That Second Chance by Meghan Quinn Review

That Second Chance by Meghan Quinn

(First read, then listened) Narrated by William LeRoy and Reese Covington

Romantic Comedy. First in a series of related standalones.

As always, my reading got so far ahead of my reviews, that by the time I sat down to review That Second Chance by Meghan Quinn, I realized it just wasn’t fresh enough in my mind to do a good review. So I grabbed the audiobook for $1.99 and listened to the audiobook to refresh my memory, and liked it even more on audio!

Celebrating a birthday in NOLA the four drunken Knightly brothers end up on the wrong end of a curse from an angry fortune teller.

“From this day on, your love will be broken. It isn’t until your minds have matured that the weight of this curse will forever be cured.”

When heartbreaking tragedy occurs just days later, Griffin blames himself and the curse. In fact, the whole town of women stays far, far away from the handsome brothers so they aren’t the next victims of the curse. Two years later Griffin occupies his time running his family’s tourist store in the picturesque town of Port Snow, Maine, as well as being a volunteer firefighter and head of almost every town committee.

Ren Winters almost died a year ago in a car crash in LA. She survived and is ready to start a new life away from her helicopter parents, as the algebra teacher in Port Snow when a Moose decided to run her off the road. Luckily, the oldest Knightly brother is on duty and rescues the hysterical Ren from her smashed car.

“Should I thank him for his services? Ask him out? See if he wants to be my Tarzanlike nurse?”

Ren can’t believe her luck. She is renting a house a few doors down from the handsome Griffin and he becomes her first friend, introducing her to the town of Port Snow. They develop a close friendship, but Griffin won’t put another woman in danger of “the curse” so he stays away romantically.

The Knightly family has captured my heart and I can’t wait to read about them all. It was one thing I really loved about the story, the closeness of the siblings.

“Griffin, I hate seeing you so alone, it hurts my heart.”
Taking a deep breath, I plaster on a fake smile. “I’m not alone, I have you fools.”

Poor Griffin. He is so tortured over the curse that he can’t relax and enjoy falling in love.

“My heart hammers so goddamn rapidly that it almost feels like I’m about to have a heart attack as I close the last few inches. All I want is to treat myself this one time, to see what it’s like to indulge in the woman who captured me the moment she appeared in my life. All I’m asking for is this one moment, this one instance, when I can forget about the past, forget about the curse, and live the life I wish I could have.”

This was a very slow build-up but it totally worked for the story. My biggest issue is that there was a bit of a twist that ruined the story a little for me and just seemed very convenient and manufactured. Still, as always, I love Meghan’s writing and can’t wait for the next in the series.

“I think it’s time you put your past behind you and start living in the present, because if you don’t, you very well might miss out on something incredibly special.”

Likes:

The crossover from Two Wedding Crashers (I loved that book!)
It’s nice when the hero isn’t a playboy.
I love the town of Port Snow! We used to go up to a town like that in Maine every summer and eat lobsters on the rocks by the ocean.
The relationship between the siblings (actually the whole family) was real and fun with banter, love and snark.
Great pacing, I loved the slow burn.
Good tease for the next book without it being too much.
Sweet and light humor that wasn’t overdone.

Dislikes:

This is so hard to talk about without spoilers, but the twist in the story is so manufactured it kind of ruined it for me in a few ways. Though it still could have happened, I would have liked that much more if it were an epilogue.
I just didn’t feel the Meghan Quinn magic. It was a light romance, but not an LOL romance.

The Narration:

William LeRoy did an amazing job doing all the brothers – especially in texts between all of them. How incredibly hard to read that through in 4 voices without any hesitation! With fresh new voices, the narration made me enjoy it even more the second time through.

The Down & Dirty:

Meghan Quinn is one of my top 5 authors so I get excited for every one of her books, especially the romcoms. While I enjoyed That Second Chance, it wasn’t my favorite of her books. I felt like it was missing a little of her teenage-boy humor that I love. I really liked it both times I read and listened, but there is a twist that took away from the story for me and would have worked better for me if it happened after the story, in the epilogue. Still, I love the town of Port Snow and all the Knightly family and I can’t wait for That Forever Girl in August.