Customer Reviews

The Second Chance (Signet Eclipse)

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'The Second Chance' by Jaclyn Reding is the follow up book to 'The secret Gift'. You first meet Flora in her home town in Scotland. She agrees to spend the summer in Massachusetts setting up a Bed and Breakfast for a friend. She is a widow with three young children and finds herself falling in love again. There is some great sub-plots of attempted murder, witches, unmarked grave and a great romance. Check out some of this authors novels; The Secret Gift and Spellstruck coming out February, 2007.

Scotswoman Flora MacCallum is a widow raising her three small children by herself ever since her beloved Seamus died in an oil rig incident in the North Sea while working for expatriate American Libby Mackenzie. When a pregnant Libby asks her to do a favor that means being away from her children for a few weeks for the first time Flora wants to say no. However, her kids, her friends and family insist she travel to Ipswich-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts to open up Libby's new B&B as the hired hosts declined at the last minute.

In the small New England town, Flora meets renowned composer Gavin Matheson who stopped writing music since his ex-wife Miranda ran off with their now six-year old son Gabriel. As he has told his partner Alec Greyson he lost his inspiration Gabriel and no Claptonesque muse has come forth; that is until he meets Flora. As they fall in love, neither Flora nor Gavin are confused about their feelings and whether they want to take the next step in their relationship, but a perilous situation will force the duo to learn what is important in life.

The lead couple and much of the support cast make for a deep contemporary romance that has a late suspense spin. The story line is terrific when the tale concentrates on the SECOND CHANCE at love confusing Flora and Gavin, but he hears the music for the first time since his son was snatched from him. Though the Gabriel-Miranda subplot seems over the edge, fans of a wonderful contemporary romance with a tense climax will appreciate Jaclyn Reding's return to Ipswich-by-the-Sea (see THE SECRET GIFT).

Harriet Klausner

This novel was a first of Reding's novels for me to read. It won't be my last. Reding weaves a delightful and heartwarming tale in Flora MacCallum's SECOND CHANCE. The widow, Flora, is the kind of mother that all kids should be blessed with. But she's also a woman; as composer, Gavin Matheson soon finds out. And Reding's novel is laced with a bit of suspense as well. There was only one scene that gave me cause wonder as to how that came about. And if I told it, then I'd be giving some of the ending to Reding's plot away. And I wouldn't dream of doing that. Then too, it's just me I suppose, to wonder how that could have happened that way. Maybe I read too much. Regardless, Reding's novel, "The Second Chance" is a heartwarming and tender romance novel, laced with a tad of suspense, and well written with good characters. What more could a reader ask for? I recommend it.