My Review: All Made Up

"I want to be someone's home.  I want to spend my whole like making one woman happy.  I want to be worth staying for."  - Caleb Murphy

Description:

Everyone thinks Katriona McLeod is living the dream. Her professional career as a make up artist sees her traveling the world working with the stars and she's got no shortage of men wanting her affection. Only problem is she's never gotten over Caleb Murphy, the one guy she's ever loved. When she accepts a job on the latest looking-for-love reality TV show, Falling for the Farmer, she discovers to her horror that Caleb is the leading man and she's cast as one of his harem. But she hides a secret that means that even if she wanted a second chance with the guy who broke her heart she could never have it.

Caleb Murphy couldn't care less about C-Class celebrity fame or reality TV and he certainly doesn't believe it could lead him to love. The one thing he does care about is fulfilling his mother's last wish. Kat's presence on the show seems to offer up a solution that will make both the network and his mother happy. It might have been almost ten years since they split but he knows he can trust her with his plan. Just as long as he doesn't fall in love all over again with the woman who will never stay.

About the Author:

Kara Isaac writes contemporary romance in beautiful Wellington, New Zealand. She is the author of four novels including the Romance Writers' of America RITA award-winning Then There Was You, Close to You, a RITA Award Double Finalist, and Can't Help Falling, an RT Review Top Pick. When she's not chasing three small people, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connect with readers on her website karaisaac.com, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author, Twitter @KaraIsaac and Instagram @kara.isaac.author

My Review: 4.5 stars 

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Kat McLeod’s story since first meeting her in “Close To You” and was SO excited when Kara Isaac announced her book would be next!  I have no idea how many pages this book has (I read an ebook), but it seemed to fly by!  Every time I was able to pick it up, I really didn’t want to put it down again before reaching the end.  I so enjoyed getting to dive into this story, meet Caleb Murphy, get to know Kat better, and laugh with them along their journey.

"Being afraid doesn't mean you're making the wrong decision.

Being afraid means you're invested in the outcome.

Having faith is trusting God with whatever the outcome is.

Even if it's not the outcome we hoped for."

Janine Tyler

This book tackles the reality TV world with panache, humor, and a honesty that makes this reader wonder if the author has been able to witness the behind the scenes of one such show. I had to laugh at Caleb’s awkwardness and some of the things the women connived to try to get his attention.  I also so appreciated the author portraying Caleb as a strong Christian and highlighting the brokenness in how some of the contestants viewed themselves.  This story tackles some difficult and painful topics, such as a family member with dementia, fear, trust, forgiveness, and facing the past.  I could so easily relate with the struggles each of the protagonist’s were facing and I was so drawn into the story that I often felt as though I was right there with them, shouldering the pain and wishing someone understood.

And I really enjoyed that characters from a couple previous books made appearances in this one and kind of linked them all back around.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys rom-coms that touch on deeper things.

Thank you again for stopping by and spending some of your valuable time on my blog!  I hope you enjoyed my review - there are so many other great quotes I wanted to use! - and will check into this and the author's other books a bit more.  They are seriously some of my favorites!  

As always, I hope you're having a ducky day! 

Amazon

GoodReads