When a romance gone wrong lands reporter Dakota Jones on the pages of the tabloids, her rising star crashes and burns. Instead of getting the weekend anchor job she’d been promised, she’s promptly shown the door.

Which leaves her one option: return home to lick her wounds, eat lemon meringue pie, and plot her comeback while actively avoiding the man who once broke her heart.

Dexter Roberts made a huge mistake when he walked away from Dakota, and he’s regretted it ever since.

So when Dakota returns to Holly Grove Island to regroup and decide what’s next, Dex can’t pass up the opportunity to win back the love of his life.

Now he just needs to convince Dakota to give him a second chance.

Titles in the Holly Grove Island series include – Second Chance on Cypress Lane —♥— Return to Hummingbird Way —♥—

This is an adult 18+ story that may contain language, possible violence, and/or sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

NetGalley ARC

Title:  Second Chance on Cypress Lane
Series:  Holly Grove Island #1
Author:  Reese Ryan
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  December 1, 2020
Publisher:  Forever
My Rating:  4.5

Second Chance on Cypress Lane begins the Holly Grove Island series with another chance to get love right for Dexter and Dakota along with a small coastal town community that will quickly draw you in and invites you to stay for a while.

Once upon a time, Dakota and Dex were a young couple in love with a future ahead of them right up until Dex left for college and broke Dakota’s heart with a break-up instead of a forever.  There were reasons (there always are), but ones that Dex couldn’t explain, and so they parted, still in love, to their separate futures.

Now, years later, Dakota has returned home after being fired and shamed after a romance blows up in her face, a very public, very married already scandal that stole not only the job promotion she expected but her confidence as well.  She’s not about to tell anyone the real reasons that she returned home – but she needs a restart and where better to figure out what to do next than with the man who loves her unconditionally – her father.  She just didn’t expect to run into Dex again – or for those feelings that never really died to flare up even hotter than she remembered.

Dex has a career he loves, one he excels at, and life should be good, but something is missing.  And when Dakota returns to their small hometown Dex is well aware of what that “something missing” is… the woman he never stopped loving, even if their break-up was for her own good.  (note to guys: stop making our decisions for our own good!)

I had such a good time with Second Chance on Cypress Lane for several reasons.  Dakota might be down on her luck right now, but she’s no pushover; she doesn’t need a man to make it all better, baby – this girl can and will rebuild on her own terms.  And that aspect of her personality I adored.  She knows when to be strong, and she also knows when to soften, and she’s learning how to regain the trust in the man she never stopped loving.  I adored Dex, yes, he had reasons, but they hurt him just as much as they did Dakota.  He’s a strong man without being overpowering; he knows how to wait, to play the long game when the goal is the woman he loves back in his life.

I love a quirky, gossipy, in-your-face small-town community – and that fits Holly Grove Island to a tee.  I want to know more about some secondary characters, hoping that they get books along the way – others I realize will probably always be the background characters that make a town functional and growing but I’m looking forward to hearing more banter from them as well.  In all, Second Chance on Cypress Lane hit all the boxes just right for me.  Now comes the wait until I can return with the next story in this series.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher, Forever via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story.  It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

**This review first appeared on my Keeper Bookshelf review blog, but since the next story in this series will be reviewed here at Happily Ever After Romance (in fact, it’s the review right after this one)… well, I thought they deserved to be together. 🙂

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