Second Chance Brides by Vickie McDonough

Second Chance Brides by Vickie McDonough

Published:2010

Publisher:Barbour Books

Series: Texas Boardinghouse Brides(book 2)

Goodreads Summery: Fans of The Anonymous Bride, will feel for Shannon O’Neil and Leah Bennett who are stranded in Lookout, Texas, without husbands or future plans. Thankfully, the marshal has ordered the rascally Corbett brothers to pay for the women’s lodging at the boardinghouse, but will the brothers’ idea of hosting Saturday socials really bring these women the kind of loves they long for? Will Shannon choose to marry just for security? Will Leah reject love when the challenges mount?

This book starts up at Luke and Rachel’s wedding. The book is told through the eyes of Leah and Shannon the left over mail order brides. Luke has told his cousin’s that they have to pay room and board for the ladies until they either find a job or get married. In an attempt to speed the process up the brothers organize a Saturday night social so all the bachelors can meet the ladies and hopefully marry them.

The thing Mark did not expect was to start to fall for Shannon. Will he over come his past pain to find love? Leah finds herself drawn to the livery owner. But will her promise to never have kids keep her from finding true love?

I will be honest I tend to hold my breath a little when it comes to the middle book of a series. I have found from past experience that it tends to be the one I end up liking the least. I was hoping it would not be the case for this book but in the end it was. It was a good book and I enjoyed seeing Leah and Shannon find there match. But for me I was more interested in Jack, Rachel’s daughter. She is still young but the author is laying the ground work for the 3rd book which will be her story and I found myself caring more about her then the two main characters in this book.

Since we are reading about both Leah and Shannon I felt the character of Leah was not developed as much as Shannon. We did get to hear from Mark but we did not get to hear from Leah’s love interest Dan which for me made it harder to get into that part of the story. I honestly would rather have seen this series in 4 books with Leah and Shannon each having a more developed story.

Shannon was my favorite of the two ladies. She starts out so timid and by the end of the book she is starting to see her self worth and her character really starts to shine. Mark finally comes out of his brothers shadow and starts to live the life he wants. I enjoyed watching these two fall in love!

I was disappointed with Leah. I felt her character could have been expanded more but with two story’s in this book hers got a little less attention. I also would have loved to gotten to know Dan better. I so wanted to know what he was thinking at times! Also the climax of this story held so much promise but again it was hurried a long and felt kind of flat. I really think it could have been its own book! I did enjoy these two just wished they would have been given a little more page time.

Over all it was a good book. I love series like this where the characters  intertwine through out the series. I love stepping into a new book and already knowing some of the charters as well as the setting. I highly recommend reading the first book before this one so you know the back story.

Book Rating

Steamy Rating

DISCLOSURE: I was provided a free copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley to review it. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own.