Monday, May 4, 2015

#REVIEW - "Second Chance Friends" by Jennifer Scott PLUS Guest Post! NEW Release today, May 5th!


Description:
The national bestselling author of The Accidental Book Club shares a novel of four ordinary women rediscovering themselves and their futures at the most unexpected time….


Karen Freeman, Melinda Crocker, and Joanna Chambers have never met—but every morning they get their coffee at the Tea Rose Diner. Karen stops in on her way to the office job she’s held for more than twenty years, wondering how her sweet-faced boy turned into a misguided young man. EMT Melinda fuels up for her days helping others, after nights spent worrying her fear of having children could drive her husband away. And Joanna, with her long blonde hair and bohemian flair, digs into the Boston cream pie and hides—from her friends, from her family, and most importantly, from herself.

Their paths may have never crossed. But one morning, on the lawn of the Tea Rose, the three women collide during a searing event in the life of twenty-something Maddie Routh. In the nine months that follow, they return to the spot over and over. To discover what it means to be a mother, a wife, a lover, a friend. To find Maddie Routh, and to find themselves. 

Despite the challenges they’ve faced, these four women unite to show us second chances do exist, if only we have the courage to see them.

GUEST POST by Author, Jennifer Scott


In Love and Friendship, Opposites Attract
By Jennifer Scott, author of SECOND CHANCE FRIENDS (NAL; On sale May 5, 2015)


There are so many clichés about friends and friendships.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
“Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.”
“With friends like that, who needs enemies?”
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
“Opposites attract.”
Okay, so technically the last one may be more meant for romantic relationships, but I’ve found it to be true in friend relationships as well.
As a card-carrying introvert, I can be hard to get to know. My friends have to be willing to accept that there are times I won’t talk about my troubles, that Friday nights are the alone time I’ve been looking forward to all week, and that sometimes we have to make two or three runs at lunch date plans before I’ll finally find the courage to stop canceling.
All of my best friends are extroverts. They love to lunch and shop and—egads!—organize GNOs! They push me to join them, sometimes gently (“Let me know when you have an evening available for dinner. . .”) and sometimes with a shove (“I’m not leaving you alone until you say yes and are in your car heading toward my house.”). These are the people and the things I need. Were it left up to me, I would seldom leave the house. Were I friends with an army of introverts—people just like me—I would never organize a party. Were it not for the energy and pressure from my extrovert friends—my complete personality opposites—I wouldn’t confide anything in anyone. I would be missing out on some of the deepest, most meaningful connections in my life.
In many ways, the four friends who come together in SECOND CHANCE FRIENDS are opposites. Or at least not likely friendship candidates. Karen, whose child has grown, finds connection with Melinda who has yet to have any children. Joanna is hiding from everyone and everything, yet won’t let Maddie Routh hide.
But maybe they aren’t quite as opposite as they appear.
Some of the very nightmares that keep Melinda from plunging, eyes-closed and fingers crossed, into motherhood, are the difficulties that Karen is going through with her own son right at this very moment. Joanna hides because the one she loves is unavailable to her; Maddie hides for the exact same reason. These women, while at first blush seeming opposite, are, in fact, so very similar. And maybe that’s why they get each other.
Throughout the novel, these four friends use their, at times, opposing strengths, to push and pull one another along into a better place. They help each other grow just as my friends do for me.

Because really, that’s what friendships are for, I think. Pushing us and pulling us to a better place—places of love, places of comfort, places of hilarity, places of growth, places of connection. It’s when we begin to notice the similarities that are buried beneath our differences that real relationships are born.

MY TAKE:
5+++ STARS!!!
On Friday, the last day before the Labor Day weekend, the traffic is crazy, other people are looking forward to an extra day off from everything, and the kids on a certain school bus are acting up horribly, throwing books and pencils out of the windows and more. Of course the school bus driver is upset, trying to control the kids and drive at the same time through the busy city streets that she doesn’t see a red light until it’s too late. She slams on the brakes, but the unthinkable happens. The bus ends up hitting another car, then the bus tips over and pins that car down. There are two people stuck inside that car.
In the meantime, three women who visit the Tea Rose Diner every morning but are not yet close friends will soon find out this accident will draw them very close together. They all happen to be inside the diner across the street and all three saw the accident happen. They went running out to the accident scene to try to help. This is how they start to become friends. They do help get the children out of the bus and to help the people who are trapped in the car. Unfortunately, it looks like one person trapped in the car may not make it. This is how the three, then a fourth woman who are all strangers end up becoming very close friends as time goes on.
All four of these women are very different and very opposite from one another. This happens to play out very well as they bond and become closer together over time, getting to know each other better and better, learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses as they go along. All of them are still drawn back to the diner every day like they were, but now they know each other and are fast becoming friends. They even find themselves drawn back to the exact scene of the accident, and even find Maddie, the other woman who was stuck in the car there, too. She needs the most help of all. All of their personalities truly compliment one another, and one will step in where one is stronger, and vice-versa. It’s as if they already know who is better for different situations, especially as they try to help pregnant Maddie who happens to be going through hell. We have Joanna, who doesn’t really know for sure what she wants out of life, Karen, whose son is fully grown, but you would never know it by the severe trouble he gets himself into, and then there is Melinda who is a paramedic and whose husband wants to start a family, but she’s not ready yet and secretly continues to take the pill. They even form a close friendship with Maddie now, or as much as she will allow them in the beginning. It really is beautiful to watch how their friendship blossom over time, and how strong their bond becomes. While doing so, they learn much more about their own lives, too, and find it easier to go after what they truly want, or to change the things they are able to change for the better.
I absolutely LOVED this book! It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten lost in such an excellent book like this one! I could tune out any noise in the background and just get lost in this book. Pages would fly by, too, this author writes so well! Jennifer Scott has truly written a compulsive and addictive story you will not put down. You will keep reading, you will burn that midnight oil losing sleep, or you’ll even keep going until your eyes are so blurry you just can’t read one more word. This book will be the first thing you pick up the next morning, too, even before your first cup of coffee! You ‘have’ to keep reading this one because the writing just flows so well that you have to know what happens next. Get ready to be late for appointments and/or sneak reading in here and there and more because you will not put this book down until you have finished it, I promise you that! The more this author, Jennifer Scott writes, she is going to be “the one” to go to for Women’s Fiction. I can’t wait for more from her! I received this book for FREE from the publisher, the New American Library, in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Release Date - May 5th, 2015


ebook: $ 9.99
print: $11.30

2 comments:

  1. Wow, five stars! and I love the cover will have to look for this one. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes! I LOVED this book! It was so well written, and it read nice and smooth like butter! There was just something special about the way this author writes! I was hooked immediately!
      I just noticed I should have mentioned the book was written in alternating chapters among the friends. We had to wait to find out what happened with one friend when that chapter ended, and then pick up where the last friend's chapter had stopped. That made the book even more interesting.
      I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
      Thanks for stopping by!
      Laurie

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