Life is a challenge. It sometimes feels like all you do is try to catch your breath from one moment to another. Seeking safety is a personal goal towards well-being and sanity. Seeking safety for those you love is a life goal. Just how do you recovery after losing someone close whose death has left a permanent hole in your heart. One of the issues about love and loss is that we often deify those that have passed. We remember the good and push the not so good into the recesses of our mind and heart. But what happens when we feel responsible for the death. Now I'm not talking about causing an accident or an act of violence. Responsibility for someone else is part of being a member of a family. Ultimately we all must learn a valuable lesson. Taking chances is also a part of life. We can only hope that a person's self-preservation will put up a natural barrier and prevent them from taking that very ill advised step. We can only hope. SECOND CHANCE SUMMER by Jill Shalvis is about hope.

SECOND CHANCE SUMMER is about learning to cope with the sadness, loss and in this case unfortunate and undeserved guilt after family tragedy. Lily returns to Cedar Ridge when her professional and personal world caved in around her. Sure she needed to lick her wounds but more important she desperately needed a new start. Her good friend Jonathan offered her a temporary position. Lily really had no choice but to accept it. However it did mean facing so many people that she had left behind ten years ago. But of course it wasn't a casual departure from a place she love -- it was running away from memories that were too harsh. Running is a self-defense mechanism -- but it rarely works. In Lily's case her work had cocooned her and allowed her to shut off any feelings. Coming home would invariably reopen many wounds and as she quickly realized made her feel again.

Lily realized that returning to Cedar Ridge would mean that she would surely run into Aidan. After all it's a small town and Aidan's family owned the spa she would be working at. Shouldn't be any problem for Aidan but for Lily it would open up old wounds that had never completely healed. After the death of Lily's sister Ashley and then her father's heart attack Lily turned her back on Cedar Ridge and Aidan. Aidan was the one thing that Ashley wanted that Lily would not turn into a tug of war. Ashley was always trying to compete with Lily. Lily was just better as some things. But Aidan wasn't just another guy. He had captured more than Lily's thoughts -- he had a firm grip on her heart -- he just didn't know it. And he never would -- so Lily ran.

Once Aidan gets wind that Lily has returned he has to battle some of his own demons. First is he has no idea why Lily had left so abruptly. Second the more time he is with her the more determined he is to try and hold tight this time. Third Aidan would have to face down his own issues with love and trust. Aidan and Lily have much in common. Both are wounded souls scarred by the very people who are supposed to love and protect them. But together they just may find something truly special.

Jill Shalvis has created some fragile, wounded and yet still characters that had grit in SECOND CHANCE SUMMER. The lesson is clear -- everyone deserves a second chance at a life filled with love and happiness. In SECOND CHANCE SUMMER we set out on a wonderful heartwarming adventure to find that elusive love. SECOND CHANCE SUMMER is book number one in Shalvis' Cedar Ridge series. A great introduction to what will certainly be a fabulous series. Can't lose with Jill Shalvis. SECOND CHANCE SUMMER is great selection for that special beach book you are looking for.