Reviewer: Tracy Catching Summer by L.P. Dover
Series: Second Chances #6
Publication Date: April 5th 2016
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Falling for someone can be dangerous, especially when someone wants to take them away from you. But what happens when fighting for the one you love could cost them their life?
For over two years, Summer Jacobs has tried to get her life back on track. A former nurse and now a prestigious restaurant owner, she’s living the dream just like her husband wanted. After watching him get killed in the MMA ring and almost losing her life herself, it left a scar on her soul. The thought of moving on scares her, but the local NFL star, Evan Townsend, is determined to catch her heart.
Forced to work with him and the football team, Summer succumbs to his relentless attempts at capturing her heart. He has the power to heal her, but there’s someone out there who wants to keep them apart. Even if it means getting rid of Evan permanently. Summer is being chased by hidden dangers and it’s up to Evan to catch her. The question is . . . will he get to her in time
It’s been two years since Summer’s husband was murdered. She was there when it happened and it’s taken weekly therapy to get her to the place she is now. At the beginning of the book we hear about the murder and my heart broke for Summer as that couldn’t have been easy. She decides that it’s time to stop seeing her therapist and he encourages her to start dating again. She’s not sure about it but then finds out that a friend of hers, Evan, has had feelings for her since he met her and she decides to give dating a chance.
This is where the book lost me completely. The story went from emotional darkness to the possibility of a relationship down the road – and I liked that about it. That’s not what ended up happening though. Summer went from maybe dating to “all-in” with Evan: having sex, saying the “I love you’s” that I did not see coming, and then moving in with him in a matter of weeks. WTH? There was just no building of the relationship and that really didn’t work for me. I think the author wanted to focus more on the suspense aspect of the story as it seemed that someone had it out for Evan and they were trying to figure out who it was. As the reader I had the villain figured out immediately so there wasn’t really any suspense. IDK, the book went from a 4 star to a 2.5 to 3 star read in a matter of pages and that was quite disappointing.
As far as the characters went…Evan was really hot and sweet but the man had a temper on him. It was always geared toward other people that he thought were hurting Summer, but holy cow did he fly off the handle a few times! If I were Summer that would have thrown up a red flag. It just didn’t sit well with me. Summer was sweet and very caring about others. She was a strong character and I liked reading about her but didn’t care for how fast she fell into it with Evan. I don’t think any woman having gone through what she went through with her first husband would have moved that quickly but that’s just my opinion, of course.
This was my first read contemporary read by LP Dover (the other was a paranormal) and the first story I’ve read in this series. I’m definitely interested in a couple of the characters that I met in this book so I might just have to pick up another book to see what happens. Hopefully those characters won’t rush in like Evan and Summer did.
Rating: 2.5/3 out of 5