{BLOG TOUR} SECOND RATE CHANCES by HOLLY STEPHENS

Welcome to The Bookish Babe's stop on the Second Rate Chances Blog Tour! The tour is being hosted by Good Choice Reading Promotions. You can find the tour schcdule here. My stop includes a review and the tour giveaway.


Genre: Contemporary Adult Romance
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: 1/11/13

Sam wakes up in the hospital expecting to find his girlfriend by his bedside. Instead, he finds a bleached-blond diva, claiming to be his fiancée, hovering over him. When he learns that he's just woken up from a coma and has lost the last three years of his life, any semblance of stability he thought he had falls down around him. All he wants – all he needs – is Lil.

After countless visits with her shrink and too many sleepless nights waiting for the one man she loves to walk back through the door, Lil wants nothing more than to separate herself from the life she used to have. But the moment Sam smiles at her, Lil knows it's going to take more than self-restraint to stay away.

Second-Rate Chances is about a young man fighting to regain his memory, and the one thing in his life that felt real. A modern-day Samson and Delilah, it's a look at what it means to love and be loved, and to fight though it seems hopeless.

Aww, you guys, I adored Second Rate Chances. Now I'll admit, I'm a sucker for amnesia  and reconnected love stories, so I was an easy sell. But the prologue, it was so gorgeous and it made me want to figure out how Sam and Lil went from overwhelming joy and love, to nothing. And more importantly, would they find their way back together again?

I really liked how the author approached the story, giving you Sam and Lil happy in the prologue, then beginning chapter one with them having been broken up for three years. But we're not told why they broke up, only that it was devastating. So then, when Sam is injured and wakes up not having remembered the past three years, he thinks he and Lil are still together. He doesn't recognize his fiance, his job, his apartment. He only wants Lil. This brings the two together for the first time since they broke up, and Lil, though she's devastated vows to help Sam until he regains his memories. And best of all, we get to relive the breakdown of the relationship with Sam and Lil.

Second Rate Chances was surprisingly low on angst. That actually made me happy. There's not a lot of dealing with the fiance throughout the story, and that's awesome because she's awful. The story is mostly about Sam's journey to figure out how his life got so off-track, how he became someone he didn't know, or like. It was so sweet and emotional to read about a man who is so in love, willing to learn what he did wrong, and do whatever it takes to make things right and be with the woman he loves.

Second Rate Chances is an intriguing tale of lost identity, endearing characters, and beautiful love story.


 Favorite Quote:

  "Lil?" Sam asked, bringing her out of her lusty daydreams. Afraid she had drool running out of her mouth, Lil licked her lips. When Sam smirked, Lil realized her mistake. It looked like she was salivating over him and his hot body. She was, but she and Sam were on a need-to-know basis and he didn't need to know what she thought about doing to his body so early in the morning. ~eARC, 26%


  "I'm so sorry, Lil," he whispered. "I hate this. I hate not knowing the past three years. I hate not knowing what I've done to us. But most of all, I hate not knowing you aren't mine anymore."  ~eARC,54%

Purchase Second Rate Chances at:

Amazon  *  Barnes & Noble

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author:
People have often told me that I live in a fantasy world. Little did they know, I was building an empire of stories in my head to one day share.

I'm a mother first, a wife second, and a writer third. I'm so thankful to have been given this chance to get my stories out of my head and onto paper.

When I'm not writing, I sell plumbing (no I'm not kidding) and read romances that leave my heart a flutter. I know a ridiculous amount of pop culture information and can quote certain movies word for word. Music drives me to write and to also sing off key.

Connect with Holly at:
Blog / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads