Thursday, January 29, 2015

The Beauty of a Second Chance / Lori Jones


Reviewed by: Sooz

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Lori Jones had a 16-year modeling career that allowed her to travel the world. She kept journals throughout the career and wrote her first book Growing up Beautiful, a fictional account of young models growing up in a foreign country.

Description:

Casey, Star and Joanne meet up after nearly a decade since the last time they have seen each other. Each woman is at a crossroads as they deal with huge challenges. Their friendship couldn’t come at a better time.

Appraisal:

The Beauty of a Second Chance takes place about 15 years after Lori Jones’s first book Growing up Beautiful takes place. It follows the lives of three women who modeled in Italy when they were 18, but now they are all grown up with bigger problems on hand.

When the story picks up in the present day, the woman haven’t seen each other since their time in Italy. When their paths cross in Malibu, they have a lot of catching up to do. They each have their own issues to overcome and the support they receive from each other helps. However, there isn’t much overlap between the three stories other than the women having brunch and calling each other. While each story was kind of interesting, I would have enjoyed if the stories intertwined more.

Unfortunately, while their individual stories were OK, I couldn’t find myself relating to any of them. In fact, I found the women to be selfish.

It was well written and flowed well, but it was not the right book for me. Those that enjoyed Lori Jones’ first book will probably enjoy catching up on the lives of Star, Joanne and Casey.

Even though, I didn’t enjoy the book, I am still giving it four stars. The book is well done, but made for a different audience. 

FYI:

Despite being a sequel, The Beauty of Second Chance reads as a standalone.

Format/Typo Issues:

No major issues.

Rating: ****Four Stars

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