Take A Moment by Nina Kaye is a heartwarming romance story that will pull on your heartstrings so badly while you cheer Alex, the main character on. Nina Kaye is another new author for me and I am so glad to have so many opportunities to discover authors.
The story follows Alex, a woman who seems to have it all. A fantastic job, wonderful partner and great mates. Then out of the blue comes a shock medical diagnosis and everything falls apart. Suddenly single and with no job she decides to move from Glasgow to Birmingham to leave her old life behind and start afresh. Her diagnosis has her reassessing the things she finds important and learns to appreciate things she took for granted before.
Alex was a woman who I just wanted to keep close to me. She brought out the maternal side of me. I badly needed her fresh start to succeed and to have her happy ending. A story that will have you looking at yourself and what you feel is important in life too. Nina Kaye has successfully created a character to shake you up so to speak. As Alex begins to reassess so does the reader. This is a skill that not everyone has. Her writing is so good you feel like you are watching friends and you are part of it all. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Take a Moment'. It does become rather an addictive read as you really feel you need to know if it all works out for Alex and can't put the book down before you find out.
Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources and Canelo Escape for my gifted copy of the book.

Do you live every day to its fullest?
Do you run full throttle whether working, playing, or something in between?
Do you not know how to say NO as an answer?
What if the FULL choice was no longer your own?

That's what this story begs you to consider. WHAT IF your world as you knew it was torn asunder but from the inside out. WHAT IF you weren't capable of doing all the things you did before, had the dread of physical and/or mental changes hanging over your head, and no control, at least for certain, over when or how it would affect you? It's a hard line to walk from the outside looking in, let alone being the one in the situation. Revealed to readers at book's end, the general story gist, the seed with which it started, came from the author's real life, and her own unwanted challenges she had to face. Learning a bit more about the health condition featured certainly gives this book a deeper connection for readers with just as much uncertainty about the future. I mean, you never know when something can come along and disturb your perfect little world. Is it better to live in fear of what MIGHT be? Or is it better to live every day to the best of our abilities, come what may?

I really enjoyed the real life connection, and honestly believe it aided in making Alex's challenges that much easier to understand. You saw her diagnosis, and ever changing condition through the eyes of someone that has been there, and it made it much more REAL. The sad part about that though is that as much as the understanding was more concrete, the smiles that more genuine...so was the heartache. From lovers to friends, coworkers to family, she gets spurned time and again...and sometimes DOES the spurning herself to avoid the unexpected heartache. It took a few very special people to come into her life in order for her to see that shutting them all down and playing hardheaded wasn't getting her any brownie points; it was simply removing the support system she could have had in place to help with the tough times. It wasn't a sign of weakness, but of acceptance, and when her house of carefully stacked cards came tumbling down, it definitely meant the difference between being lost among the many, or found among the few.

A great story for Contemporary Romance fans, infused with humor and heart. It tackles some big issues between the diagnosis, treatment of those patients both medically and personally, diversity, racism, and a few dozen or so more unexpected gems, but it also reminds us that life was meant to be lived and if we need to adjust at times to do so, then that is our prerogative.

The novel was well thought out and original. For French speakers like me, the book should not be read as a first read, as it is slightly complicated, but if you like challenges, then it is perfect. I would love to read another book by the author. The plot was touching, the way you see the protagonist learn about her illness and how she handles things afterwards. Some moments were sad and moving while others were quite funny. The book aims to show the real things in life as they really are, but also to give hope. It was a success in my opinion.

I liked the main character, Alex, though she does have the propensity to decide what others think, thus changing her own course of action without letting others decide. This is her story of living with a life changing condition (MS) and it changes relationships . This book documents that very well. In places it feels a little too happy ever after, but on the whole the nitty gritty of coming to terms with such a change in ones life is well documented.
The main characters fairly well described though others are little more two dimensional and conversations are realistic. The first few chapters were a little boring, though it was worth perservering
Thank you to Net galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Uplifting, thought-provoking and warm-hearted, prepare to be charmed by Nina Kaye’s latest novel, Take a Moment.

Alex is a woman who has a life most people would envy. With a successful career, a wonderful fiancé and a best friend who has been by her side since childhood, Alex’s life is as close to perfect as it is possible to get. However, Alex’s charmed life comes to a screeching halt when she receives a shocking diagnosis that forces her to reevaluate her entire life and throws everything off course. However, Alex is not about to back down from this fight or to surrender her future so easily, so deciding that she cannot wallow in self-pity, she decides to pack her bags, leave Glasgow behind and head to Birmingham for a brand-new start.

Having walked away from everything that is familiar to her, Alex is determined to thrive in her new surroundings. In a new city, she finds a new job and quickly begins putting down roots unencumbered by her past. But will she end up falling into old habits again? Everything in Birmingham might be new, but will it still be the same old Alex? Or will she draw a line under the past and learn to take a moment and start living instead of merely existing?

Love and friendship could be around the corner for Alex – but only if she has the courage to take a leap of faith and a chance on herself.

Nina Kaye’s Take A Moment is a fun, emotional and captivating read with a heroine who is smart, courageous and who keeps going even when the odds are stacked against her. Take a Moment is a fantastic read full of laughter, heart and moments that inspire as Alex rises above all the obstacles in her way in her pursuit for happiness and fulfillment.

Nina Kaye’s Take a Moment is a delightful and absorbing romantic read guaranteed to make readers smile.

As usual in my reviews I will not rehash the plot (plenty of reviews like that already).

This book can only be described as heartwarming. Apparently loosely based on the real-life experiences of the author, I can only admire and applaud the determination of our heroine, Alex, in overcoming and rising above the difficulties thrown at her by a sudden and catastrophic change in her health.

I seem to be making a habit of reading books set in cities I have lived in, and enjoyed reminiscing about the settings in this book. There are some great characters - both nice and nasty - and some great insights into life in the modern working world.

Without going into detail, I am happy at the way things turned out for Alex, and salute her resilience.

I'd happily read more by this author. Recommended if you are looking for a warm, easy read with great characters, friendship and romance thrown into the mix.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Alex has it all. Perfect fiancé, successful career, active social life. But when she's diagnosed with a debilitating chronic illness, things seem to fall apart; until she picks herself up and starts a new life.

For me this book was more about how Alex masters her diagnose and the problems this brings to her personal, social and professional life. The romance was a cute add-on.

So this was an interesting book for me to pick up. Its not my usual kind of book, I normally for psychological thrillers but I wanted to read something with an emotional punch and this sure does that! Alex has a wonderful life and everything is going exactly as she wants but then she receives a life changing diagnosis and everything changes. What makes it worse for her, is how her nearest and dearest react. They want to wrap her up in cotton wool and never let her out of their sights. She wants to conquer the world. Can there be a middle ground??? Really inspiring, I loved this book! It made me feel like I could take on the world!!!
https://mams.ie/forums/topic/take-a-moment-a-novel-by-nina-kaye/

5 Word Review: Disability, friendship, work, family, love.

Those five words don't do this story justice, by the way.

This is probably the hardest book review I have ever written. Because this book? Err... It's my life. Someone has been watching me go through my surprise diagnosis and my life falling apart and my body betraying me and having to come to terms that I will never ever get better and can only hope to put off getting more ill for as long as possible... And they've written it.

If you ever wondered what life with Multiple Sclerosis is like, look no further. Take A Moment is absolutely heartbreakingly perfect in its depiction of this auto-immune condition. I almost felt sick at the accuracy, but in a really good way. Is this how it feels to be represented in a book?

I completely understood Alex and her thoughts, feelings, and behaviour in the story. A Life changing diagnosis is difficult enough, but to know you will never get better? Your whole world is turned upside down. My heart broke when her personal relationships broke down, and yet I could see both sides of it. For all that she and her sister were like chalk and cheese there is still care there.

I utterly adored the romance in this story, and the conflicts it caused. It was messy and felt so real, and it was so uplifting in how it all turned out. Disabled people are allowed romance and happy endings and I'm glad this book allowed one.

I really enjoyed the work-conflict at Alex's new place, even if it did make me so so angry. And I lived how her manager rallied around her and was an actual friend.

I wish this book had been around when I was going through the months after my diagnosis. It would have helped me so much (and even now so many years later it is helping) and I am just so thankful that this book is now around. Although my experiences have been very different, this hit the nail on the head. It was sensitively done, and for every hard moment there were moments to make you smile and laugh.

This is a hard hitting yet ultimately uplifting book that I will absolutely read again.

A beautiful story about the realities of life with a chronic illness, Although I don't have MS myself, I do suffer with several illness with similar symptoms, and I really resonated with Alex. From the diagnosis to the realties of working and dating with chronic illness, it was such an amazing experience to feel seen. This is an incredibly important book, and I implore everyone to read it. It offers such an important view in a topic which is sorely misunderstood by most. I hope this can offer insight and change even a few people's views. Even all this aside, this book also has an adorable meet cute and love story as well! Highly recommend to everyone!

This was such an eye opening book really, although one I'm finding quite hard to rate. As something that has never affected me, I find I cannot pass judgement on the content of the book because maybe I don't agree with certain things that happened, like I said as it's never affected me, how would I know how I would act given the situation.

It really opened my eyes for how these kind of things, diagnosis, can affect people differently and how it effects everyone else in your life too and how everyone deals with it.

I really enjoyed the authors note at the end about how she explains why she wrote this book, given her situation. I also love the fact that there is an actual song to raise money and raise awareness and think it's brilliant and I can't wait to go listen to it.

I adored this book. It had great representation for those going through MS and I loved the relationship between the two main characters. I will definitely be rereading it

If there’s one thing that I like doing it’s discovering new authors. Nina Kaye is certainly a new author for me. I read the synopsis for ‘Take A Moment’ and it certainly sounded like the sort of read that I would enjoy. Well I was spot on because I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Take A Moment’ but more about that in a bit.
I loved the character of Alex and I warmed to her from the very start. She is a lovely young lass who seems to have the perfect life – a fiancé, lovely friends and a job that she loves. She works too hard but apart from that her life is tootling along perfectly fine. Until something happens that makes her stand still and take stock. Alex has the rug pulled out from underneath her in more ways than one. She receives a diagnosis, which floors her for a while and she notices that her nearest and dearest are changing in the way they see her, talk to her and treat her. To a degree I identified with her as I feel the same. I haven’t got the condition that Alex has but I suffered a life changing injury and the way in which people treated me definitely changed. I just kept wanting to jump inside the book to give Alex a huge hug and to remind others that Alex hasn’t changed in her personality and she has a condition but it doesn’t have to change her life. Alex hits rock bottom in a way and ends up leaving her old life behind and she goes to start afresh elsewhere. Alex’s illness forces her to reassess her life and she learns to appreciate things that she took for granted before she was diagnosed. I kept everything crossed hat Alex’s new life would bring her the ‘happy ever after’ ending that she so deserved. What happens? Well for the answer to that question and so much more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
It didn’t take me long at all to get into this story. In fact by the time I got to the end of the first chapter, I knew that I was going to seriously enjoy this story and then some. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. I would definitely say that reading ‘Take A Moment’ became addictive and I found that I just couldn’t put the book down for any length of time. My Kindle wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have ben because it travelled everywhere with me. I just couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story. It didn’t take me long to finish this book and I had mixed feelings about finishing this book. I don’t mean that in a negative sense or that I was disappointed with the way in which the story ended but I was enjoying the author’s writing style, the characters and the storylines so much that I just didn’t want the book to end.
‘Take A Moment’ is superbly written. I love Nina’s easy going writing style. In fact reading this book seemed more like a chat between friends rather than reading an actual book. I hope that makes sense. Nina certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be one heck of a story. I loved the way in which Nina makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story themselves and at the heart of the action. I found that I enjoyed the book so much that I kept trying to interact with the characters as if they could hear me.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Take A Moment’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Nina’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

I have found this one harder to review as the battles that Alex faced mirror very closely to health battles I have encountered and I found that sometimes the words jumping from the pages took me back to that stage of freshly diagnosed. However to read a story with the subject being so well understood and represented on the pages gave me hope that perception is starting to change and that people are starting to understand invisible illnesses better, in that one day they are invisible and the next day you can't even make it out of bed unassisted.

Alex was a strong and independent character throughout and her grit and determination to succeed despite how much life had changed just made me love this character even more. I flew through this book once I had started and kept hiding away so I could keep reading as I wanted to know if Alex's determination was enough to see her succeed as she went against the wishes of her family and left her support network behind as she moved on in her life.

A highly recommended read that I loved from beginning to end, there are highs and lows throughout the story and I found this emotional and heartwarming.

Ohhh this is such a lovely uplifting book to read! It is the type of book that really makes you think about you life , brilliantly written !

In the book we meet Alex , she is a main character that you totally fall in love with she is strong, independent, doesn't let things stop her . We follow Alex's life through the book, the ups and downs , the tender moments and a sprinkle of romance . You know a book is well written when you are rooting for the character and feel for them , this book is definitely that .

I would highly recommend this book to anyone ! It is a cracker of a read and I can't wait to read more by this author !

Alex seems to have it all: she's a successful IT project manager, she's super active and healthy, she's engaged and madly in love with Dom and planning her wedding and future in Glasgow, surrounded by the people she loves and the job of her dreams.
After a shocking medical diagnosis, however, Alex' world falls apart: her colleagues at work, her family and her fiancé start treating her as an invalid and she is just devastated. Determined to live a full and fulfilling life, despite her illness, Alex decides to move to Birmingham and start over: a new job, new colleagues and eventually a new love. Things are not always easy as Alex tries to navigate and adjust to a new city and a new job and to learn how to best manage her chronic illness. Thanks to her colleagues are great, her best friend from Glasgow and Matt, the charming man she met on a train months before and with whom she has recently reconnected, she rediscovers happiness in a way she never truly experienced before.

Take a Moment is a touching story about resilience and determination, but also about learning how to be vulnerable and to accept and manage a life-altering chronic illness, without letting it rule your life, realizing you can still live a happy and fulfilled life, just differently from the way you've always imagined.

The story is a good mix of heavy and light topics. The cast of characters surrounding Alex is amazing and really adds to the story. The romance aspect is very sweet and cute, but is not the main focus of the plot. The writing is on point, easy to read, but touching when it needs to be.

100% would recommend for anyone looking for a touching, heart-warming and uplifting story.

**Thank you to Netgalley and Nina Kaye for granting me an e-ARC of Take a Moment in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Wow, what an incredibly emotional story Take A Moment is. The story follows the life of main character of Alex. At first glance, she seems to have everything in life that you could want – a wonderful partner, a fantastic job and great friends. But, a shock medical diagnosis changes everything for Alex. With her relationship over, and no job, Alex decides to makes some changes to her life.

Moving from her hometown of Glasgow to Birmingham, Alex is ready for a fresh start. Not wanting her illness to stand in her way, Alex is determined to be strong and independent. And we see the true strength of Alex as she starts a new job and learns to enjoy living life again. A whole new way of life emerges for Alex – fun, friends, family and maybe even love?

Take A Moment is a beautifully written story that takes you on a real rollercoaster of emotions, mixed with many light-hearted moments. You simply HAVE to read this stunning and enjoyable story.

Sleight Of Hand….
A new start brings new challenges in this nicely written romcom with an edge, dealing with life issues with care, empathy and sleight of hand. An engaging tale with likeable protagonists and a colourful cast of supporting characters. A heartwarming and enjoyable read.

I am not even exaggerating when I say that I was gripped right from the start. When books are written in the first person like this book was I can completely disappear into the character telling the story as long as I actually like the character and that was definitely the case here. I immediately connected with Alex and loved how she handled various situations and just her general approach to life.

Close to the start of the book Alex gets a life altering diagnosis, but it is not just the diagnosis that hits her hard but how those around her start treating her differently. This was a real eye opener and told in a way that had me welling up and also getting angry right along with Alex.

Alex is strong and independent character and one way or another she is going to move forth and make the best of the cards she’s been dealt.


What to expect in this story:
✅ A strong, successful and independent leading female character
✅ A sudden diagnosis
✅ A fresh start
✅ Relationship trouble and romance
✅ Not one, but two handsome guys!
✅ Strained relationship with family members
✅ Karaoke and other music
✅ Talk of “smombies” (smartphone zombies! I had to look that one up!)
✅ A brilliant best friend
✅ An uplifting story.

I encourage you with all my heart to take a moment to read this story, though an art of fiction, still clearly written from the heart and with some personal experience mixed in. It will touch you and make you think and hopefully you too will end up taking a moment again and again!

I really liked the representation in this book and how we followed Alex on her journey from diagnosis to accepting and the support network that she built around her. I loved her relationship that she built with Matt and we saw what can happen with friends and family.

I definitely recommend this book and will be reading again.