaney wrote for the theater in New York City for years before she moved to rural Pennsylvania to pursue nonfiction. After many years, and a closet full of writings, she founded Listen Well, her spoken word website offering once-monthly recorded essays championing hope, and the ultimate, inescapable awakening of the individual soul.
She writes from an old stone home in Bucks County Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, musician/producer Matt Balitsaris and a revolving group of semi-domesticated animals. She records her essays at Maggie’s Farm Recording Studio, home for many years to Palmetto Records, and conveniently located in the majestic old bank barn in her backyard. The guitar music that introduces Listen Well’s monthly offerings is played and produced by Matt Balitsaris. Her essays are edited by Aina Barten, former editor for Orion Magazine.
Margaret’s essays, apart from those on Listen Well, can be found in various journals and Magazines including, Parabola, Spirituality and Health, Cezanne’s Carrot, Read the Spirit, Day 1, Big Muddy and Contemplative Journal.
Margaret’s plays include: The Hummingbird’s Tour, produced at the Bucks County Playhouse, and Off-Broadway at the Theater at St. Clements .The View From Here, produced Off-Broadway at the Lambs Theater, and published by Samuel French, Sightseeing, produced at the Quintero Theater, NYC, received a professional reading at the Bay Street Theater, and winner of the Berrilla Kerr Award, Il Corvo, Charlotte Rep. new play finalist. Spill of light, professional reading at the New Jersey Playwrights Theater and the The Meadow Lands, Professional reading People’s Light and Theater Company.
In Beyond Forever, just as their plan is set in to motion and they settle in to their new normal, they have an earth shattering encounter. In that moment it is revealed that they have much more than just a spiritual relationship with the beyond.
About Beyond Forever
Just as their life is seemingly back on track, Finn McDaniel’s gets news that sends him into a tail-spin. He is faced with the prospect of losing Olivia Henry forever. He immediately turns to Dan, Olivia’s deceased best friend, who is her loyal and constant guardian angel from the beyond, imploring him for his help. In the midst of all of the chaos a special package is delivered that changes their lives forever.
While Finn is determined to grow his restaurant to new heights by chasing after the coveted Michelin Star, it is Olivia who finally sees her dream come to fruition in a way never thought possible. Finn is determined to support Olivia through her shocking breakthrough and even has a very special surprise up his sleeve that she never sees coming. Just as their plan is set in to motion and they settle in to their new normal, they have an earth shattering encounter. In that moment it is revealed that they have much more than just a spiritual relationship with the beyond.
My Thoughts
I am a HUGE fan of this series. These novels are well written, witty with amazing characters. Olivia is that best friend that you have to love. She has her quirks but she is so full of life, hopes and fears. She is just that girl next door that you can’t help but smile at and love with all of your heart, while trying to protect her. Finn is the man of her dreams (and many women would love to call him their hubby!) and he would do anything for her.
In this novel, Olivia gives birth to her baby. The birth was extremely traumatizing and Olivia almost loses her life delivering her baby girl. It is quite shocking for her whole family but especially Finn who lost his first wife to cancer. As Olivia was laying there between life and death, she had an out-of-body experience where she meets Dan who promises to look after her daughter. Dan and Finn’s wife who passed away become the spiritual godparents of their daughter. As the novel progresses, we see their spiritual touch as they protect her, play with her and love her. I actually found this to be quite touching as I think all of us like to believe our loved ones are here with us, looking out for us and connecting with us.
This book also finds our couple recognizing the need to have family near by. Both of them are offered amazing experiences further from the location they are currently living in but will also draw them closer to family.
This was an amazing novel that was a pleasure to read. This book and the entire series is a definite must read.
D.D. marx came barreling into this world with the “gift of gab”. Her parents quickly identified a pattern forming when each teacher conference contained the words “she’s a little too social”. d.d.’s biggest life concern was identifying which boy she’d be chasing at recess rather than mastering math problems. She parlayed this gift into creating play dates on the playground. If friendship were a business, she would be a millionaire. She prides her life on maintaining friends from every walk of life in every corner of the country. This is the fuel that fills her tank.
Graduating with a Communication degree from the University of Dayton, she attempted to break into the world of Public Relations but was instead side-tracked with a J.O.B. At the strong encouragement of her friends and family, who dubbed her a “funny story teller”, she stretched her comfort zone by entering the Second City program in Chicago where her itch for entertainment was finally scratched. Determined to share her story and create a legacy, she decided to combine these talents and become a writer. She returned to her alma-mater to immerse herself in a 3-day writing course where this dream finally came to life. Asked to imagine if she was a super-hero, her task was to dig-deep to describe her special powers. Based on the real-life tragedy of one of her best friends, that answer came without hesitation. All she’s ever wanted was the power to visit with him one last time. This is the inspiration that catapulted her into her debut project titled, the Beyond Series. She dove into a world imagining that he never left.
In All Things Now Living, her whole life Amy has been taught the people of New Lithisle deserve to die, but when she falls for Daniel, she determines to save him.
About All Things Now Living
Sixteen-year-old Amy doesn’t like anything to die, she won’t even eat the goats or chickens her mama has butchered every fall, but she can’t let herself pity the inhabitants of New Lithisle. In a few short months the dome they built to isolate themselves from the deadly pandemic is predicted to collapse, but her whole life Amy has been taught it’s God’s will they die. They traded their souls for immunity to the swine flu virus, brought God’s curse upon themselves by adding pig genes to their own.
Then, while on a scavenging trip with her father, Amy is accidentally trapped in New Lithisle. At first her only goal is to escape, but when she meets Daniel, a New Lithisle boy, she begins to question how less-than-human the people of New Lithisle are.
Amy’s feelings grow even more conflicted when she learns she didn’t end up in New Lithisle by mistake. Her father is secretly a sympathizer, and was trying to prevent the coming destruction.
Now time is running short and Amy has to decide if she will bring the computer program her father wrote to his contact or save herself. Installing the program could prevent the dome’s collapse, but if Amy doesn’t find her father’s contact in time, she’ll die, along with everyone else.
My Thoughts
This was an exciting young adult novel that I could not put down.
In this novel, we have two groups of people: the group that was banished outside the walls of New Lithisle and those who are inside. You would think that the group inside the walls would be those who were safe but they are not. They are a group of people with mutations that many of them willingly signed up. These mutations were supposed to protect them but instead it altered them physically – some were similar to rats, to coyotes, fish and pigs. What is even worse is that these people are doomed to die but they have no idea.
Amy was returning from a trip with her Father when she becomes accidentally trapped inside New Lithisle. She is quickly captured as the people realize her importance and the value of selling her could bring them. While on the inside, she discovers that her Father sympathizes with these people who makes her feel uncomfortable – her Father is a traitor and could be put away for these thoughts. He was trying to help these mutated people who God could never have created so they could have no souls (their thoughts) and she could just not understand this.
She meets Daniel, a boy from New Lithisle who has had his genes mutated to make him more attractive and intelligent. As their friendship evolves, she begins to question everything that she has ever believed. Can these individuals who appear less than human truly have the same feelings, thoughts and hopes? Could they really be soulless?
I loved how the story evolves especially within the context of the destruction of New Lithisle coming closer and closer. Amy realizes that there is so much more to a person than their physical features – that even though we are different, we are all the same on the inside. It is a fantastic story of hope, understanding, acceptance and faith. A great read for young adults and adults a like.
Rondi Bauer Olson is a reader and writer from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where she lives on a hobby farm with her husband, Kurt. She has four grown children, works as a nurse, and also owns a gift shop within view of beautiful Lake Superior.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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