When it comes to reading or writing, I have a serious weakness for second chances. They come in a million different packages and start from a place of very deep feelings—regret, betrayal, heartbreak. There’s a lot at stake from the moment the characters are back in each other’s midst, and I love that instant crackle of tension. Will they risk it all and let this person back into their life? So much internal struggle! So much resisting and longing! I’m in from page one. Here are just a few of my favorites:
Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren
I just finished reading this book and I’m still thinking about it! The characters, in particular, are that good. Hazel and Josh had a few unfortunate run-ins in college that left Josh seeing Hazel as a hurricane disguised as a girl, and Hazel seeing Josh as Mr. Perfect, a guy she would never have a real chance with. Fast-forward ten years and Josh is dealing with the aftermath of a cheating girlfriend and Hazel is still Hazel—a free spirit with a heart of gold who does not apologize for the way she is. I loved the contrast of the characters’ personalities, and the slow burn of the romance was deliciously satisfying. I loved the way Hazel struggled with the fallout of her personality while remaining true to herself. And Josh is my favorite kind of hero—buttoned-up by day and a take-charge guy by night.
Commanding Her SEAL/Redeeming Her SEAL by Kat Cantrell
This is a duo from Kat Cantrell’s Assignment: Caribbean Nights series. The first book is a prequel novella full of unabashed passion. But Charlie has so much personal baggage he feels like he has no choice but to let Audra go. She doesn’t quite see things the same way, and that’s where Book 2 starts. Kat writes super strong characters who do not back down from life or each other. These two have to fight for their HEA, but the redemption is deeply satisfying. And hot. So hot.
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This book has a second chance love triangle and it’s a doozy—Emma must choose between Jesse, the husband she thought was dead, and Sam, the fiancé who helped her put her life back together. Told through alternating present-day and flashback scenes, we piece together the old life Emma had with her husband and the new life she’s building with Sam, an old friend she shares a botched-up history with. This book left me so conflicted. I wanted her to have a life with both men. I loved the way Emma’s affection for and connection to both men was so different. No spoilers, but after spending the last half of the book worried there was no way to reach an HEA, I was very happy with the ending.
Before We Were Strangers by Renee Carlino
Matt and Grace had a magical year at NYU, going from neighbors to so much more, before things quickly unraveled. Fifteen years later, Matt sees Grace for a fleeting second from his subway car and is plunged back into the raw emotion of the young love they shared and the questions he has struggled with since. In a moment of quiet desperation, he leaves a Craigslist missed-connection ad, hoping against hope that he can at least get some closure. More than a little part of him is hoping for far more. Sexy, real, and redemptive, Before We Were Strangers perfectly captures what it’s like the first time you fall in love in a way that leaves you flipping pages faster than you ever thought you could.
The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz
This is a time travel second-chance that will break your heart and put it back together again in trademark Tiffany Reisz style. Faye is almost a shell of a person after the death of her husband and a failed second marriage to his best friend. A photographer, she accepts an assignment to shoot the South Carolina coast, and becomes fascinated by the Bride Island lighthouse and the legend surrounding The Lady of the Light, the keepers’ daughter who drowned nearly 100 years ago. While wading in the treacherous waters near the lighthouse, Faye’s wedding ring slips into the water and a wave carries her off…that’s when the epic love story begins. The dynamic between Faye and keeper Carrick is both contentious and fun, spirited and tense. They take turns playing the moth and the flame in a story ripe with profound longing.
*****
Excerpt—phone conversation with Eamon after Amy’s engagement party
Katherine and Irish musician Eamon had a super-steamy relationship 11 years ago. Now he’s back in her life, but out on the road, leaving them to talk on the phone every day. This is the night of Katherine’s sister Amy’s engagement party, an event Katherine has been dreading.
“How did the party go?” Eamon asked. “You don’t sound drunk, so it must’ve been at least tolerable.”
“It was okay. Everyone was really nice, but I definitely did not feel comfortable. Their whole family is like pod people. They’re all so happy and normal.”
“Why does that make them pod people?”
“I don’t know. Because that’s nothing at all like my family? And there’s no family dirt, which I find a little impossible to believe.”
“You went digging for dirt at your sister’s engagement party?”
“Hey. You’re the one who told me not to drink too much. I had to entertain myself somehow.”
He unleashed the laugh I find most disarming. In my head, I could see his off-kilter smile. “There’s always dirt somewhere. Trust me.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
It got quiet on the other end of the line and I wondered what he was thinking about or whether he was maybe tired. I would’ve given anything for him to be waiting for me at home right now, rather than thousands of miles away. I couldn’t escape the loneliness of that fact.
“Katherine, can I ask you something?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“What exactly is it about that situation that makes you so deeply uncomfortable? Your sister getting married. I know it’s not just that you feel like you’re losing her. There’s something more to it, isn’t there?”
It felt like my heart was doing a bad impression of an old clock, ticking away at an unreliable pace. There was so much about this for me to unpack, probably because I’d devoted so much of my life to keeping it hidden. “My parents didn’t have a great marriage and they did a lot of things to hurt each other. It’s hard as a kid to witness that. It definitely sours your opinion of the institution.”
“I suppose.”
“Am I being unreasonable?”
“No. You’re not. I just think that’s not the only way to look at it. Some people might go through that and decide that they can do better. Maybe that’s the way your sister feels.”
Was he right? Had Amy taken things one way while I’d run with it in the opposite direction? She’d definitely seemed comfortable at the party, acclimated to the idea that marriage was this normal thing normal people did, and that she was a member of that group. Maybe I needed to accept that just because I saw her one way, and I saw myself the same way, perhaps I’d been completely wrong. After all, she had been younger than me. She’d witnessed less than I had. And of course, she hadn’t been the catalyst for the ultimate bad. She hadn’t set the demise of her own family in motion. Amy didn’t have to live with that.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I need to stop looking at it like that.” I knew then that I needed to get my attitude straight. Amy deserved better than a maid of honor who was being a complete pain in the ass.
“I could be wrong.”
“Nope. It’s a great suggestion. You make me a better person, you know. You always have.”
“Do you really think that?”
I thought back to the way I’d been with him the first time, so full of sunny optimism, not at all the way I was right now, but I could admit it was a place I wanted to get back to. “I do, Eamon. I really do.”
*****
Book blurb:
As sisters, they tell each other all their secrets…except one.
With divorce and infidelity hanging from nearly every branch of her family tree, Katherine Fuller sees no point in marriage. Boyfriends? Sure. Sex? Of course. Wedding vows? No, thanks. Still, when her younger sister Amy gets engaged, Katherine gathers all the enthusiasm she can. She won’t let Amy down. She’s done enough of that for a lifetime.
As the sisters embark on wedding plans, Katherine’s college love resurfaces. It nearly killed Katherine to part from sexy Irish musician Eamon more than a decade ago, but falling under his spell a second time forces her to confront everything she hid from him. The secrets surrounding her mother’s death are still fresh and raw in her mind, but one has haunted her more than the others. She can’t bear to tell anyone, especially not Amy. It could ruin far more than a wedding. It could destroy a sister’s love forever.
*****
About Karen Booth:
Karen Booth is a midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ‘80s music and repeated readings of Forever by Judy Blume. An early preoccupation with rock ‘n’ roll led her to spend her 20s working her way from intern to executive in the music industry. When her kids came along, she traded late nights for early mornings, writing contemporary romance and women’s fiction. Karen was a finalist for RT Magazine’s Series Romance of the Year and Gold Seal of Excellence, and the 2018 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award. Her books have been translated into seventeen languages.
Connect with Karen: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest
*****
GIVEAWAY!
Win a signed print set of Karen Booth’s three Romantic Women’s Fiction novels: Secrets of a (Somewhat) Sunny Girl, Bring Me Back and Back Forever, or 1 of 2 e-copies of Bring Me Back!
About Bring Me Back: Nearly forty, Claire Abby had thought life would be a whole lot smoother by now. Single parenting her college-bound daughter is trying, her journalism career is fading, her sister’s a handful, her dad is worse, and her mom has been gone so long it’s hard to remember what it was like when she was here.
So it’s both a lucky break and a jaw-dropping distraction when Claire lands an interview with British rock star Christopher Penman. Claire spent her teenage years fantasizing he was her boyfriend. In person, Chris is everything Claire feared—off-the-charts sexy, ridiculously charming, and utterly nerve-wracking. He’s not about to discuss the rumors he’s dodged for a decade. She must earn his trust and unearth the truth, but she never banked on the heartbreaking secret behind it.
His blockbuster story is her first priority when she returns home, a nearly impossible task when Christopher starts calling. And flirting. There’s no denying his wit or his buttery British accent, and once she agrees to see him, it’s beyond anything her teenage brain ever imagined. But when Christopher’s painful past repeats itself, can Claire smooth out her life and save the man she could never forget?