Review: An Appealing Hero In a Rushed Yet Satisfying Storyline
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 21, 2013
Beautiful Chances joins the growing list of books in the New Adult genre and shows a lot of promise for a young author.  Feelings of grief, survivor's guilt, and loneliness are what fuels the beginning of this story as Lily is the sole survivor of a tragic car accident.  Not wanting to feel such painful emotions ever again has her closing herself off and trying to leave her past behind by heading to Florida.  These early scenes reveal the pain she's going through vividly and brought a tear to my eye.  These flashbacks are nicely woven into the narrative to perfectly convey what Lily's going through and make her flight understandable.  She just wants to be alone where there's no pesky feelings weighing on her anymore.  Unfortunately you can't run from the past and only by addressing it can you deal with it, which is what the rest of the story is about.....acceptance and being able to move on.By closing herself off she appears standoffish when arriving in Florida but outsiders slowly work their way into her life as she started to awaken from her self-imposed hermitage.  The first person to have an effect on her is her friend Luke, who's a friend but wants to be more and ultimately gets hurt because of his feelings.  The most important person in her new life though is Kyle who I found immensely appealing but who seemed too good to be true at times.  He's an old-fashioned kind of hero who wants nothing more than for Lily to be happy.  He wants to claim her the moment he sees her and quickly works his way into her life completely.  There's surprisingly little angst in their romance as Kyle devotes himself to her happiness and she doesn't want to deal with negativity which leads to a relationship that felt a bit bland to me.  They acted almost too mature for their ages by never letting issues get between them.  Their sexual relationship started quickly too and was definitely steamy but it seemed uneven in its give and take, likely due to her naveté in this area.  The speed by which their relationship commenced might have contributed to my overall feelings as things seemed to go from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye.On a whole though I enjoyed this story and its characters.  It's ultimately sweet, sexy, and shows the ability to overcome the past after feelings of grief and sadness early on.  There was a sense of foreboding throughout Lily's time in Florida that was lightly touched on that I wish had been expanded upon however.  Lily went through a lot but was able to recover which made her an admirable heroine, though I never warmed to her completely.  And even though I found Kyle's commanding nature to be too much at times I still found him immensely appealing and myself dreaming of him long after the final page was turned.  He's a well-crafted hero!  Readers who don't like cliffhangers will be a bit frustrated by the ending of this book but I for one am looking forward to the next book in this series and seeing Ms. Rae's talent grow.