Review: Second Chance Summer, by Jill Shalvis

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Cedar Ridge, Colorado, is famous for crisp mountain air, clear blue skies, and pine-scented breezes. And it's the last place Lily Danville wants to be. But she needs a job, and there's an opening at the hottest resort in her hometown. What has her concerned is the other hot property in Cedar Ridge: Aidan Kincaid-firefighter, rescue worker, and heartbreaker. She never could resist that devastating smile . . .

The Kincaid brothers are as rough and rugged as the Rocky Mountains they call home. Aidan has always done things his own way, by his own rules. And never has he regretted anything more than letting Lily walk out of his life ten years ago. If anyone has ever been in need of rescuing, she has. What she needs more than anything are long hikes, slow dances, and sizzling kisses. But that can only happen if he can get her to give Cedar Ridge-and this bad boy-a second chance . . .

Genre: contemporary romance

Publishing date: June 2015

Offensive content: a few sex scenes, not too graphic and a some hot kisses; other than that, just a few nasty cuts and bruises and one hair raising rescue off the face of Dead Man's Cliff. Enough said.

Review: 

I love Jill Shalvis' books and I have read almost all of them by now. This is a Jill Shalvis classic, a romance with a strong small town and family dynamics background. Although the setting is totally different, it reminds me of the Lucky Harbor series. And, actually, this is supposed to be book one in the Cedar Ridge series, and it's a promising beginning. 

I loved all the Kincaid brothers (I am particularly curious about Jacob, the missing brother, so I hope he shows up in one of the next books). Their constant bantering is heartwarming, as is the way the support each other through rough times. Oh, and the underwear game is hilarious (no spoilers here, you have to read it to find out). So, yes, I loved Aidan from the start. He's a brave fireman, is always on call for a search and rescue crew, always putting himself on the line to help others, and still finds the time to work in his family's resort. The fact that he's sexy and handsome is almost irrelevant in the face of his strong personality. Almost.

It took me a while longer to warm up to Lily, and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. Maybe because she seems to have a tendency to run from her problems instead of facing them head on and I'm not a huge fan of that. She did it ten years ago, after her sister's death, and she's doing it again now, coming back to Cedar Ridge just because she was fired from her previous job. It seems that if there wasn't for the fact that she needed a job, she would have never come back, and it irks me because everyone else seems intent in helping her in any way possible. If she has all this support now, she would have had it before too, so why she left the way she did was hard for me to understand. 

But the romance is sweet, the characters are well developed, each of them fighting its own issues and overcoming them for a happy ending overall. 

Why am i not giving it 5 stars then? For two main reasons. One, because the first part of the story was really slow for me. Too much information packed in too may pages, in my opinion (the kindle version is over 360 pages, so it's long). Oddly, only after Aidan and Lily slept together did the story start to resemble a true Jill Shalvis book. And two, because I never felt the connection Aidan and Lily had in the past. In the present, it's clear that they click together. But they were in love ten years ago too, or so the story goes, before Lily left and cut all her ties to Cedar Ridge. We know they kissed before, but then Lily was worried that her sister was also in love with Aidan and that they had something going on...  But for the connection between Lily and Aidan to have survived to ten years without so much as a word between them, it must have been pretty strong, and somehow it doesn't come through very clearly. Either that, or I failed to grasp it. 

It is still a solid 4 stars book and a great summer read. And I'll be waiting for the next books in the series, because the remaining Kincaid brothers (and sister) really tickled my curiosity. 

Enjoy your reading,