A Little of Chantelle Rose by Cristina Hodgson / Books Teacup and Reviews

A Little of Chantelle Rose by Cristina Hodgson

Published: May 4th 2017 by Crooked Cat Books

Read Date: September 27th 2017

Pages: 252

Stars: 4/5

Chantelle Rose, young and beautiful, started her career as ‘Extra’ role in gangster movie. That ‘Extra’ flashing role of hers gave her a biggest opportunity.

A chance to earn million dollars,

A chance to buy her dream house and

A chance to live a life she dreamed.

In that glittery blindfold she gave little attention to what was the script and what was her role. And end up in movie starring most famous actor of Hollywood, Lionel King. There was a lot at a stake in exchange of the million dollar opportunity.

Ahem, and Love life. Life where she had lot of Ex, little she thought she would truly fall for 2 heart-throbbing hottest men present on Earth. Robbie- mysterious, silent, country guy; and Lionel- star, actor, full of money, charm, and hotness.

Who will she give her heart and soul?

And then someone is stalking her. Who is that person and why?

Was the million dollar worth of her heart and life?

That sounds quite a drama, right? Well it was hell lot of drama. A Little of Chantelle Rose is unique an interesting debut novel by Cristina Hodgson. I definitely want to read more from this author.

The book was about Chantelle Rose, discovering her life, spreading her wing who wants to live and earn, finding a true love of her life that she had witnessed. And with her lady luck she found two. The story was about love, friendship, betrayal, trust, fame, running after dream and ‘Love Triangle’.

This was second contemporary I read where main characters were actors and got a glimpse of movie industry.

As this book was character driven, it was hard to separate characters from what I liked or didn’t. Each character showed their positive and negative sides that I wanted to share, so this part will be little longer than rest of the review.

Chantelle was so funny, feisty, loud-mouthed (mostly in her head), hysterical at points, but truthful to herself. I have mixed feeling for her actions.

Ok bad one- She was so much after money that she even lost practicality of things. – Signing contract that she didn’t even know much about and then feeling all jittery. Then blaming others for plotting everything. (Seriously girl!!) She was giving lot of benefits of doubt to everyone.

Good one- She overreacted at tricky points, but for this I’m giving her benefit of doubt. 😉 I felt empathetic for her, the situations she was in and all her suffering, fearing, confusing emotions was so contagious. Development was good. She had something unique about her. I admired her with all her flaws. No, I’m not in love with her, but she would be a nice company.

“What had I done to deserve the love of two such a wonderful men? Both special, each in their own way. I felt awful. Sick… If anyone confessed to me that they found themselves caught between two loves, I’d say a prayer for them. It was a bloody nightmare.”

Both boys, Lionel and Robbie, had trouble in expressing their true feelings and made everything so unpredictable and confusing. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out who was right or wrong till the end. I assumed everything wrong about them. But one thing do agree from description, they were sexy as hell.

Lionel was all confidant, charming prince, workaholic, passionate, and so adorable. His love for Chantelle made me smile like teenage in the book. First half loved him totally. Second half confused me. I will give a plus point to Lionel for all good timing, and that’s why I might be partial with him. Bad one- How he approached Chantelle at first, for the main reason.

Robbie was true countryman, shy, and conservative. He was most genuine person in the book. His ‘know-me’ part came in second half of the book. So, I actually agreed to what Chantelle thought about him in whole book. Bad one- I can’t elaborate as it might give away lot, but his timing with her was bad, to be specific after attack. I don’t approve his action. Here you lost me dude.

Good things I mentioned about characters. No character was perfect in this book they had flaws, lot sometimes, but that is what made them realistic. They realized their mistakes and they understood other’s feeling at the end and that was beautiful thing in the book.

Best thing of the book- Chantelle’s witty monologues were hilarious. I was literally laughing at some point. Damn! I loved her voice in this book. Funniest events were her encounter with Vivien in later half of the book, loo on flight, security check by custom officers, and many more I can go on and on about those events. She won my heart for this side of hers.

Friendship between Chantelle and Tammy. I loved Chantelle’s childhood with her. I liked Tammy’s parents, though they were not in the book until climax, they still showed their presence through Tammy, for her upbringing and accepting her friends. I loved character’s life story specifically about their parents.

It was ironic that Chantelle had feelings for both of them. That made story ‘Extra’ melodramatic, which looked implausible but honestly I enjoyed it, it made me curious to see whom she will choose and why. Sex scenes were okay, glad author left ‘too much extra’ from descriptions. Emotions in the book were so raw and real. It made me agitated from very beginning because that tagline on the cover, I was expecting something real bad will happen and also restless because of second half, I couldn’t just put down the book, I wanted to reach the end as fast as I can.

There were more turning point in the book than thriller/mystery book. I was feeling dizzy at the end with all the shocks of twists. Best twist was that stalker one, I can’t believe person who was after all those terror inducing threats.

Shell-shocked end of the book. It left me hanging. Sequel? I wish. 🙂 Though it was jaw-dropping, I kind of happy with the ending.

I loved epilogue, the word of wisdom Chantelle shared for all characters in the book. One of my favorite was one that she told to herself,

“Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try to know someone else and expect them to know you.”

Too much drama which was impossible in real life. Main thing was, by the time I reached to the revelation of stalker, I was so impatient and because of that weary. I felt like, I just want to turn pages and see who was behind all the mess. It took tremendous amount of energy not to do that or skim the pages. And the reason behind all that person gave, I was like, You Kidding Me!!

Few things about the characters that I didn’t like but I don’t judge them in the end.

Overall, interesting, different, keep you on the edge (yeah that happens in contemporary too), dramatic plot and ending, mountain ride pace. If you’re fan of contemporary, I definitely recommend this book.