SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND - Monica Murphy
One Week Girlfriend Quartet
Bantam Trade PB
ISBN: 978-0-8041-7679-8
November 2013
New Adult Romance

Second chances are enticing, but while what happened during the first chance may be forgiven, can it be forgotten? Fable Maguire thinks she has moved on since two months previously when Drew Callahan gave her a letter professing his love and then never contacted her. Twenty-year-old Fable's family life sucks. Her mother seems oblivious to Fable and her younger brother Owen, so Fable works to pay the rent and feed herself and Owen while mom is with her current loser boyfriend. Then a very handsome man, Colin, enters the bar where she works and hires her to work at his new restaurant. While he attracts her (he would any red-blooded female), Fable isn't over Drew yet.

By chance Drew joins his college football team to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of one of the members. He doesn't like social gatherings much, especially since he caused the team to lose their last important game, but surprise! Fable is one of the waitresses. When one of his teammates disparages her, he goes after him and has to be pulled off by his other teammates. His past actions with his stepmother haunt him, and despite seeing a therapist, he doesn't feel he is good enough for Fable. She seems willing to give him a second chance. Can he live up to both his and her expectations? How can she trust him when he has always run-away from his problems?

SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND is an engaging read filled with angst, sexy scenes, family problems, and taking chances on the one person you believe meant only for you. It is a very emotional read. In each chapter both Fable and Drew tell their first-person viewpoints, so readers have an immediate insight into their character and issues. Both are troubled, both have doubts, but their obvious physical attractiveness and overall moral compasses, despite some quite human quirks, create appealing characters. Their parents, on the other hand, are far less likeable, and certainly part of the pair's woes. Readers first encountered Drew and Fable in ONE WEEK GIRLFRIEND, released in August of 2013. The third volume, Colin and Jen's story, both of whom play important parts in SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND, appears in THREE BROKEN PROMISES that comes out in December. DREW & FABLE FOREVER will be released in January 2014, followed by Owen's story, FOUR YEARS LATER, in February. While I have not read the first volume, understanding and getting into SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND was very easy. Readers have much to look forward to.

Robin Lee