Review: heartwarming second chance novella
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 25, 2014
This is the 3rd in the Billionaire Bachelor series and this series just kept getting better as it went along. Each Bachelor and the respective female lead had their own unique personalities, which I really liked. I certainly didn't want to read the same type of character in different situations but I resonated the most with this book in the series.As with the first two novellas, we are on Sanctuary Island for Miles and Greta's wedding, however this novella picks up Cooper's story at the wedding itself, whereas the first two novellas were set in the weeks previous. The lead female, Vivian, only arrives on the scene the night before the wedding and we find out that Viv and Cooper share a painful past, a love affair that was cut short, and Cooper holds some pretty intense feelings for the way that Viv ended things. He is bitter and is determined that he will get over Viv once and for all if he makes her feel the same way he felt all those years ago when she left without a word.Cooper thinks that Viv has been enjoying the high life all those years without him, but unbeknownst to Cooper, nothing could be further from the truth. Viv hides some pretty heartbreaking secrets and feels a great deal of remorse for the way their relationship ended.I really connected with these characters and I didn't feel rushed in this novella but could have easily read a longer novel about them. I like reading about second chances and I enjoyed the dialogue between all the characters. I thought that Lantern Lake had a better balance between giving us the details of the story, and what could be left out due to the confines of keeping to the length of a novella. I connected with and felt the emotional pain from both characters, and was easily able to slip in to their story. I really like a romance book with a bit of angst, tender loving moments, sexy love scenes, a dialogue that is fun, serious and relateable, and strong characters that have faced adversity and come through it all to stand tall on their own, but can recognise and fight for love when they find "the one". While this novella is not in the erotic category it had plenty of steam and and I felt satisfied that I hadn't missed too much that would detract from the story.The only thing I would have liked at the end of this novella was to have a small epilogue that tidied up "the bet" and to see where these characters were some time after the wedding.Overall, I liked this whole series and will be going back to read the Billionaire Brothers series as well as looking up Lily Everett's full length novels.