I am an avid supporter of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. As a
heterosexual, Caucasian lady, I know that while a lot of romance
characters look like me, not all readers do. I'm also a curvy lady, so I love reading
about body positive heroines. I know nothing of the experience of
many other women, and so one of the ways I like to learn is to read
about diverse characters in books. I love reading about characters of
color, characters with different religions, characters with different sexual
orientations. In CHANCE OF A LIFETIME, I got to read about a heroine
whose body works differently than mine.
Genny is blind and has been since birth. While this is something she is
comfortable with, her family still treats her like a bird in a cage. This
extends to her brother's friend, Chance, whom Genny has loved since
childhood. They were the closest of pals until a night marred by
misunderstandings, and our story opens as they find each other again.
I really liked this story and my affection for it grew the more I thought
about it. The romance pieces of it were lovely. I loved reading about
Chance and Genny learning each other again, learning about pain and
memory and joy and hope. I really found myself cheering for them and I
love when I find characters like that.
But what stuck with me after I closed the book was Genny and her
relationship with the agency over her own body. I loved as she found her
voice with her family, asserting her adulthood and personhood as a full
person who happens to be blind, instead of a handicapped invalid as they
see her. I loved as she learned, after years of depending on toys, what
sex with a partner could be like and how she could communicate desire
and needs. The way Melissa Clarke writes Genny's narrative of trust and
growth is fantastic.
I also found myself fascinated by the small ways Clarke wrote about
Genny's navigation of life. The way she used sounds, the technology that
exists via iPhone apps and the like. It was all so interesting to me and I
deeply thank Clarke for this insight into a world I know nothing of.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in diverse heroines,
anyone who likes second-chance love stories, and anyone who loves a
great story about a woman finding her voice.
Sometimes the biggest risk is playing it safe. Gen Richards is tired of living down to her family’s expectation of the helpless blind girl. Resurrecting her high-school bucket list that begins with “kiss a total stranger” seems just the thing until she finds herself in a panty-melting lip lock with her big brother’s best friend. Chance Anderson thrives on adrenaline, but Genny’s the one risk he’s not willing to take. His recklessness a decade ago landed her in the hospital and ejected him from her life. He’s bad for her and everyone knows it—especially her big brother. Chance reluctantly helps Gen complete her bucket list in order to keep her out of trouble. Running through a freezing fountain, playing spin the bottle while fending off a mad horde of stinging insects, and skinny dipping with homicidal attack swans don’t hold a candle to the real danger: falling for the one person he can never have.
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