The Spring Of Second Chances

Twenty-seven-year-old Phoebe has spent the last year living under dark clouds. This spring she is determined to embrace blue skies and new beginnings. But will she have the strength to open her heart to love for a second time? Heartbroken after losing the man she was about to spend the rest of her life with in a tragic accident, Phoebe is finally ready to let herself heal and embrace a second chance at happiness. She’s landed her dream job in the toy shop she’s loved since she was a girl and when single dad Jack brings his five-year-old daughter along to story time, it seems the stars have aligned to bring them together. He’s funny, handsome and his devotion to his daughter shows Phoebe he has a heart of gold. But just when it seems she has everything she’s ever wanted, Phoebe discovers the shop is in deep financial trouble. She’ll need every bit of creativity and passion she has to save it. As spring blossoms to summer sunshine, Phoebe works to turn things around, while her feelings for Jack deepen. But after taking the big step of meeting his parents, Phoebe is left questioning everything. They make it clear Phoebe doesn’t measure up to Jack’s late wife and she can’t help but worry that he feels the same. Maybe this wasn’t meant to be her second chance after all. Can Phoebe save the place she loves and the future she’s been dreaming of? An absolutely heart-warming and uplifting story of second chances. Fans of Holly Martin, Sarah Morgan and Heidi Swain will be enchanted by this feel-good read. Previously published as four novellas and in the collection Mishaps in Millrise. Readers love The Spring of Second Chances: ‘Loved it… It's kind of like watching your most favourite chick flick and feeling all gooey!’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Fab book… Ideal holiday reading. Engaging characters and great fun. Will read more by this author without doubt.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘I loved it!... I was sad when it was finally over. I could have kept reading about Phoebe and her friends and family… Wonderful.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Amazing… Kept me gripped with great stories, humour and creative writing.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Great read, heart-warming, fun, tearful, it has it all. You really feel for the characters and feel like they're your friends.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last spring break, I broke his heart. I was never supposed to see him again, but there he is waiting for me. "Aris." My name on his lips is so perfect, I clench my body tight. "Luther." Even I can't pretend I haven't said it in a moan. We stared at each other, and even between the crowd of partying people, I could still hear the sizzle between our bodies. Like a magnet wanting to clutch itself to the other. A year is a long time and forgiveness doesn't seem to be on the menu. It looks like I am the one going to be served up as the main dish. "Be seeing you." With an evil wink, Luther brushes beside me and my heart can't seem to slow down. Because I know his words mean something awful, something cryptic, and worst of all swoon-worthy. It's a punishment I have been aching for since the last time we were together. Spring Break Second Chances is a dark second chance romance, short erotica with temptation on every page. 18+ Mature Language, Sexual Content, Violence.

"Readers won't want to leave the heartwarming stories of Honeymoon Harbor."—Publishers Weekly Welcome back to Honeymoon Harbor, where the majestic scenery of this small coastal town is second only to the legendary romances that have built the community... Pro quarterback Burke Mannion is at a crossroads in his career—nearing retirement age, he wonders if it’s time to hang up his cleats, or keep pushing on and head to training camp in a few short weeks. The decision is delayed by an upsetting phone call from his brother, and without blinking, Burke packs for Honeymoon Harbor and the home he hasn’t seen in years. The last person he expects to see when he arrives is the woman he had once thought might be the one—the same woman who had broken up with him by text as she left New York. Having heard Burke’s stories about Honeymoon Harbor, Lily Fletcher never really believed there was any place as idyllic as he’d made it sound. But as much as she’s tried to keep her past in the past by avoiding personal connections, deep down she secretly always hoped she’d see Burke again. As Lily and Burke fall back into their unresolved feelings for one another, she knows she has to come clean about who she really is as he struggles with the choice to go back to the celebrity life he knows or embrace the one he’s beginning to think could be the true path to happiness. Bonus Novella! Just One Look When Honeymoon Harbor holds a local bachelor auction at the annual Labor Day boat festival, Cam Montgomery needs to make sure his best friend, Megan Larson, wins him as a date. Cam’s grand gesture should go off without a hitch, but only if Megan is willing to take a chance, too… Honeymoon Harbor Book 1: Herons Landing Book 2: Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane Book 3: Summer on Mirror Lake Book 4: Second Chance Spring

A world of possibilities opens up for Joy Harkness when she sets out on a journey that's going to show her the importance of friendship, love, and what makes a house a home Coming-of-age can happen at any age. Joy Harkness had built a university career and a safe life in New York, protected and insulated from the intrusions and involvements of other people. When offered a position at Amherst College, she impulsively leaves the city, and along with generations of material belongings, she packs her equally heavy emotional baggage. A tumbledown Victorian house proves an unlikely choice for a woman whose family heirlooms have been boxed away for years. Nevertheless, this white elephant becomes the home that changes Joy forever. As the restoration begins to take shape, so does her outlook on life, and the choices she makes over paint chips, wallpaper samples, and floorboards are reflected in her connection to the co-workers who become friends and friendships that deepen. A brilliant, quirky, town fixture of a handyman guides the renovation of the house and sparks Joy's interest to encourage his personal and professional growth. Amid the half-wanted attention of the campus's single, middle-aged men, known as "the Coyotes,"and the legitimate dramas of her close-knit community, Joy learns that the key to the affection of family and friends is being worthy of it, and most important, that second chances are waiting to be discovered within us all.

I was engaged to my high school boyfriend, about to get married and live a life I no longer wanted. After breaking up with him, he insisted that I go on our planned honeymoon anyway... alone... and I wasn't about to say no. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd meet someone. I wasn't looking for love, but it sure seemed to be looking for me- in the shape of a six-foot tall, tanned, professional surfer named Diego. Our time together was filled with passion and unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my small town. I went to the North Shore one kind of woman... but I came back completely changed. Now what am I going to do about it?

“Alice Adams turns dreams and moments, the stuff of memories, inside out and makes of them beautiful, haunting, bittersweet tales.” --Publishers Weekly Second Chances, perhaps Alice Adams most accomplished novel, is a rich, moving, and beautifully drawn portrait of six women and men, friends for years, who suddenly, and with amazement, find themselves growing old. They live in a beautiful small California town called San Sebastian, and they see each other almost daily-- Dudley and Sam Venable; Edward Crane and his younger lover, Freddy Fuentes; the widowed Celeste Timberlake; the eccentric, secretive Polly Blake. With generosity and humor and remarkable insight, Adams takes us into rich emotional territory in a novel that evokes the ways in which people continually astonish themselves, at any age, with their capacity for wonder and change.

A charmingly quirky seaside town offers a recently separated restauranteur a fresh start and possibly a new lease on love in A Season for Second Chances, by the author of The Twelve Dates of Christmas. Annie Sharpe’s spark for life has fizzled out. Her kids are grown up, her restaurant is doing just fine on its own, and her twenty-six-year marriage has come to an unceremonious end. Untethered for the first time in her adult life, she finds a winter guardian position in a historic seaside home and decides to leave her city life behind for a brand-new beginning. When she arrives in Willow Bay, Annie is enamored by the charming house, the invigorating sea breeze, and the town’s rich seasonal traditions. Not to mention, her neighbors receive her with open arms—that is, all except the surly nephew of the homeowner, whose grand plans for the property are at odds with her residency. As Christmas approaches, tensions and tides rise in Willow Bay, and Annie’s future seems less and less certain. But with a little can-do spirit and holiday magic, the most difficult time of her life will become…a season for second chances.

This book examines the iconic presence of second chances in everyday life. David Newman explores its various iterations in popular culture, commercial marketplaces, religion, intimate relationships, education, criminal justice, and human bodies. He analyzes how this concept—as a cultural aspiration, driver of policy, and lived personal experience—has become part and parcel of our individual sense of self and our collective national identity. While the rhetoric of redemption is familiar and ubiquitous, Newman uncovers the costs and constraints of second chances, paying particular attention to the factors that affect judgments of deservedness. Informed by an array of data sources including personal interviews, mission statements of nonprofit recovery agencies, images in popular culture, stories from the news, plot summaries of novels, and scriptural texts, Newman frames the second chance experience as the quintessential cultural paradox: a concept that simultaneously represents the pinnacle of our shared hopes for renewal and our deepest suspicions about the intransigence of human nature.