A Chance with You

by Yahrah St. John

Charismatic caterer Raina Martin knows a lot of things: how to whip up a soufflé, how to throw a party, and how to be independent. One thing she doesn’t know is how to be a mother. So when a cruel twist of fate claims her sister’s life and leaves Raina with custody of her six-year-old niece, Zoe, Raina can think of only one place to turn. Zoe’s father has to be out there somewhere, and she intends to find him. When sexy sports agent Spencer Davis is confronted by the feisty beauty, he is torn. He does not believe he is the father of Raina’s niece. Yet he is reluctant to let the beguiling chef slip away. Soon he and Raina are engaged in a passionate liaison that is both unwise and inevitable. With Zoe’s parentage still in question, Spencer knows their relationship may be short-lived. But his longing for Raina is quickly outweighing his judgment, and he is willing to risk everything on the chance that they might be meant for each other …

Genres: African American Romance, Romance, Contemporary

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Yahrah St. John is the International author of forty two books. When she’s not at home crafting one of her sexy romances with compelling heroes and feisty heroines with a dash of family drama, St. John can be found in the kitchen cooking one of her gourmet meals discovered on the Food Network for her husband. Or this thrill-seeking junky can be found traveling the globe seeking out her next adventure.

A graduate of Hyde Park Career Academy, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Northwestern University. St. John is a member of Romance Writers of America, but is an avid reader of all genres. St. John lives in sunny Orlando, the City Beautiful.

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Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

An enjoyable romance. Heroine is guardian to her dead sister's child who turns out to have been fathered by hero's dead brother. I do love a Harlequin plotline. Hero is a mega rich sports star, heroine runs a catering company, much squabbling, amateur parenting, and bonking ensues (but, let it be noted, the hero and heroine both keep a grip on rational behaviour, more or less, which is always welcome).

[Marie Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first time reading Yahrah St. John's books, and I enjoyed this one. It's a little hard writing a clear review without revealing any spoilers, but I'll try.

Raina Martin, a top chef for her own catering company, is given custody of her six year-old-niece, Zoe after her sister, Alexa dies of cancer. Raina is determined to find Zoe's father. Before Alexa's death, she gives her a clue as to where to find him. That clue eventually leads to a sexy man named Spencer Davis, a sports agent and former NBA star. But he doesn't believe he's the father, and he takes a paternity test to prove it. Much of the book is spent on putting the pieces together to this mystery. In the meanwhile, Spencer and Raina begin to fall for each other, and the two of them work together to learn who the real father is.

There are a few heartfelt moments in the story, and Zoe is so adorable. There are a lot of family value themes throughout the story, and it was definitely a page-turner. There are also sexy moments, as well as a nice little mystery woven throughout. The HEA at the end was satisfying and cute, and this definitely read as a stand-alone story.

[Dee Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the numbers of times I rolled my eyes, this book held my attention. I steamrolled through the first 80 pages sitting at the hairdresser--in under an hour. That says something.

[Joyce M. H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved "A Chance With You"

Spencer Davis former NBA baller turned sport agent and Raina Martin owner Diamonds And Gems Catering were both having a lot of issues. Loved when they finally admitted to each other how much they loved one another.

Raina's fraternal twin sister Alexa had an affair with Spencer's NBA brother Cameron. Cameron was a bad boy Cameron, Spencer and friend Ty were all bad boys and were into having good times of drinking and drugs. Alexa was a groupie and Spencer spotted her first be found out his wanted her so he backed off. Alexa ended of pregnant but never got a chance to inform Cameron she was pregnant. Alexa died of cervical cancer and gave guardianship to Raina and of course her mother was not to thrilled. Cameron, Ty and Spencer were involved in a major car accident where Cameron was killed.

Crystal Raina's mother was a pain in the rear end. Not so sure I agree with her reasoning about Alexa needing her than Raina. Alexa was just a rebellious child and Raina just wanted her mother to love her just as much as she loved her fraternal twin, never understood why the father never stood up for Raina he seemed to have gone alone with what abusive things the mother said to Raina.

Glad that Raina had her childhood friend Summer or else she would've had no one.

Great love story where it took a car accident to bring not only Raina and Spencer together but also Raina and her mother.

[Angela Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and three quarters stars...Better than average

This is a nice tale. Raina is quite likeable, a bit rigid and single-minded, but her devotion to Zoe is unquestionable. Spencer has definitely made poor choices in his past, but he's matured and turned his life around. His devotion to Zoe, niece to both main characters, is also obvious. I like flawed characters, and the heated encounters are fiery, but I don't really feel romance here; however, the grief is realistically portrayed. The epilogue is charming, but expected.

[Tynetta Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be Willing to Take a Chance

When it comes to matters of the heart one has to be open to taking chances. If you never take chances you don’t know what can be in store for you. It could be the love you’ve always wanted.

[Mrs Giggles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have mentioned in previous reviews of Yahrah St John's books for Kimani that her plotting leaves much to be desired. Well, A Chance With You breaks new grounds in that very little of it makes sense at all. It's like reading about people from a vastly different culture or maybe even from another planet because these characters, especially the hero, do really bizarre things that advance the plot via lots of screaming and bickering but don't make sense even a bit.

Okay, let's start at the beginning. Raina Martin's twin sister Alexa dies at the start of the story, leaving Raina her six-year old daughter Zoe to care for. When Raina asks about Zoe's father, she manages to get a name from Alexa - Spencer Davis - with Alexa's assertion that Spencer can help her on this matter. Alexa then dies, the luckiest character in this story as she flees this whole mess with her dignity intact.

Raina equates Spencer being able to help to Spencer being the father Zoe. Therefore, she has a lawyer submit a formal, uh, request to Spencer for a paternity test. Oh, Raina doesn't want the money, you see, she wants someone to help with the care of Zoe. It's, after all, always better to let a man she doesn't know care for Zoe instead of, say, hiring a caregiver. So what if Raina isn't hard up for money and therefore can pay for a caregiver? How else would she meet Spencer and shag that man, after all?

Spencer and Raina bump into each other before the lawyer's letter arrives at his desk, but she can't tell him anything because she doesn't think it'd be nice or proper to break the mood of... something, I guess, even if it's just the two of them mutually thinking inside their heads how hot the other person is. Why break the magic and the anticipation of the upcoming sex scene, right?

When Spencer receives the letter, he immediately gets moody because Raina didn't say anything when they met, so this proves that she is just another faithless whore like all other women in the world! Never mind that she didn't really do anything at that point - he just knows, and don't you all forget it! He has slept with many, many whores in the past, after all, so he knows. When they do meet again, he assures her that he isn't the man that boinked Alexa and dumped her. To prove it, he makes a move on her. That will show her that he's really not the fanny rat like they all say he is!

He claims that he doesn't remember Alexa, but actually, he does. Alexa is that woman that had an affair with his dead brother - that man was married back then - and Spencer now realized that Alexa must be trying to call Spencer to get Cameron's number back then because she was pregnant. Oops, he might have ruined the poor darling's life by putting his bros-before-hos policy in action. Never mind, he will do the rational thing. He would secretly order his own paternity test to determine whether Cameron really was Zoe's father. Why? Well, we need an excuse for Raina to screech at him later about why he's all so secretive and stupid, that's why. And when they do screech and pout at one another, bringing up all those dead people, Spencer gets horny and wants to have sex. Why? I don't know, I guess all that talk about his dead bro turns him on?

Meanwhile, Raina is like, okay, some Cameron is the baby daddy, and he's dead. Okay, bye, she'll just go away, because, I don't know, maybe the voices in her head tell her that she doesn't need anyone to help with Zoe anymore. She doesn't want money, because she's not a greedy whore so don't you judgmental readers forget it. Spencer is like, hell no, maybe he should sue for custody of Zoe on behalf of his dead bro, even if he spent much of the story up to that point wishing that Zoe would just vanish so that he can get it on with Raina ASAP.

I can go on and on, but that would mean I'd be giving away the rest of the story, and I have better things to do. Oh, and one more thing: in addition to having motivations and thought patterns that would make sense perhaps only to Teletubbies, Spencer also blames Alexa entirely for the affair with his bro. You see, she walked around in skimpy dresses, just begging for it, and, clearly, the married Cameron couldn't be blamed because, I don't know, maybe the evil whore Alexa used her hypnotic powers to force his pee-pee into her honey pot to knock her up. So, really, everything that went wrong in this story is Alexa's fault! There is nothing undignified, naturally, about our hero blaming a dead woman for his own nonsense, as we all know men can't do anything wrong at all.

Okay, so maybe the author doesn't realize that her characters are behaving like raccoons on crack despite having published a number of books to her name. This brings me then to another question: this book has an editor, right? What, that editor didn't read this book and realize how broken stupid the whole thing is? Perhaps the poor dear tried, drank six bottles of vodka while trying to repair the book, before saying, "Oh, just stick a fork and publish it - somebody will buy it anyway!"? The publishing process can be so mysterious.

[Michelle]

DNF. This was an e-book and the library returned it before I was finished but I wasn’t invested enough to borrow it again.

[Romance Novels in Color · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I got my hands on this book I was only going to read the first chapter at that time and pace myself throughout; that was a major fail. A romance novel with an orphan is the first thing to tug at your heart strings, and from the first page I was hooked. After suffering from the loss of her twin sister Alexa, Raina searches for Zoe’s father but instead finds Spencer Davis who is also suffering with a loss of him own.

While the attraction for each other is instant they deal with it differently. While learning to be an instant parent, Raina refuses to acknowledge her growing feelings for Spencer. Although an accomplished and sought after caterer, she is learning to juggle her career and being a co-parent to Zoe. She is also dealing with the feelings of inadequacy in regards to her parents and believing that the charismatic ex-NBA player would be interested in her.

Spencer is dealing with the death of his brother, survivor’s guilt, discovering that he has a family in Zoe and anxiously waiting for Raina to acknowledge his true intentions in both her and Zoe’s lives. In addition to providing a storyline that sucks you right in, Yahrah St. John never fails to elicit such warmth with a touch of spice from her books. Your mouth will water for Spencer’s tall, dark and handsome looks and also for all the dishes served within the book. Tragedy brought them all together, but would it also tear them apart? Enter the love affair of Raina, Spencer and yes Zoe; this is one family you will want to root for.

-Reviewed by Sophie

[Nana Prah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t remember the last time I read a book in two days, that’s how good it was.

I had expected Raina to be a complete and utter failure as a mother to her sister’s child. This wasn’t the case. Because she was such a good one she sought the father of her niece to help her raise Zoe. Dealing with her sister’s death lent a depth of emotion to the story.

Spencer had no idea what was heading his direction, but I have to say that he took it well and stepped up to the plate (or should I say foul line because he played basketball). This made him even sexier.
The romance between Raina and Spencer sizzled from the moment they saw each and things got hotter as they got better acquainted.

Add a precocious six year old into the mix contributing some giggles and the story was perfect.

This is my first romance from Ms. St. John, but it won’t be my last.

[Marilyn Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I want a sequel of this one with Mr. Spencer Davis.... Can we find a lost rich former NBA player uncle just as chiseled and fine as Spencer and Cameron.

Lord I loved this book. It was so right on time. Raina Martin was so endearing. Can we have like one thousand Zoe's to just kiss and love on.

I read this book in less than 24 hours because of the plot, and story line. It is a riveting page turner that I could not put down. Bravo

[Shone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Care free, happy go lucky Chef Raina Martin is on top of the world, when a death leaves her to raise her 6 year old niece Confused and knowing nothing about being a mother.Raina set about to right a wrong.

[Lena Neely]

Love Conquers All

I loved Raina and Spenser's story. Not all siblings are willing to take on the responsibility of another's child, especially one that they were unaware of. I did want to get Raina's parents for being a hindrance instead of help.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in the mood for romance and that's what I got. This was one of the better romance stories I have read. The characters are developed and the story is good. Held my interest from the first chapter. Pretty good minus the typos.

[zelma harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Story

I liked the story and the love they had for each other was genuinely real and I liked that it dealt with real subjects and touched on how parents make a difference in their children and it affects them well up into adulthood. It was nice to see how he understood her.

[Tigger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed!

[Harlequin Books]

"The themes of healing and starting anew will inspire readers in this unpredictable, unique novel." RT Book Reviews, rated 4 stars

Miniseries: Kimani Hotties

[Iasia Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

on to the next book

[Cocoa Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book but too emotionally draining for me @ this time. Dealing with my own issues of loss. love the happy ending.

[Hope Battle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written

Excellent read,have always had great reading experiences with this author.So easy to read ,the book flowed and just made sense.Buy the book, and enjoy.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Predictable, but enjoyable.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hot

Great story. Not much romance, but the sex was hot. The story line was what kept my attention. Looking forward to more from this author.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one. They had to deal with death and survivor's guilt and trust issues to get together.

[Kendra Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A CHANCE WITH YOU

LOVED IT!!! THIS STORY MADE ME SAD FOR ALL THE LOSS THAT WAS SUFFERED, BUT HAPPY FOR RAINA, SPENCER,AND ZOE FOR THE FAMILY THEY HAD BECOME.