Customer Reviews

No Second Chance

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NO SECOND CHANCE is a clever mystery with a likable heroine and an interesting setting. Hope Farrier runs Second Chance Farm, a refuge for abused and mistreated horses. Unfortunately, the farm's hanging by a thread financially.

Enter wealthy playboy Devlin Temple. Is he the knight in shining armor who will rescue Hope's farm from financial ruin? Or is he a self-centered opportunist out to rob her of her life's work? Hope isn't quite sure, but she discovers she enjoys Devlin's attentions.

When unlikely accidents keep occurring at the farm, Hope is forced to consider that someone wants control of her farm badly enough to kill her.

This is a wonderful romantic suspense novel for animal lovers!

No Second Chance

I seldom read romantic suspense, but I'm so glad I came across Maggie Toussaint's No Second Chance because the plot really held my interest and the quality of her writing is a pleasure to read. I say this as a not-easily-impressed book editor.
The two main characters are most convincing in their behavior and motivation, especially Hope's mistrust of the persuasive Devlin. Moreover I didn't know who the villain was until the end. In fact, I'd pegged the wrong character. Well done!

STORY BRIEF:
Hope's parents died in a car accident. Five years later she received an inheritance which she used to buy a horse farm. She creates a refuge for abused and mistreated horses called Second Chance Farm, a non-profit charity. She's not a good business manager and is not good at getting donations for the farm. Lillian is a wealthy woman dying of cancer. Lillian leaves a large amount of corporate stock to Hope with certain restrictions. One of those is for Hope to let Lillian's son Devlin (Dev) manage the business side of the horse farm.

Lillian was CEO of TES corporation until her illness. Now both Dev and his cousin Ray want the job. Someone has been stealing money from TES. Dev hires a private investigator to find the thief.

Someone has been causing problems for Hope, letting the horses loose at night, damaging property, calling state inspectors, etc.

Dev is a handsome wealthy bachelor. Women chase after him. Hope is a curvaceous redhead who was hurt by her former boyfriend. She feels insecure about having sex. She gets claustrophobia in elevators. She feels like she's from the wrong side of the tracks when compared to Dev.

The book is short, about 2/3 the length of an average romance novel.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The thief parts of the story are not developed at all. The thief does about a dozen bad things, but we don't see any details showing the thief's stealth and cleverness or the thief's thoughts and actions. For example, the thief figures out how to embezzle money, but we don't see it. Was he using stolen laptops or going into the office at odd hours, how did he get passwords, what lies did he tell others while doing this? All we are told is that he "figured out how to steal the money." We don't know how many times or how much.

The plot and motives concerning the thief were ok, but my problem was the lack of details and development. Events are "told" and not "shown." I would have loved seeing the conversation and details about how the thief found and hired a guy to attack Hope - totally omitted.

Another problem is that after each attack, Hope and others don't do anything logical to investigate or solve them. For example Hope receives a phone call asking her to visit Lillian. She drove there, was inside for maybe 30 minutes, and then returned to her truck to drive home. The thief had to have been following Hope, waited, and then walked up to the truck to unhook the trailer - all this without being seen. No one asked Lillian's employees or neighbors if they saw anyone or a car waiting nearby. Also the thief had to have had a car parked near the farm for long periods of time to be able to stalk and wait for opportunities to do things to Hope. But no one questions neighbors or looks for places a car could be hidden nearby. Repeated bad things are happening on the farm, but some of that might be avoided if Hope got a dog that would bark when a stranger approached. The result of all this is too much of a helpless victim feel with no action to respond. The theme seems to be "what awful thing am I going to suffer next?"

I wanted to know more about Lillian's thoughts and motives concerning Hope and Dev. I would have liked seeing some events or conversation before Lillian decided to give so much to Hope. Also why did Lillian keep asking Dev to date Myra? It felt thrown in and never answered.

Regarding the relationship between Hope and Dev, the conflicts felt contrived and unsatisfying. I'm willing to go along with most types of conflict, but the following bothered me. It didn't feel right because Dev's actions implied one of the most common insults men do to women, but he didn't clarify it. What did he do? After he slept with her for the first time, he didn't call her again for a few weeks. He had a strange reason, but he didn't tell her. So as a reader I was insulted on her behalf with the feeling of "once they sleep with you they no longer want you." Then, later to solve the conflict Dev just changes his mind, and they are together again.

Later Dev says something mean to Hope which I had a hard time believing, but it caused Hope to leave him. The problem is solved when Dev later goes to her and says he wants her back. Better conflicts might be based on interesting personality differences or vulnerabilities. I'm not sure how to describe what would improve this.


CAUTION SPOILER concerning motive (I DON'T give away the thief's identity):
Lillian makes a gift of stock to Hope. The thief's primary motive is to hurt Dev. But once Hope gets the stock, the thief wants Hope to give away the stock and stay away from Dev, apparently. So why did the thief do bad things to Hope BEFORE she got the stock and had interaction with Dev? That bothered me. It wasn't clear. It felt like the author was trying to confuse the reader with actions not supported by motive. It wasn't well thought out.

DATA:
Story length: 192 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: 1, three pages long. Setting: current day Baltimore, Maryland area. Copyright: 2007. Genre: romantic suspense.

Toussaint crafts a heart-pounding romantic suspense with "No Second Chance." Devlin Temple has it all - a successful career, money, and prestige. He's Baltimore's hottest bachelor, but when he meets Hope Farrier, a determined redhead who runs a horse farm, his life takes an unexpected turn down a path he least expected. Will Hope tame his heart, or prove he's heartless to the bone?

The plot is tight, slowing down in just the right places to allow the reader a breath before picking up again. Devlin is a solid guy, driven by a desire to do what's right by his family. The family business is TES, and they make horse supplements. Unfortunately, Devlin's mother, Lillian, is dying of cancer. Lillian admires Hope. She arranges for Hope to control a substantial amount of shares in TES, along with Hope's promise that she'll help Devlin secure the company's CEO spot. Hope agrees. When she meets Devlin, the chemistry between them is undeniable.

Hope is a likable heroine. She's down to Earth, has a hard work ethic, and is loyal to the ones she loves. Devlin is a little more complicated. His motivation is his family and his family is the business. The sparks that fly between Devlin and Hope confuse both of them. Devlin is not used to having deep feelings, and Hope wonders if Devlin's attraction to her is genuine or is it motivated by her owning a piece of his company. I especially liked how Toussaint gave the dog, Napoleon, a nice sense of intuition. Devlin's allergies help to make the hard-driving CEO a little more human. The supporting cast compliments Devlin and Hope well.

Toussaint paints a wonderful picture of her setting with a good economy of words which allows the reader to easily visualize Hope and Devlin's world. The suspense is also well done with the point of view narration switching to `the thief.' This gives the reader insight into `the thief,' his motivations, and it builds the suspense, as `the thief' endangers Hope time and again. Hope's strength shines through during these times, both emotional and physical.

The love scenes are sensual and tasteful, and not overly graphic. They communicate the deep feelings that Hope and Devlin are developing. Toussaint has an easy style which makes "No Second Chance" an engaging read that's hard to put down. "No Second Chance" is a romantic suspense that leaves the reader on the edge of their seat.

I read this book in three days. Once I started, I just could not put it down. It is a wonderful read for any one who enjoys romantic suspense or is simply a horse lover. The heroine is so very likable, the horses are sweet as pie and the hero... what can I say? Yum.

I highly recommend it!

"Suspense...steamy romance...a surprising twist...No Second Chance has it all. Maggie Toussaint writes a heart-warming tale that will keep you riveted and rooting for her heroine -- right to the very last page."--Karna Small Bodman, thriller author of Gambit (posted by Maggie Toussaint)

What can I say? I am an animal lover and mystery novel lover so this was right up my alley! I truly enjooyed it.