Why I feature #ChocLitSaturdays (book reviews & guest author features)
and created #ChocLitSaturday (the chat via @ChocLitSaturday):
I wanted to create a bit of a niche on Jorie Loves A Story to showcase romance fiction steeped in relationships, courtships, and the breadth of marriage enveloped by characters written honestly whose lives not only endear you to them but they nestle into your heart as their story is being read!
I am always seeking relationship-based romance which strikes a chord within my mind’s eye as well as my heart! I’m a romantic optimist, and I love curling into a romance where I can be swept inside the past, as history becomes lit alive in the fullness of the narrative and I can wander amongst the supporting cast observing the principal characters fall in love and sort out if they are a proper match for each other!
I love how an Indie Publisher like ChocLitUK is such a positive alternative for those of us who do not identify ourselves as girls and women who read ‘chick-lit’. I appreciate the stories which alight in my hands from ChocLit as much as I appreciate the inspirational romances I gravitate towards because there is a certain level of depth to both outlets in romance which encourage my spirits and gives me a beautiful story to absorb! Whilst sorting out how promote my book reviews on behalf of ChocLit, I coined the phrase “ChocLitSaturdays”, which is a nod to the fact my ChocLit reviews & features debut on ‘a Saturday’ but further to the point that on the ‘weekend’ we want to dip into a world wholly ideal and romantic during our hours off from the work week!
Acquired Book By: I am a regular reviewer for ChocLitUK, where I hand select which books in either their backlist and/or current releases I would like to read next for my #ChocLitSaturdays blog feature. As of June 2016, I became a member of the ChocLit Stars Team in tandem with being on the Cover Reveal Team which I joined in May 2016. I reference the Stars as this is a lovely new reader contribution team of sending feedback to the publisher ahead of new book releases. As always, even if I’m involved with a publisher in this sort of fashion, each review is never influenced by that participation and will always be my honest impression as I read the story. Whether the author is one I have previously read or never had the pleasure to read until the book greets my shelf.
I received a complimentary copy of “Can’t Buy Me Love” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
a bit of back-history on this sequence of roms:
The Yorkshire Romances received a sixth entry into the series with Can’t Buy Me Love, which I thankfully spotlighted last May! What is interesting about being able to read this book over Memorial Day weekend, is the timing of the book in my hand vs. the weekend last year, when it was a book I was itching to read but could only speculate about what I would find inside it! Isn’t that a wicked sweet coincidence!?
The Yorkshire Romances in sequence:
{please note: all of these are stand-alone; only the setting unites them}
- Please Don’t Stop the Music (Synopsis)
- Hubble Bubble (Synopsis)
- Star Struck (Synopsis)
- How I Wonder What You Are (Synopsis)
- I Don’t Want to Talk About It (Synopsis)
To properly recap my ruminative pre-reading thoughts about the series, kindly visit my Spotlight w/ Notes!
My initial thoughts about why I wanted to read this particular release:
What I appreciate about the Yorkshire Romances series as a whole is each installment reads to be individually unique to it’s own setting and cast of characters; I am unsure what threads the series together as a whole, as I haven’t yet read one of the novels, but to find a series where you can meet such a varied and diverse set of stories is quite champion, if you ask me! I think it speaks to the different themes of interest on behalf of the author, how she likes to pull together different threads of interest per each character she’s focusing on in turn and thereby, deepening where each installment can take the reader. For instance, I Don’t Want to Talk About It had a very emotional context to it’s central heart.
I must confess, I oft was drawn into stories of inheritances (especially the unexpected kind!) since I was a young girl – those were the Classical novels I would delight in reading because they had such a capture of ‘real life caught between a change of circumstance and the reality of who you really are’ merging into a story where you have to choose how your going to proceed. I even followed this up by watching tv movies of the same theme; each story in turn featured a character who had to go through a period of growth and self-reflection where they truly developed into a better version of themselves. Even in my beloved Cosy Mystery series Aunt Dimity the title character has to come to terms with an inheritance that truly was quite magically wicked in the end!
I do love a good matching between two opposite personalities or two people who live different lifestyles; it works either way for me; to see how differences either make or break a relationship. Equal to that, there is something about the quirkiness of geeks vs nerds (in case you hadn’t known, I’m a geek!) and how each of them can be a good match for someone who doesn’t self-identify as either/or too!
When it comes to money and people’s true colours shining through their intentions – that happens to be one of my favourite twists in a plot to read! I like noodling out which person wormed into someone’s life looking for a quick take from a person who came into an inheritance vs the sincerity of friendship for the sake of genuine concern for another person’s welfare. It’s a slippery slope as they say – whom to trust and when to know to question the trust you put into others when circumstances change overnight.
I could tell immediately I liked the potboiler brewing into the backbone of this installment, as it’s quite a truthful statement to make – does money have the reverse effect of muddling your life further than it might have been already or does it present certain assurances but give you a bit of a new set of curious hiccups to circumvent as well? I think the title brings the scope of the story into play quite nicely and if you trust a title, I think it forebears well the outcome we’ll all have to wait to read!
Kinship of Clover
Little Women
The Penny Bangle
