Geri Reads's Reviews > Second Chance Summer

This book is exactly what I needed to get me out of my book funk!!

I've been cruising the 3-star and 2-star waves lately but this book with its humor, interesting family dynamics and small town setting was just what I needed.

Lilly Danville has been running away from Cedar Ridge starting from the day she lost her sister to a climbing accident and her father in a span of the week. But now she's back after losing her job, her boyfriend and her dignity. Aidan Kincaid had a few regrets in his life. One of them is letting Lilly walk away all those years ago. But now Lilly is back but she's still running from the ghost chasing her and it's up to Aidan to remind her of the reasons why she should stay in Cedar Ridge with him for good.

While the romance between Lilly and Aidan is definitely front and center in this book, there are a few elements added which made the story a lot more interesting to me. There's Aidan's complicated but loving relationship with his mother and siblings and their struggle with running the Cedar Ridge resort after their worthless father left them all in debt. The banter between the Kincaid siblings were hilarious. It's one of my favorite parts of the book.

Lilly's story was heart breaking. I'm usually allergic to heroines who run away from their problems but here, I could totally understand and sympathize with Lilly. Her guilt was misplaced but understandable.

Another thing I liked about this book was the competence its characters. Aidan works helps out at the family resort. He also works for Search & Rescue and a volunteer firefighter. Lilly works as a cosmetologist. And we actually see them WORK! We see Aidan and Lilly working at becoming together while dealing with dealing with work schedules and stuff. I just found that refreshing and realistic because most of the time, in romance books, once the main characters meet, they suddenly act like they don't have jobs. Here, their careers are things they have to master to make their relationship work. And I loved that!

Overall, another excellent start to a series for Jill Shalvis. I know Aidan's brothers are getting their own book, so I'm definitely looking forward to those.

ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.