Title: Second Chance on Cypress Lane
(Holy Grove Island #1)
Author: Reese Ryan
Genre/Themes: Contemporary small town romance
Release Date: 1 Dec 2020
My rating: 3 Stars
Blurb
When a romance gone wrong lands reporter Dakota Jones in the pages of the tabloids, her rising star crashes and burns. Instead of getting the weekend anchor job she'd been promised, she's promptly shown the door. Which leaves her one option: return home to lick her wounds, eat lemon meringue pie, and plot her comeback while actively avoiding the man who once broke her heart.
Dexter Roberts made a huge mistake when he walked away from Dakota, and he's regretted it ever since. So when Dakota returns to Holly Grove Island to regroup and decide what's next, Dex can't pass up the opportunity to win back the love of his life. Now he just needs to convince Dakota to give him a second chance.
Review
This is a second chance small town romance, book 1 in a series. It's my first read by this author and although it was nice, I didn't end up loving. There is nothing majorly wrong or problematic with this story. It's just slow, with a lot of going back and forth of the MCs in their decisions about the relationship.
I kept coming across minor stuff that annoyed me and it all added up and made frustrated.
The MCs were wildly in love as teenagers but split up when they went to college (it was dramatic and people and she never quite got over it). Now 15 years later she is back in her small hometown and they inevitable meet again and rekindle their relationship, first as friends, gradually back to lovers and long-term partners.
I felt they acted too immature for people in their 30s, kept secrets and never talked openly and honestly until forced by outside circumstances to do it. Here is comes my issue with the main conflict and its reveal (she learned from someone else and confronted him). I hated how this played out, how quick she was to forgive him and the other party involved. It all could have been avoided if they had acted as adults from the start and talked things through.
As a side note, the hero describes the heroine as "having curves at all the right places" is not quite the compliment he thinks he is. There was also the moment with sharing someone else's medical information which didn't feel right to me. I understand the good intentions behind it but it's still a matter of respecting people's privacy and it was violated in my opinion.
As I said in the beginning it is all small things coming up here and there in the story but they added up making stealing some of the enjoyment I got from this story.
On top of it all the ending was just too neat and too perfect for my liking. Yes, I want the HFN/HEA romance promises but the ending where everyone forgives everyone else and they all love and respect and care for each other and have no more issues to fix is not working that great for me. I guess it fits with the overall dreamy, escapist tone of the story which could be great for other readers but was not right for me.
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