Review: Happenstance (A Second Chance, #1) by M.J. Abraham

 

I need to stop choosing books based on their cover. I’m a sucker for a good book cover and it will occasionally lead me down the path of disappointment. Happenstance was once such instance.

Victoria has to start all over. After getting married to Eric, her successful and rich husband, she thinks her life is all set. That is until he breaks his vows and she finds him with another woman. Divorced and back to square one with her career, she takes a teaching job and moves into an apartment on her own. In getting used to her independence, she doesn’t expect to meet the cute and funny vet named Jared who lives down the street. As their relationship progresses, Victoria learns to trust again and finds a love she didn’t think she could have again.

This book bored me. I hate to be super negative but it was an attempt at something that could have been... okay? For me, the story lacked pizzazz and interest. It was a boring story about a woman who was divorced and meets a cute, nerdy vet who treats her right and she falls for him. A story like this could have been made more interesting had the characters been more likable.

Victoria was a good leading lady, but she had no spark. She wasn’t sassy, she wasn’t quiet, and she wasn’t quirky. There was really nothing about Victoria that set her apart other than the fact that she was an attractive. I couldn’t connect to her as a character and it made it hard to dive deeper into the story.

Jared had more character than Victoria... but not much. He was cute, smart and treated the ladies right, but his biggest differentiator was the fact that he wore bad-quote t-shirts... really didn’t do it for me.

I’m not saying that every story has to be about a sassy girl with a mind of her own falling for the bad boy in town in need of an attitude adjustment, but at least those characters have a little depth. I’ve read plenty of contemporary romances that are about good normal people falling in love with other wholesome normal people and they’re fun, interesting and hard to put down. The difference is that the characters are easy to fall for and hard to forget.

The plot left much to be desired as well. Avoiding any spoilery, I will tell you that there is an instance of a guy taking advantage of Victoria and it just wasn’t fleshed out. It seemed like the bad night had by Victoria was going to be a defining moment for her and a part of the story as a whole. Instead, that plotline was somewhat forgotten and when it was mentioned later on, it wasn’t fleshed out enough. I didn’t believe it and it killed the book for me.

All in all, I was bored by Happenstance’s lackluster cast of characters and I struggled to make it through this romance.

4 out of 10

Happy Reading :)