Review….Second Chances by Jennifer L. Place

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Synopsis:

Eight years ago, Eva Sterling left Walnut Hill without a backward glance, her heart and pride shattered. Until recently, she had been living the life she always wanted with her husband Matt, when tragedy struck and turned her world upside down once again. Her hometown has never given her what she needed and has always been more draining than sustaining. Now she must return home to the life…the family…everything upon which she once turned her back and hope the place from whence she came has what she needs to heal. Jesse Hawthorne instigated Eva’s departure. He was utterly responsible for breaking her heart more times than he could count and has carried with him the knowledge and burden that caused her to run away. With her arrival back in his life, he is determined to be the man he always knew she deserved. Second Chances asks its characters and its reader’s one question, “Is it possible to build a future on a foundation of regret?”

My Review:

Second Chance by Jennifer L. Place is a story, quite simply, about second chances and all of the things that come with that… forgiveness, acceptance, trust and courage just to name a few.

Eva Sterling is at a crossroads in her life. The recently widowed wife of a police officer killed in the line of duty, she faces the unyielding question of “what now?”.  Ultimately deciding to move back to her hometown, with the family and friends she had left behind years ago, she now must face all the memories she had been blissfully ignoring…memories of heartbreak and a lost love that she had never been able to get over.

Fresh from signing the divorce papers, and happily kissing his failed marriage goodbye, Jesse Hawthorne is ready to move on.  Now, with the prospect of working on a new project for the construction company he manages, things are looking up.  That is, until he realizes the new project he’s heading is for Eva Sterling….the girl he lost years ago and the girl he is still desperately in love with.

Eva and Jesse have both been through hell in their personal lives since the incident that ruined their relationship.  Broken trust and shattered dreams aren’t something easily forgotten or easily regained.  But, having gone their separate ways they now find themselves once again back in each other’s lives.  Have they each earned a second chance at the happiness and love they let slip away all that time ago?

This was a heartwarming story that takes the readers through all of the emotions the characters are experiencing.  It went from the sadness Eva is feeling from the death of her husband; to the remorse Jesse has for breaking Eva’s heart.  But, also there were some great happy moments spent with Eva and her girlfriends and her family.  I enjoyed Eva’s journey and watching as she decided to grab the second chance at life she has been given by moving back to her hometown and with her family and friends.  I thought the last few pages with her and Jesse were really well done and ended the book on a great note.

Thank you, Jennifer, for an enjoyable read!

Three-and-a-Half Loves

About the author:

I have been writing for as long as I can remember – little snippets here, short stories there, awful teenage poetry, novels. Some people write out of enjoyment and some write out of necessity. I am a bit of both.

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