Review: A nice change from the formulaic love stories I'm used to
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2014
One phone call is all it takes for successful businessman Sullivan Chasen's life to flip upside down.  When he learns the father he thought was dead for the last decade is, in fact, alive, everything changes.  A rushed DNA test confirms that the man he thought was his father isn't, and if he wants to meet the man who actually is, he's got to get to a small town in North Carolina before his newly discovered dad passes away.  Add in a half-brother he never knew existed, and he's got more questions than he knows what to do with.Jess is a waitress at the diner, a job she's had forever in a place she never wants to leave.  Her own secret baggage prevents her from having any real interest in a relationship, but when a billionnaire businessman with troubles of his own shows up, the romance she never expected finally gets a chance to blossom.But...The story is about a lot more than two people working through their issues and falling in love, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it might be an unwelcome surprise for someone looking for a more traditional romance book.  On the upside, it added a lot of character to the town, and it gave interesting insight into secondary characters who would normally be little more than two-dimensional.  At the same time, though, it took the focus off the primary pairing, and sometimes I just wanted to skim pages so I could get back to them.The biggest issue I had was the editing, for which I'm not sure who to blame.  Normally, I'd say it's not the fault of the author, as her only job is to tell a great story, while the editor should be responsible for making it read as flawlessly as possible.  But I couldn't find mention of an editor in any of the story notes.  Either way, someone should have added in missing words and corrected lots of misused punctuation.The Verdict...A Chance at Love is quite different from a lot of books I've read, and though I spent half of it dying to know what would happen next for Jess and Sullivan, I did appreciate the more developed look at the rest of the community.  It gave the overall story more depth and avoided a lot of the quick and predictable drama traps that most stories fall into.  However, when it ended, I was still left with a lot of questions.  Like why did Sullivan wait so long to visit his dying dad once he knew about him and was staying nearby?  And what happened to the conversation he wanted to have with his mother?  A Chance at Love is the first in a series, so perhaps those questions will be answered later on -- though the subsequent book looks like it will be focused on completely different characters.  In any case, it was a nice change from the formulaic love stories I'm used to, and if you're looking for something less run-of-the-mill in the way of romance, get in on the beginning of the series now.  With so much detail in the first book, the next ones are bound to be interesting.***I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.