Cassandra Dean

Lady Nicola Fitzgibbons has traveled all across the world at her diplomatic father’s side. No matter where she goes or what she does, she always causes scandal.
Thomas Cartwright lives in London and wants nothing more than to become a respectable barrister and make his adopted parents proud. He and Nicola are childhood friends. He cares deeply for her, but her scandalous actions have made the London papers, even though she’s in another country. For the sake of his future and career in politics, he broke ties with Nicola through a letter. When she finally returns to London, she turns his quiet world upside down and everything he’s ever wanted is on the verge of ruination.
I really like Thomas. He’s an honorable, respectable man who wants to do good things with his life. I couldn’t connect with Nicola. She’s immature, irresponsible, and a flirt with no care as to whose life she affects. I felt sorry for her, but she brought her problems on herself.
The novella starts with and ends with a series of letters between the H/h to show at first their friendship and then their romantic relationship as the years pass. Though the letters were interesting, I would’ve preferred a prologue and epilogue to have shown the same things.
Overall, it’s a good story with an interesting plot, but the heroine was too flamboyant for my tastes.
3 Stars
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Because of the fairly simple premise, and the long length, the book meanders a bit and felt kinda slow at times. There weren't any terrible bits that desperately need to be cut, but there were definitely several parts that were just 'fine', or scenes that lingered longer than they needed, and the book would be much tighter and more continually engaging without those 'filler' parts. I quite like sort of 'cold' heroes, and watching them melt, and this hero was cold and did melt to some degree, but I'm not sure I fully bought his reasons for being cold in the first place. Often their backstory is absolutely tragic and there are strong reasons they are the way they are, but his were just kinda 'meh'. It didn't feel like he was quite overcoming as much when he made progress away from them. But I didn't dislike him, and there were still sweet moments when you could tell he was learning to care. The heroine was pretty resilient which I like. And this also fits well with the 'sunshine and grump' trope which is a fun one. The steam felt a little slow to get going, for the premise and how much of it there was, but that might go along with the book just generally being drawn out a bit longer than needed, that I mentioned before. I could follow the descriptions though, and there was a nice variety to the acts and scenes. And a nice verbal quality that is often lacking in steam. Overall it wasn't quite as good as I wanted it to be, but I was entertained. This is my first book by this author and I will try others.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.… (more)

So, I have been really digging anthologies lately! I love getting short stories I can dive into and finish in one sitting and I love getting a peek into authors I might not have heard of or read before. In this case, those authors I have never read before were ALL of them except Liliana Hart and Tara Wyatt. Yep, I have never read J. Kenner or Christina Lauren. So, here is a perfect way for me to get a taste of LOTS of great new-to-me romance authors! Yay!

All the stories have 1 thing in common: second chances! So, if this trope is your JAM you will love this. There are historical stories, teenage drama stories, romantic suspense stories, PNR, and contemporary stories so whatever genre you prefer, you can find a second chance story that works for you!

Obviously, I am not going to give you my thoughts on all the stories, because no one has that kind of time. So, here are my top picks with a nugget of why I enjoyed them:

• Fortune's Treasure by Liliana Hart: Bad break up and history!!


• One Hot Mess by Tina Ferraro: high school love and hijinks!


• Scandalous by Cassandra Dean: ruined reputations and a rogue who is sorry!

And I was thrilled to get a glimpse into the worlds of Christina Lauren and J. Kenner! Having never read them before, I enjoyed getting a peek at their style and characters!

Second Chances has literally something for everyone and its short stories are perfect for quick reads while you wait at the doctors office (I read one while waiting for my ENT), on the subway, at your kids games, etc!



Any of these authors, or other second chance stories like Wrecked by Cynthia Eden, Its Me Again, Baby by Katie Reus ...then you will probably like Second Chances!

 


Second Chances


 

See full review on The Book Disciple… (more)