Review: Cute spin on a second chance at love.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2013
3.5 stars.You can read this and other reviews at [...]SECOND CHANCE CHRISTMAS is your typical second chance at love romance novella set during, you guessed it, the Christmas season. Emma is a successful junior partner at a prominent D.C. law firm. She’s worked extremely hard to get to where she is. Especially in the last two years–since her split with Colton, an extremely sexy, yet temperamental Army officer. He’d long ago had his ring on her finger. She thought he’d be her forever, until the night everything changed. After a huge blow-up, Emma leaves her engagement ring behind and attempts to move on with her life. Only, no man seems to measure up to Colton. Sure, Emma goes out on dates here and there, but they just don’t get her blood pumping the way he did. I can see it. He’s kind of broody – a tough exterior with a heart that melts for her. Plus, let’s face it, who doesn’t love a man in uniform?It’s a week or so before Christmas when she receives a call from the hospital, interrupting a date, informing her that Colton has been in some kind of bar fight and needs to be picked up. Kinda weird, right? You haven’t seen or heard from the man in around two and a half years and no magically, out of the blue, you’re being called to pick him up from the hospital. Odd. As it turns out, he has her listed as his emergency contact in his phone. Do people really do that? Choose and then label people as their emergency contact? If so, I need to get on that. When Emma reaches the hospital, she finds Colton with a plethora of injuries, some from the bar incident, some from his time spent in Afghanistan. I’d imagine that it’s all a little hard to take; seeing the person you love (even though you’re despirate to let him go) in pain from wounds he sustained fighting for your freedom. To walk away from that, you’d have to have no heart."I regretted the two years of strife that hung between us. Maybe now that he was back in my life, it would give us a chance to build a new friendship. The simple fact that I picked him up at the hospital showed that I still cared for him."Enough blabbering, let me get to the point…Emma takes Colton in because he has no place to go and a possible concussion. The more time the two spend together, the closer they become. Emma is determined to keep her distance. She doesn’t want to relive the pain she felt the last time she lost Colton. Understandable, but this isn’t a second chance romance for nothin’…“Emma, I want you back in my life.”“In what way?” I asked in a guarded tone.“Any way I can get you.”“I don’t know, You seem different, but have things really changed?”“I think so. Near death experiences tend to change a person.”This is a simple, fast read. There aren’t very many twists and turns. Colton does, however, have some difficulty dealing with the things he’s seen and experienced while overseas. I wish the author had confronted those issues a little more. I, myself, have a very good friend who suffers from PTSD. Colton doesn’t believe he does, but even so, it’s always nice when people take the time to educate others on the ways that war can affect our military members. It’s a very serious problem and only recently has it gotten the attention it deserves."War did that to a man. You went to the godforsaken deserts of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan one way and came home battle worn- an altered person. For the lucky, the changes remained physical. For the not-so-lucky, the alterations affected the mind."There was only one thing that really irked me about this novella. Every time the two characters got a little hot and heavy, we, as readers, get the door slammed in our faces. Don’t expect much writing about bedroom action in this read, ‘cause you won’t get it. It’s rather tame, even if there is mention of the kama sutra.There are moments in this short read that will make you smile, as well as a few that may bring a tear to your eye. It’s never easy to read about a young man losing his life, especially when he leaves behind a wife and a few little ones. But these are the realities of war. This is what military families all over our country deal with on a daily basis. Couple that fact with the Christmas theme and it easily pulls on your heart strings. So, this Christmas, as you sit and celebrate with your families, please remember the brave souls who are at this very moment are fighting for you and the ones you love. And if you feel so inclined, pick up SECOND CHANCE CHRISTMAS, sit on the couch, sip some tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, and enjoy Colton and Emma’s second chance at love.