A fantastic story about a young woman’s search for her birth family and the love she finds on the journey. Natalie finds a photo of a woman who looks like her in the thrift shop where she works and sets out to track down the person who brought the photo album to the store. She meets Casey, a charming and flirty fire-fighting guitarist with an Irish accent. Casey and Natalie quickly become friends as they join forces to find the answers that will tell Natalie where she came from.
Natalie and Casey were fantastic characters - I loved their chemistry that is immediately obvious when they first meet. Casey’s flirtatious nature is a perfect match to Natalie’s grounded personality. When the reader learns about Natalie’s wild past, it adds more dimension to an already complex character. I loved Casey’s willingness to help her find her birth family and the easy level of comfort they have with one another is both sweet and sexy.
Chelsey Krause writes wonderful characters that are easy to relate to, empathise with and care about. The story is both fun and intriguing which keeps the reader engaged and entertained. I highly recommend this story to readers looking for romance, laughter and friendship that blossoms into love. (SH)
Sophie Richards is a nurse but struggles in her career choice. She's not bad at her job but you get a sense that her heart really isn't in it. After her best friend bales on going to see a Rolling Stones tribute band, Sophie finds herself on a blind date with Brett. Sophie immediately feels a connection with him despite being heartbroken from losing the love of her life six years ago. Sophie finds herself facing the very difficult choice of whether she wants to try for happily ever after with Brett or keep her heart locked away.
I always know a book is going to be outstanding when I get pulled into the story from the very first page. This book made me laugh out loud immediately, but what really makes it truly extraordinary is the way debut author Chelsey Krause creates characters the reader feels a strong connection with. As a reader, it is so important to me to really care about the characters, what they have gone through, what they are currently doing and where they are headed. She does an excellent job of taking the reader into Sophie's life. Instead of putting us into information overload with all of the events that brought Sophie to where she is when we meet her, Krause takes us gradually through the process. I really enjoyed this because I got to see it through Sophie's eyes as if I was there with her. It gave me a better understanding of what she went through and how it shaped her into the person she becomes and the person that Brett meets. Along with the many laugh-out-loud moments, there were many moments of tears that made me want to read more and find out what happened in Sophie's past and how it was affecting her future. The author draws on her own personal nursing experience to make Sophie's actions relevant and believable.
The well-written story moved at a good pace, giving me time to process what was going on instead of getting lost in the details. As a fan of the Rolling Stones, I loved that each chapter is a song title and how their music plays such an important role in Sophie's choices. She has to find a way to forgive herself before she could move on in her life and live the life she is meant to.
If you are looking for a story that will pull on all of your emotions, filled with characters you feel a strong connection to, run, do not walk to your nearest book retailer and get this book. Not many people have the chance to find true love more than once in their lives and this story gives us a first row seat to see it happen. Kudos to Chelsey Krause for the many hours of laughter and tears. I will never look at Oreo cookies the same way again and I will be looking for more from this talented author. (SH)
