Review: One of my new favorite second chance love stories
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 30, 2013
"This place is like a drug. It's the last thing you need, the thing you want out of your life but try as you might, you can't fight it. It keeps pulling you back in until you're broken, shattered and dependent.""One year and Reese still haunts me. His voice is still an echo in my mind. I still feel his touch whenever goose-pimples snake across my skin, because the feelings are one and the same."I love a good second chance love story, especially when the characters are so obviously still in love with each other. Kia and Reese are meant to be. Their chemistry was intense, their feelings for the other obviously still very real and powerful. Friends since they were young, Kia and Reese shared one magical summer together. Then Kia ran away, afraid of her feelings for Reese and afraid of getting stuck in her small hometown. Now she's back for another summer and Reese is determined to get her back. She learns a lot about love and life, and deeply-buried family secrets come out and change her entire perspective on love. And Reese."It still beats for you, Kia," he whispers back. "Every day, every beat, it's all for you.""You drive me crazy in every way possible, girl. You're it. And you know it. You're all there is for me. You're my forever."This book is one of the rare situations where I actually like the male lead more than the female. I think it's because Reese isn't your typical male. I love that he was so up front with Kia when she returned. He wasn't afraid to put himself out there and tell her what he wanted. He was sweet and swoony and honest. The perfect Southern gentleman. I want one. I wanted to scream at her to just take him back. I understand she didn't want to get "stuck," but it frustrated me that she just ran away from him after their summer together. She didn't discuss it with him or give him a chance to tell her he would follow her anywhere."Because, really, all love is, is throwing caution to the wind and holding onto the beautiful feelings that blow back."Kia's strained relationship with her mother played a huge part in her feelings about love. Her greatest fear is getting stuck in her small Alabama hometown because of love and then having that love leave her broken. She refuses to follow in her mother's footsteps. Truthfully, I shouldn't even call this person a mother. She's never there for Kia, so thankfully she has a fantastic "replacement mother," Patty. I absolutely loved Patty and Eric. They were there for both Kia and Reese to offer a shoulder and advice and, sometimes, a swift kick in the butt when needed. They were truly wonderful characters."You can't ever be friends with the person your heart cries out for, and you definitely can't be friends with the person whose heart cries out for you, too. That ain't the way it works," Eric comments absently.Second Chance Summer is one of the best second chance love stories I've ever read. It was realistic. Believable. Kia and Reese were so obviously right for each other, so obviously still pining for each other, that I couldn't help but get wrapped up in their story and cheer them on. Their dialogue was perfection. There were so many swoony boy quotes in this book that it made me feel all the feels. It was a quick and easy, sweet and charming, sexy read. Second Chance Summer was a perfect escape with a bit of a cliffhanger that will leave me pining for the next book in this series.I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All quotes come from the review copy and may differ from the final version.