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Georgia Clay (Southern Promises #1) by K.G. Fletcher – Review by Denise Owens

Georgia Clay (Southern Promises, #1)Georgia Clay by K.G. Fletcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Georgia Clay is the first book in the Southern Promises series by KG Fletcher, and it is a contemporary romance novel. The story is about a young woman whose name is Katie Parker, and a young man whose name is Clay Watkins. The two reunite unexpectedly at their high school 10 year class reunion which is held in Atlanta, Georgia, when Katie literally runs into Clay when she is coming out of the restroom. Katie is an insurance executive and she works late almost every day, and on weekends and holidays, and she hasn’t taken a vacation day in years because she really loves her job. Clay is now known as “Georgia Clay” Watkins because he now lives and works in Nashville as a song writer, and he has written many hit songs for some famous country music artists. Clay has also won a Grammy Award for one of his songs, as well as several different country music awards.

When Clay and Katie look up after their unexpected run in, they appear to be happy to see each other. Clay has had a huge crush on Katie since their senior year in high school because she was one of the few people who were kind and welcoming to him, since it was his first year at the school. Katie remembers Clay as a shy and quiet guy, who was kind of tall and skinny. But she also remembers that at the high school talent show held in the spring, that Clay got up on the stage and blew her and everyone away with his amazing singing voice.

After they recognize each other in the hall of the hotel where the reunion is being held, Clay asks Katie if he can buy her a drink and they head to the bar. Katie cannot believe how much Clay has changed, since he is now broad shouldered, muscular, and very good looking. Clay thinks that Katie is even more beautiful than she was in high school. They decide to leave the reunion to go get something to eat, and end up getting fast food and eating in the back of Clay’s pick-up truck. Clay and Katie are not big talkers, but Katie is impressed by the fact that Clay is a true southern gentleman. He drives them to a secluded spot down near the river that Katie has never seen before, and they end up having a romantic evening together, and Clay even gets up the nerve to kiss Katie. They end up talking and kissing until the middle of the night, and then fall asleep in each other’s arms, waking up early to catch the beautiful sunrise. The couple end up spending the whole day together, until Clay has to leave to drive back to Nashville. Will they end up seeing each other again since they now live four hours away from one another?

I really liked this book by KG Fletcher. I love how she helps us to get to know these main characters on an intimate level, helping the reader to see what good people they are, and pulling for them to get together. I also enjoyed the other characters that we meet along the way. You can tell that Ms. Fletcher knows Nashville and Atlanta, describing these places in great detail through out the book, which helps the reader to see these places in our minds. This is a wonderful romance novel that I loved reading and I am looking forward to reading the second book in this series.

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The Flip (Romance in Rehoboth, #2) by K.L. Montgomery – Review by Denise Owens

The Flip (Romance in Rehoboth #2)The Flip by K.L. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Flip is the second book in the Romance in Rehoboth series by K.L. Montgomery, and it s a contemporary romance novel. The story is about a young man named Andrew or “Drew”, and a woman named Sonnet, who are both 29 years old, have known each other since they were young children, and used to hang out at Andrew’s Great Aunt Penny’s house after school and all day during the summer. Sonnet and her parents used to live next door to Penny until her parents sold the house and moved to Florida while Sonnet was in college. Aunt Penny recently died and left her house that is a couple of blocks from the Rehoboth Beach to Andrew and Sonnet. Andrew and Sonnet were “mortal enemies” when they were growing up. Andrew used to tease Sonnet all of the time, especially when his friends were with him. As they got older, Andrew developed a crush on Sonnet, but he would never have let her know about it. Sonnet was a bit overweight, had acne, frizzy hair, and wore thick glasses, back then but she has always been very smart. Sonnet was her high school class’ valedictorian, with Drew coming in second by only a hair. Drew was naturally smart, never having to study, he was the quarterback on the football team, and he could make friends with just about anyone. On graduation day, as Sonnet was walking up to the podium to give her valedictorian speech, Andrew stuck his foot out and tripped Sonnet, causing her to fall across the stage. Sonnet was extremely embarrassed, but she got up and gave her speech, but she’s hated him ever since. Andrew is not too fond of Sonnet either since she always has to be right. When he sees her in the lawyer’s office he is shocked, one of the reasons being because she is so beautiful that he almost doesn’t recognize her. Sonnet has lost a lot of weight, her hair is straight, her skin has cleared up, and she is wearing contact lenses. Sonnet recognizes Drew but he is not as fit as he had been when she last saw him, in fact he’s actually put on a few pounds since high school. After the lawyer gives them each a key to Penny’s house, they realize that if they both want to get the house sold and split the money between them, they must somehow learn to get along and restore this house together. Can Sonnet and Drew get along long enough to flip Aunt Penny’s house?

I really enjoyed this novel from K.L. Montgomery. The chapters were written in Andrew and Sonnet’s point of view which gives the reader a unique insight into what the characters are thinking. All of the characters that we meet in this book have depth and are interesting. The story is interesting, entertaining, is not predictable, and sometimes caused me to laugh out loud. I highly recommend this novel.

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Fat Girl (Romance in Rehoboth, #1) by K.L. Montgomery – Review by Denise Owens

Fat Girl (Romance in Rehoboth #1)Fat Girl by K.L. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fat Girl is the first book in the Romance in Rehoboth series by K.L. Montgomery. It is a contemporary romance novel. The story is about a 39 year old woman named Claire, and she writes a blog on the internet. Claire recently separated from her soon to be ex-husband, Jeremy. Claire has a teenaged son, who is in high school and his name is Elliott. Elliott lives in Lewes, Delaware with his mom, in his grandparents home, while Claire saves money to buy a house for the two of them in the Rehoboth Beach area. Elliott visits his father, who still lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, in the home that Elliott grew up in, one or two weekends a month. Claire found out that her husband was cheating on her when she found a phone in Jeremy’s gym bag, while she was looking for his dirty clothes to put into the wash. When Claire confronted Jeremy about the fact that he was cheating on her, he didn’t even try to deny it. Jeremy was cheating with a young woman who belonged to the same gym that Jeremy and Claire belonged to, and she was much younger than him. Claire had wanted to try to save their marriage, but Jeremy told her that he would plan to still see his mistress, so Claire thought it best to end their marriage, since he clearly didn’t love her any more, since he wanted to keep seeing this woman. Claire felt that maybe Jeremy wouldn’t have started the affair if she wasn’t fat. Claire was now seeing a therapist several times a week, Dr. Dawn, whose office was close to her parents’ home in Lewes, to help her to learn to deal with the end of her marriage and with other problems.

Claire had been fat since she was at least nine years old, and she had been teased and bullied a lot in her childhood because of it. Even her mother, who was tall and thin, like Claire’s younger sister, Emma, gave her a hard time about her weight. These things caused Claire to start an unhealthy habit to lose weight starting when she was a teenager. Claire would hardly eat anything and then exercise like crazy. Sometimes she felt really weak and light-headed because of it, but she would try to ignore that, and carry on with her plan to lose weight. Even though her plan for losing weight was obviously unhealthy, Claire’s mom had to have noticed since Claire was not eating many meals when she was home, but her mother said nothing to Claire about her unhealthy eating and exercising routine. Now that she is living back in Lewe’s, Claire’s best friend, Jean-Marc Tasse, has helped her a lot, too. She could always go to his house to vent or laugh at whatever was bothering her, and he was the first person that she told about the offer that she has gotten to write a column for a famous newspaper in New York.

Claire felt that she was ready to date again, but because she was a writer and she could stay at home
to work, she didn’t have the opportunity to meet men. Jean-Marc told her about a dating site, that he uses, and Claire decided to try it out. The first man that she meets from the site is a man named Jack. Jack teaches music at a private school called the Delmarva Academy, he’s 35 years old, divorced, and he has a 3 year old daughter who lives in Texas with her mother. Claire sees Jack about once a week because they feel comfortable getting to know each other and they become friends, but Claire is starting to feel attracted romantically towards him, too. She feels that Jack probably isn’t attracted to her physically because of her weight. Will Claire get the chance to become romantically involved with Jack? Will she begin to deal with her body image issues?

I really enjoyed this book by K.L. Montgomery. I’ve had body image issues my whole life, and was bullied about my weight a lot by my sister, neighborhood kids, and adults. I even dieted in an unhealthy manner during my senior year of high school, losing almost 40 pounds in 3 months. I enjoyed how the author dealt with Claire’s weight issues since I can definitely relate. I believe that this is a wonderful romance novel that everyone would love, and even though it is the first book in the series, it is definitely a stand-alone novel.

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Badge Bunny (Romance in Rehoboth, #4) by K.L. Montgomery – Review by Denise Owens

Badge Bunny (Romance in Rehoboth Book 4)Badge Bunny by K.L. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Badge Bunny is the fourth book in the Romance in Rehoboth series, and it is a contemporary romance novel by K.L. Montgomery. It is the story of a 29 year old young man named Christopher “Chris” Everson. Chris is a Delaware State Trooper who has lived in the Rehoboth Beach community since he was adopted at the age of 8 years old. Both of Chris’ birth parents were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. One of the reasons that Chris became a State Trooper is so that he can arrest as many drunk drivers as he can, so that he can try to prevent these drunk drivers from killing any more innocent people and ruining any more lives. Chris is also the author of a successful series of children’s books under the pen name of C.J. Evans. Chris has kept the fact that he is a children’s book author a secret from all of his friends and family, even going so far as to wear a disguise when he appears at book signings. He knows that if they were ever to find out that he was a children’s book author that they would forever give him a really hard time, and even call him names. As part of Chris’ job as State Trooper he sometimes must accompany accident victims or people who have been assaulted to the Lewes Hospital Emergency Room. On one of these occasions occurs when Chris meets a very attractive female ER physician named Dr. Brynne Miller, MD, whom he mistakingly assumes is a nurse in the ER. When Chris tries to ask Brynne out on a date since he is very attracted to her and can’t stop thinking about her, she refuses him and says that she will never date another cop again. Chris is determined to change Brynne’s mind about going out on a date with him.

This story is also about Dr. Brynne Miller, MD, who is a 32 year old physician in the ER at the Lewes Hospital in Lewes, Delaware. Brynne has worked in the Lewes Hospital’s ER for several years and loves everything about her job except the crazy hours that she has to work. Brynne moved to Lewes so that she could be closer to her older brother, Ben, and his wife, Jamie, who are the only family that she has. Brynne’s parents divorced when she was a senior in high school, and neither parent has remained in hers or her brother’s lives since she left for her freshman year of college. Brynne has recently broken up with a man named Todd, who is a police officer who she met in the course of her job. Brynne says that she meets most of the men that she dates in the ER, and most of the men happen to be cops. In fact, due to the fact that Brynne dates so many cops, her friends and acquaintances in the ER have nicknamed her a “Badge Bunny”. After Brynne meets Christopher Everson in the ER and he asks her out on a date the next time she sees him there, she tells him that she won’t date any more cops because she believes that they are arrogant, sexist, jerks – she also doesn’t want to be called a “Badge Bunny”, but she doesn’t tell him that. Even though she believes that Chris is also one of those jerk cops, and even calls him, “Trooper Asshat” to herself when she thinks about him, Brynne is still thinking about him, which bothers her a lot, and recognizes that she is physically attracted to him even if she doesn’t want to be. Will Chris be able to convince Brynne that he is not a jerk like those other cops that she has dated, and get her to go out on a date with him?

I very much enjoyed this fourth book in the “Romance in Rehobeth” series by K.L. Montgomery. Even though I have read all of the books in the series, it is not necessary to have read them to enjoy this stand-alone romance novel. I really liked that the author has the characters of Chris and Brynne tell the story from each of their perspectives, too. Brynne is a strong and very smart woman, and Chris doesn’t fit into the category of a “typical” cop, since he is also a children’s book author, which is another reason that I really enjoyed this book. I also like reading more about the couples that I’ve met in some of the author’s previous books in this series. I definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy a good romance novel as much as I do.

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Plot Twist (Romance in Rehoboth, #3) by K.L. Montgomery – Review by Denise Owens

Plot Twist (Romance in Rehoboth #3)Plot Twist by K.L. Montgomery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Plot Twist is the third book in the Romance in Rehoboth series by K.L. Montgomery, and it is a contemporary romance novel. The story is about a woman who is 32 years old named Lindy Larson, who lives in Lewes, Delaware, and she is an English teacher at The Delmarva Academy. Lindy lives with her elderly parents, and takes care of them since they have medical issues and memory problems. Lindy decides to audition for a part in an original play called “Yo Ho Rehoboth”, written by local author, Claire Reilly, and her husband, Jack, who is a music teacher at The Delmarva Academy. The play is to open in 8 weeks. Since Lindy has the summer off and has nothing better to do, she decides to audition for the musical along with her friends Megan and Heather. Lindy loves Broadway shows and has a beautiful singing voice, but she is very insecure about her appearance since she is overweight and considers herself to be fat, uncoordinated, and unattractive. Lindy doesn’t expect to get any type of leading role because of her appearance, even though many people have complimented her on her amazing singing voice. Lindy ends up being cast in the chorus as do Heather and Megan, but she is extremely nervous about learning the choreography since she has always had a difficult time with dance. On the night of the cast introductions Lindy notices the quite handsome and very fit man named Meric, who is one of the male leads in the musical. But Lindy feels that someone who is so confident and good looking as Meric could never be interested in a fat, boring woman like her.

The story is also about a man who is recently divorced, whose name is Meric Chandler, who is 35 years old, and is an accountant. Meric’s ex-wife, Suzanne, and his ex-best friend, Bryan, (who was also his business partner in their accounting firm), were caught together in Suzanne and Meric’s bed by Meric, and Suzanne is now pregnant with Bryan’s child; as soon as the divorce was final, Suzanne and Bryan got married. Meric is not planning on having a romantic relationship any time soon, and he certainly isn’t going to have a backstage romance, especially since that’s the way he met his ex-wife, Suzanne. Meric is auditioning for one of the lead roles in “Yo Ho Rehoboth” since he is a great tenor, and has been in many community musical theater productions. Meric is good friends with Drew, the owner of the Delmarva Art Connection where the play will be performed, and where Meric has starred in other musicals. Meric ends up being cast as one of the male leads in the play, and on the night of the cast introductions he notices a pretty woman in the chorus named Lindy, but he also notices that she appears to be quite shy and that she gets embarrassed very easily. Will Meric and Lindy become friends by opening night, or will their mutual attraction for one another lead to a romantic relationship?

I really enjoyed this novel by K.L. Montgomery. I enjoyed the way she wrote the novel by letting Lindy and Meric tell the story in their alternating points of view. All of the characters are multi- dimensional and interesting, and even though this book is the third in a series, it can be read as a stand- alone book. I definitely would recommend this book if you love reading romance novels.

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