Writer, Dreamer, and Mistress of Procrastination
Linda Verji is the pseudonym for the author of more than half a dozen romance novels. A passionate world traveler, Linda currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya where she spends her days exploring the thriving culture there and her nights finding new ways to torture her characters.
Theodora’s books are immediate purchases for me. I don’t even need to read the description because she never disappoints me. This book was no different. I loved it right from the first word to the last.
Dr. Prince and Cynda were legendary. They scorched these pages with their emotions and the fire in their relationship. I was so invested in their happy ending that I felt like these were people I knew. Let me not spoil the book for you. You can read it for yourself. Here’s the description though.
You’re fired.
When my father died and my stepmother cut out, leaving me with two stepsiblings to raise, I figured that would be the biggest surprise of my life. But then the pandemic hit, and my big city ex showed up in my small Missouri town to take over my father’s practice.
What’s the first thing he says to me after three years?
“You’re fired.”
Sooooo…it looks like he totally didn’t appreciate the way things ended between us, and now he won’t settle for anything less than cold, hard revenge.
But as it turns out, I’m the only person in our small town with a rental unit available. And without a job, I’m desperate for a renter.
So now the extremely bitter ex who fired me is living in my backhouse. Way, way closer than I want him to be.
But everything will be fine. I hate him, and he hates me. So nothing’s going to happen between us, right?
I’ve written many books and I have my favorites, but I think Money Chaser has earned its place in the list of books that were fun to write. The book before it took 6 months to write. This one took one and a half months and that’s only because I was also taking driving lessons while writing it. I maybe could’ve finished it in a month. That’s how fun the ride was.
Those who read it on Wattpad will tell you, we had a great time cussing out Arthur lol. Seriously, if you haven’t read the book, you’re missing out. You can GET IT HERE. This post will have several spoilers so just head out to Amazon first and read the book before you read this post.
Money Chaser is a special book because it had lost going on behind the scenes. Like what?
1: ALL THE CHARACTERS WERE FLAWED
When we’re learning to write Romance, we’re told that the characters need to be heroic and noble. Everyone who has read the book can attest to the fact that no one, and I mean no one, was noble. Tegan was a home-wrecker and sugar-baby. Arthur was just… wow! Debbie was the victim of her own choices. Jam-Jam, though a good friend, stole a husband too. Sierra was a desperate and disloyal friend. Even Max who was the good guy in all this would be considered messy by normal standards. I mean the guy slept with his uncle’s side-pieces. Like I said everyone was a mess… and that’s what made the book so much fun to write.
2: IT ALL STARTED WITH KANYE WEST’S ‘GOLD DIGGER’
You remember that song, right?
She takes my money, when I’m need
Yeah, she’s a triflin’ friend indeed
Oh, she’s a gold digger
Way over town, that digs on me
I was listening to the song one day, laughing my ass off because of how hurt Jamie Foxx looked when he was singing that song, when it hit me. Why is the gold-digger digging on him? Like, is she just triflin’ or is something going on behind the scenes. And that’s how Tegan was born.
If you’ve never heard the song then you need to. I promise, it will make your day!
3: THE HAPPY ENDING WAS UNEXPECTED
When I was writing the book, I really thought that it was all going to end badly. I even had an ending in mind. Someone (probably Max) was going to end up dead and everyone would be left regretting the choices they made. But along the way I fell in love with Tegan. The girl had an awful life and there was no one on her side (except for Jam-Jam). I thought she deserved a little happiness. So I gave it to her.
4: ARTHUR WAS ALL ABOUT HIS EGO
Many of you kept wondering why Arthur was so obsessed with Tegan. Well, for one, he’s a psycho and that’s just how some psychos are wired. Also, he considered himself better than Tegan in every way so when she decided to leave him, it bruised his ego. If she’d waited for him to leave her first, maybe things would’ve gone different. Then again… I wouldn’t have had a story to write.
5: TEGAN’S STILL GOT A BAD REPUTATION AT HOME
Our girl Tegan might be happily chilling in Brazil but if you know anything about humans, then you know that stories about her are still going round. People back home only know part of her story (as it usually happens). She’s the girl who abandoned her mom and sister, shot her sugar-daddy then ran away with her sugar-daddy’s nephew. They still think of her as a messy homewrecker. Though it wasn’t my intention to preach with this story, I think it’s still an opportunity to learn a l’il something. You don’t know people’s stories so don’t be quick to judge them for what you see as their sin.
Back in the day, as in the Joseon period kind of day, Wol-joo (played by Hwang Jung-eum) was a shaman who could read the dreams of her clients and soothe whatever demons were hustling them. In the course of doing her shaman-things, she met a Prince, they fell in love and….
No, there was no happy ending for them.
Things went wrong… very, very wrong. The prince betrayed her. Her mother was killed. Their home was burnt. Worse, no one would help Wol-joo get justice. After all the drama, Wol-joo ended up committing suicide.
Usually ghosts go to heaven, but our dear Wol-joo did a few bad very bad, vengeful things before dying that made her get kicked back to earth so she could atone for them. It’s 2020 now and Wol-joo is still doing time on earth. To get out of here, she needs to resolve the grudges of 100,000 souls. To do that, she opens up a pop-up bar where people can come drink and talk about their problems, and she helps them solve those problems. Helping her out is her weary sidekick, Chief Gwi (played by Choi Won-young) who keeps her from messing up her tasks because of her nasty temper.
The real story begins when a cheerful kid called Kang-bae (played by Yook Sung-jae) accidentally walks into Wol-joo’s bar. Kang-bae isn’t like her usual clients. He’s a strange one who seems to be able to get people to confess their truths and worries to him just by one touch. That’s a skill Wol-joo could definitely use. And thus starts the partnership of the century.
I went into this because of Yook Sung-jae. I’m not really a fan of Hwang Jung-eum because in my opinion, she tends to overact. In every project she’s done (except Secret) she’s made me cringe and I only stayed for the male leads. But this time, it was different. She was standing-ovation amazing. Just the right balance of empathetic and tough. The relationship of the three leads was also amazing. They matched each other perfectly and their shenanigans made me laugh, gasp and cry. It was a great series. Unfortunately, it was only twelve episodes. They wrapped it up well but I wouldn’t have minded a few more episodes of this crazy trio.
THE VERDICT: 8/10 because this trio made me both laugh and great. They were awesome. The minus two points is because they gave us only twelve episodes. We want MORE!
Sleeping your way up to good life isn’t as easy as it sounds. Worse, once you get there, every move you make comes with serious consequences. But if you try to get out of that life… well, you could end up dead.
Money Chaser is now available for your reading pleasure.
Men call her a gold-digger. Women call her a ho.
Tegan Baptiste calls herself a survivor, doing what she needs to do to pay her bills.
But all that glitters is not gold and there is no such thing as a free lunch. Every day she has to pay the price for choosing money over morals. Pretense, obsession, judgment and even violence shadow her like an evil monster.
However, worst in her list of problems is the dangerous passion brewing between her and Maxwell Ward, the one man she should stay away from.
To get your copy today, just click on the link to your favorite store/site
Theodora’s books are immediate purchases for me. I don’t even need to read the description because she never disappoints me. This book was no different. I loved it right from the first word to the last.
