Saturday, July 4, 2015

review || SECOND CHANCE SUMMER

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Second Chance Summer by Jill Shalvis

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (6/30/2015)
Series: Cedar Ridge, book 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: Publisher/NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | bn || add to goodreads

Rating: ★1/2


Cedar Ridge, Colorado, is famous for crisp mountain air, clear blue skies, and pine-scented breezes. And it's the last place Lily Danville wants to be. But she needs a job, and there's an opening at the hottest resort in her hometown. What has her concerned is the other hot property in Cedar Ridge: Aidan Kincaid-firefighter, rescue worker, and heartbreaker. She never could resist that devastating smile . . .

The Kincaid brothers are as rough and rugged as the Rocky Mountains they call home. Aidan has always done things his own way, by his own rules. And never has he regretted anything more than letting Lily walk out of his life ten years ago. If anyone has ever been in need of rescuing, she has. What she needs more than anything are long hikes, slow dances, and sizzling kisses. But that can only happen if he can get her to give Cedar Ridge-and this bad boy-a second chance . . .


{ review } .
I love Jill Shalvis.

I love her small towns, I love her leading males, I love her sassy ladies, and I love that her characters and stories have little pieces of her all over them.

Cookie addiction? Check.

Sassy mama bears and their cubs? Double check.

Seriously, if you haven't peeked at Jill's personal blog, I highly recommend you do. 

Jill is introducing us to a new little town -- Cedar Ridge. When we were introduced to Lucky Harbor, we followed the Tara-Maddie-Chloe clan of sisters, and the series just grew from there. One can only hope that after we go through this Kincaid family, there will be even more Cedar Ridge in our futures.

First in the series, we have Aidan and Lily. 

Lily left town 10 years ago, leaving behind ghosts and memories. Now, when a celebrity leak (that her boss made her do) blows up, Lily loses her job at a prestigious San Diego salon. Needing a job, she ends up home in the interim, working at her friend's salon. What Jonathan fails to tell her, though, is that the salon was in the very resort that Aidan owned. 

Aidan feels like he's the last to know that Lily's coming home. His brothers know, the town people know... Apparently it's all over Facebook, even. If anyone should know she's home, though, he thinks he should. When he runs into her at the gas station (and she's hoarding all of the junk food), she tries to get away without him noticing her -- to no avail, but of course.

I absolutely, positively loved the friendship between Aidan and Mitch. These two were a tit for tat kind of duo, constantly making fun of one another and doing the whole one-upmanship thing. Just loved them (so much that I hope Mitch gets his own story someday).

I positively, absolutely loved the sibling-ship of the Kincaids. I loved that Gray and Aidan were super close, but that they were just as close with their half-siblings. The banter between the brothers (and sister) was extremely fun.

Gray took the radio from [Lily's] numb fingers. "No can do, man," he said into the radio. "She's not going anywhere, and neither are me and Hud."

"You're all sitting ducks out there," Aidan said. "Take her home or I'll--"

Gray turned the radio off.

Lily gaped at him.

"He needed a moment to collect himself," Gray said.

I loved that their mom, who could have turned her back on the children her ex fathered while married to her, welcomed them with open arms, giving them a place to sleep and a place to know where love was. They lick food to claim it and punk one another -- female panties may be involved. Hudson's a good egg; Kenna has her problems and I imagine her being the Chloe Thompson of the clan. Then there's the ever elusive Jacob who left town, joined the Army, and no one's seen hide nor tail of since.

          I really can't wait to read his story. 

But I digress.

Lily has demons. She has shadows and dark places, and she left home for a reason. It takes learning that everyone else moved on from the very accident that kept her away, for her to start growing. She'll need to learn to let things go and forgive herself.

In the growth process, Lily and Aidan have their past history to get through. Aidan felt that Lily left him in the dust, and has missed her every day since. Lily, though, has misconceptions of the man and felt that he found her to be lacking. Definite miscommunication in the teenage versions of Aidan and Lily. Even as adults, there are miscommunications but let me tell you -- when Aidan apologizes? He apologizes big and he does it well.

Something that I really appreciate about this series is that one of the brothers is already married off -- Gray and Penny have been married for a decent chunk of time. Now, would I love to read a little bit about these two? Absolutely. But they met in middle school and were married young. But I think the addition of Penny in the family unit just helps make everything feel... Natural. Penny's a fun character, that is for sure.

"You can stay," Aidan told [Kenna] and looked at Gray. "But not you."

Gray scowled. "Why not me?"

"You're eating my food."

Kenna snorted. "That's because he texted Penny asking her what was for dinner and she texted back that his dinner was in the cookbook, any page, and that the ingredients were all at the store."

See? I like her. I like her spunk and sass -- and I think that every single Kincaid boy needs a woman like her in his life. And Lily? She fits the bill. 

I have to say... after re-reading this so-called review of mine, I feel that I'm all over the place. HOWEVER!! I've found in my past "all-over-the-place" reviews that they typically are attached to books that I have so many feels for, that I just can't manage to put them down appropriately... So...


Jill. You did it again.

And I can't wait to read every single book in this series.

1 comment:

  1. I thought that this was good stuff too. I have so many series going that I have to pick and choose which ones to commit myself too. I am all in for this one. I glad that you loved it as much as I did!
    First time visitor and new BL follower.

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