I am a known sucker for a second chance romance. I love
the idea of people who were once in love finding
themselves in love again when they are more mature versions
of themselves. Relationships are often so much about
timing, and the explorations of that idea are some of my
favorite romance tropes.
There is a lot happening in THIS TIME AROUND. Allie is
not only dealing with an inheritance she wasn't
expecting, but both her parents are in prison for
orchestrating a ponzi scheme of some fashion. Jack has a
10-year-old daughter and no wife to help him answer said
10-year-old's pesky questions of burgeoning adolescence.
Add in a trunk full of money discovered in an attic, a
forthcoming reunion, and a few ex-fiancees, and they're
both juggling quite a bit.
The best parts of this book were the ones with Jack,
Allie, and Jack's daughter, Paige. The knitting of that
small family, and the ways in which Jack learns to share
parenting again after his wife's tragic death when Paige
was a toddler were lovely. Some of the other pieces of
this circus were less successful, but the effect overall
was a lovely book.
I'd recommend this one to any contemporary readers who
like adult heroes and heroines who are
willing to own up to old demons and take second chances
on each other.
Allie Ross is not living the life she once dreamed.
Her law career ended before it ever started, her parents
landed in jail for running a Ponzi scheme, and she just
inherited her grandmother’s B&B—which is nice, even if
it is full of extra-toed cats. As for her love
life…she’d rather not talk about it.
When Jack Carpenter reaches out to reconnect with Allie, the
girl who broke his heart in college, his plan is to impress
her with the adult he’s become. Sure, he was a deadbeat
then, but life has forced him to grow up. And it’s a relief
to find out that things didn’t necessarily go the way Allie
expected either.
As Allie and Jack get reacquainted, they rediscover the
things they loved—and hated—about each other. But who they
are now isn’t who they were then, and secrets—old and
new—will test whether they have a future together, or if the
past is destined to repeat itself.
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