When twenty-six year old Kathleen Cooper realizes that she forfeited her dreams and aspirations of becoming a lawyer after a brash decision to run off and marry the insanely charming Aidan Cooper, she decides to regain what she lost over the course of their seven-year relationship and start fresh.With a renewed sense of hope and determination, she moves to a different city, lands a new job, and meets the handsome Benjamin Chase in a serendipitous way.But even with all of these changes and hopes of gaining a new life, Kathleen is still not happy with the person she sees in the mirror staring back at her. She is an insomniac. She generally has bad luck in just about everything she attempts. She’s clumsy, and even if Prince Charming fell into her lap, she would likely push him in the opposite direction, for fear of getting hurt or worse, hurting someone else. This time she can’t blame any of these things on her bad luck or her destructive marriage. This time, it’s not her heart that’s in danger. This time, she has much more to lose and everything to gain.Will she realize her mistakes in time to repair the damage? Will she be able to reverse her shattered self-image and discover true happiness? Will she ever find her way back to the person she was before seven years of bad luck?
BRANDEE’S REVIEW: This book is J.L. Mac’s debut novel.I want to starf off talking about the characters – I love that Kat had a BFF like Cheyenne and that they have both survived and stuck with each other through some rough times in their lives – everyone needs a BFF to lean on through the thick and thin. Kat’s journey to try to find herself again and a HEA was certainly not an easy road. It was interesting to see how she was choosing to overcome her past and try to get things back together again. Kat’s husband, Aidan of seven years – well I cannot say that he won me over, even though apparently he had quite the hold over Kat and she had an amazing weakness to his appearance. However, by the end of the book, he was able to redeem himself for me somewhat. Now, that leaves my favorite character of this book….Ben! Ladies, you may have a new book boyfriend……with his wavy brown hair, golden skin, blue-green eyes, with a tall and muscular frame….even though Ben was meant to come off obviously as arrogant and pretty much a jerk at first meeting….I had the feeling that was all a part of his game…..you will have to read the book to find out what won me over about Ben though…….there is definitely some major chemistry between Kat and Ben…..One thing is for sure, J.L. certainly can write one heck of a steamy scene JThe beginning of the book was a little slow for me as I kept waiting for something big to happen….but when Ben came into the picture it picked up on some steam for me (literally – LOL). The second half of the book has so many unexpected twists and turns that I did not necessarily see coming. I can’t say that I was not a little confused at times though as things happened very quickly and I feel some things were kind of left hanging a bit or feeling like I missed something ….which now after reading it seemed to be intentional as the ending definitely left it open for a second book to come.I originally thought this book was going to be more about Kat picking up the pieces of a failed marriage and her trying to put the pieces back together again, but like I said there were a lot of twist and turns that I did not see coming which definitely gave the book more action and put a different twist on the story. CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR RATINGSCLICK HERE TO SEE OUR BOOK DETAIL CHECKLIST
Author Bio:
J.L. Mac is twenty-six years old and currently resides in El Paso, Texas, where she enjoys living near her parents and siblings. She was born and raised in Galveston, Texas, until she married her husband in July of 2005. She has two young children and is married to a soldier in the United States Army. J.L. and her family have lived all over the United States and have enjoyed each new experience in each new place. J.L. admittedly has had a long and sordid love affair with the written word and has loved every minute of it. She drinks too many glasses of wine on occasion, and says way too many swear words to be considered “lady-like.” J.L. spends her free time reading, writing, and playing with her children.
