Second Chances by T.A. Webb

[reviews_and_ramblings]

There are romances I like, there are romances I love and then there are romances I think there are no words to describe. 1 out of 100 maybe. Second Chances made me cry, and then smile, and then cry some more, smile, and cry, smile, and cry… and in the end I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do.

It’s 10 years in the life of Mark, and that is a long time for good and bad things to happen. And each one of them felt too real for my heart not to hurt; right from the very beginning, when Mark is dealing with his mother’s illness and death, I had exactly the same experience, my father died at home and I was beside him, but on the contrary of Mark who was telling his mother she can let it go, I was selfishly telling my father I loved him and I didn’t want to lose him. They had to remove me from his bed to allow him to go. You can imagine what I was feeling while I was practically reading the retelling of that experience. And that wasn’t the only time this romance rung so true to almost being scaring.

I loved how the author was respectful of both Mark’s lovers, Brian and Antonio. There is no good and bad, they are both good and bad. Brian is the one cheating on Mark, but he was probably fighting some demon; he is also the one who loved Mark so unconditionally that was able to see the special bond between Mark and Antonio and not being jealous of that. The one Mark felt so comfortable with that he was able to really telling him everything.

On the other side we have Antonio, strutting around like a peacock, so full of pride but also so fragile. Antonio so strong for his son, and so open to Mark’s needs, and I’m not absolutely talking of sex. For a long time Antonio was who Mark needed beyond sex, he was the mainstay, probably the only safety anchor for Mark. And once Mark was back on his feet he was able to give everything back to Antonio, but also to many others.

This is a saga, an old fashioned family saga and in a way, spanning “only” 10 years was short, so many things happened they could have filled many more years. It felt a long journey with Mark, and in a way it was too short. Good job, I loved Mark, this bear of a man, with the heart matching the size of his animal counterpart.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3315

Amazon: Second Chances
Amazon Kindle: Second Chances
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 17, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1623800323
ISBN-13: 978-1623800321

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Paul Richmond