Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Second Chance Season, by Liora Blake {ends 12/19}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Cara idly starts to chew on one of her thumbnails as she peruses the menu, and a glint of something sparkly around her eyes captures my attention. I take a better look, to be sure I’m seeing what I think I am.

That Cara is wearing make-up.

Look, I’m not a Mary Kay rep – but my mom was. I endured one too many weekend afternoons as a kid watching her slap a million things of junk on women’s faces at our kitchen table. So I can’t ignore how the goldish-bronzy shadow on Cara’s eyelids is more than what she wears on a routine day and the way it catches the light in this not-fancy barbeque restaurant where she’s about to eat dinner from a Styrofoam container using a plastic fork.

Second Chance Season is the second book in the Grand Valley Novel trilogy by Liora Blake. I haven’t read the first one, but this stood alone very well. Each book in the trilogy is about a different couple, but they all connect in the small town of Hotchkiss, Colorado.

Official synopsis:

Garrett Strickland is unapologetically country, fiercely loyal, and perfectly happy with his job at the Hotchkiss Co-op. Garrett is all about living in the present and not dwelling in the past—even if he was once on his way to a lofty agricultural sciences degree that would guarantee the brightest of futures, only to end up back home when his old man died, leaving behind a debt-ridden family farm that was impossible to keep afloat. After that, it was easy to see why dreaming big wasn’t worth the heartache. And until he crosses paths with a city girl who’s hell-bent on kick-starting her own future, he’s sure that good enough is just that.

Cara Cavanaugh is ready for more from life, even if that means changing everything; including dumping her boyfriend of ten years, turning down a lucrative job at a major newspaper, and leaving behind the upscale suburbs of Chicago where she grew up. Now, she just has to pray that temporarily relocating to the middle of nowhere in Colorado will be the first step in building a career as a freelance journalist—all she has to do is prove she’s got what it takes to make a name for herself. Unfortunately, her tony country day school is as close to “country” as she’s ever been. But when a goodhearted guy who looks like he just stumbled out of a country music video offers to help, she ends up falling hard…and discovering that the perfect story is a love story. And it’s theirs.

While there are three books in the Grand Valley Novel trilogy, I only know of the first one from reading its Amazon review. It’s about another couple in the area where Garrett Strickland lives. They’re friends, but the other couple are certainly not major characters in this second book. I really enjoy series like these, where you just feel like you’re getting to know the whole community. Characters are my favorite part of many books, and having several books enjoying different groups of connected characters is fun.

Cara and Garrett are as different as two people could be, but sometimes the heart doesn’t stop to consider this. She’s in town for a freelance writing job, and he’s just the guy to show her around his much-loved community. They agree that they’ll just hang out and, well, whatever for as long as she’s in town. But parting as they had planned wouldn’t make for a very happy ending.

Second Chance Season was a fun read. It was a little smuttier than I’m used to (not super graphic, just not like my usual pop-fiction reads), and I may have blushed a few times while reading it in public, usually waiting for my kids to finish one of their activities. I’m looking forward to catching the other books in the trilogy and learning more about the characters in Hotchkiss.

4 stars out of 5.

Grand Valley Novel trilogy:
1. First Step Forward
2. Second Chance Season
3. Ready for Wild

Becki Bayley liked zombies and sloths before they were cool. She’s been blogging around SE Michigan at SweetlyBSquared.com for more than 15 years.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Second Chance Season!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Tuesday, December 19th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Second Chance Season, by Liora Blake