Review: Too Rushed.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 8, 2014
Author: Sophie MonroeGenre: Romance/EroticaTitle: Second Chance RomanceCharacters: There was no character development at all. I don’t even know how long the time frame was in this book…about three months?Noah:  The teenage boy who gave his heart to the girl one house down. The man who grew up not being able to give his heart to anyone else because it still belonged to Jules. “I’d lose everything I have if it meant that I could have a second chance with Jules.”Jules: The teenage girl who gave her heart to a boy who she thought let her down. She went through fire and came out steel but she is still a broken hearted teenage girl underneath. “I didn’t get this far in life riding coat tails like you. You think you can blur me out, but I’ll refuse to fade. You can’t take me on a ride you can’t afford to pay for.”Ellie: Jule’s best friend and protector. “She had gone from Southern Belle to Ghetto in all of five seconds.”Jackson: Noah’s best friend. He brings a quirky comedic character to the book. “Why do people say grow a pair of balls? Balls are weak and sensitive. They should say grow a vagina, those things can take a pounding.” –Betty WhiteWriting: This book was written in many different viewpoints. The two main characters, Jules and Noah, were in the spotlight most of the time but you get snippet viewpoints from their best friends and Noah’s fiancé/ex-fiancé and Jule’s ex-boyfriend.Background: The 'Don't Go Away' lyrics by Buckcherry pretty much sum up this book better than the synopsis does: “When I close my eyes your voice is all I hear. I will think of you tonight. I will hold back my tears. I’ve waiting all these years. Please don’t go away. You’re making a mistake. You and I were meant to be. You opened my eyes and made me realize, now it’s changing everything. It’s hard to say. I wanna make you see what you mean to me. Don’t go away.”I can’t give too much of a background than the synopsis for fear of giving the entire book away. It was so rushed and short that I can’t really expound on anything other than this is the story of two teenagers who feel in love, who were forced apart and then reunited 10 years later to go through multiple trials before they end up together.“Please don’t make me fall for you if you don’t plan on catching me.” […] “I’ll always catch you baby, always.”“You can’t leave when I’m still holding on.”Cliffhanger? HEA? This is a standalone book, no cliffhanger with a happily ever after.Evaluation: Hmm. Well. Um. Yea… This book could have been better. I find myself struggling with how I want to evaluate this book. On one hand, the author came up with a storyline that had great potential but it was too rushed. Way too rushed.There was literally one sentence devoted to the ‘potential rape of an 11 year old girl by her stepfather’ – don’t include that in the story if you aren’t going to expound on it or use it in any way with something else.The father of his ex-fiancé, Noah’s boss, takes Noah’s side more than once during this book. At one point calling his daughter a ‘bitch’ and going along with a humiliation plan for their ‘wedding’.Jules is going for her MBA, at one point there is a disciplinary hearing, which spurs some drama in the book but I don’t actually remember if that hearing was ever attended or terminated.These are just a few examples of why I was disappointed in this book. It had so much potential.Quotes:“We’re all ok, until the day we’re not.”“Sometimes the fall kills you and sometimes when you fall, you fly.”“Marriage is more than joining the bonds of two people. It’s the uniting of two souls already attuned to each other.”“What makes life worth living is knowing that one day you’ll wake up and find the person that makes you happier than anything in the whole world. So don’t ever lose hope and give up, everything turns out okay and the good guy always wins. I’m a firm believer in second chances, and if we’re going to go through life not giving anyone a second chance, what kind of life are we going to have?”