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Second Chance Summer (Jill Shalvis)

Second Chance Summer - Jill Shalvis

One mistake forces Lily Danville out of a job as a cosmetologist for the Hollywood stars. Since nobody is willing to take her, Lily is forced to accept a job offer from the only beauty salon that is willing to dismiss her tainted reputation … and that means she has to return to her hometown, Cedar Ridge, Colorado. Lily has been away for a decade after the death of her younger sister and her father within days of each other. Of course, returning to Cedar Ridge means confronting the other reason that keeps her away from Cedar Ridge, the first man she ever loved, Aidan Kincaid.

Jill Shalvis has become one of my go-to comfort authors for the past few years with her Lucky Harbor series. Her characters mostly click with me and I usually love the romance that unfolds on page. Now she returns with a brand new series featuring half-brothers of Cedar Ridge. How can I resist?

This has all of the Shalvis signature-brands of heartfelt small-town romance. I always love Shalvis’ heroes… they are protective of the heroine without being overwhelming. Aidan knew that letting Lily walked out his life ten years ago was one of his biggest regrets. So he was determined not to repeat that same mistake. Lily was a bit harder for me to warm up to in the beginning. But I thought it was mostly because she was so full of guilt over the accident that killed her sister, so she needed her own personal growth to overcome the baggage. For that, she often pushed Aidan away. Having said that, I loved reading about her journey to reach that inner forgiveness.

Aidan and Lily’s chemistry was wonderful and I wholeheartedly enjoyed the humorous tone that decorated the relationship. From Lily’s penchant for eating junk-food (ah, a girl after my own heart) to Aidan’s willingness to ‘suffer’ from various beauty treatment in order to talk to Lily … they all just brought a HUGE smile to my face. It made me feel happy and to me that is one of the most important things in reading romance, no?

I also loved the secondary characters surrounding this small town – most notably Aidan’s brothers and Lily’s bisexual friend, Jonathan. I need to highlight Jonathan, by the way. His bisexuality is well-accepted by everybody; it is a matter of fact and never raised as a huge issue. For me, that is totally refreshing. I loved that Jonathan could talk about both the women and the men he slept with to Lily, and she didn’t even bat an eye. Of course, one of these days, I would also like to see bisexual women whose promiscuity doesn’t make her branded as a ‘slut’ as well.

Anyway, this is a GREAT start of a new series. I will look forward to the next book featuring Aidan’s half-brother Hudson.

 

The ARC is provided by the publisher for an exchange of fair and honest review. No high rating is required for any ARC received.