Wish this was better
2 Stars
Aptly titled, “Second Chance Romance” follows high school and college sweethearts Kip Turner and Mandy Green, who after 11 years still carry a torch for each other. With both of them now 30 years old, with Kip a successful professional hockey player who plays for the NHL while Mandy is a school teacher and single mom, they reconnect through Facebook and find themselves searching for their happily-ever-after.
Great premise for a beautiful love story. Unfortunately, the telling was flat and the characters remained two-dimensional until the end. And though this book is classified erotica, and I would rate this M for mature audience only because of sex and language use, classifying this erotica is using the term loosely.
Erotica as a genre already has a lot of detractors. And of course, those who read erotica already knows that it can go either way, one extreme is that it is outright porn, while the other end of the spectrum is that erotica is a beautiful story wherein sex scenes are part of the telling and it will not be complete without it. Case in point, “In the Realm of the Senses”, a 1976 Franco-Japanese romantic drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima, is perhaps one of the best examples of the erotica genre.
“Second Chance Romance” has all the elements of the latter side of the spectrum of the genre. An exciting hero who is not just good looking but very athletic; a painfully shy heroine who blossomed as she gained more confidence as the love story proceeds. Unfortunately, the book fell short on everything about storytelling.
And that is the reason why I am really disappointed that the story and the characters remained flat. There really was no climax to speak of; the struggles were minimal and though we know that Kip and Mandy deserve their HEA, the telling of how they got there left a lot to be desired.
So, why the two star rating instead of one? Just like the lesson of the book, everyone deserves a second chance. And I hope that the author takes this as a constructive criticism and that she continues to write as she improves on her craft.
