When Stella Jo Chandler gets an offer to work at the Second Chance Ranch celebrity rehab facility right after graduating from Texas A&M, she’s tempted to turn it down. She wants to help real people with real problems, not spoiled celebrities going on vacation for publicity. But growing up on her family’s ranch left her with a love of horses that draws her to the opportunity. How bad can babysitting a bunch of strung out celebrities be?
What she didn’t count on was being roped into a tangled mess with infamous rocker and three-time rehab drop out Van Ransom on her first day. And she sure didn’t expect to feel the overwhelming attraction that pulls her to the man who has more issues than she can count on both hands. Like the hotel rooms and tour buses he’s famous for trashing, the havoc he could wreak on Stella’s heart would be irreparable.
Van isn’t at Second Chance for publicity or because he’s suffering from “exhaustion”. He’s on the brink of destruction, and he needs the kind of help Stella isn’t sure she can give. But without her, he’ll lose everything. Because he’s on his last second chance
Series: Second Chance #1
Release Date: May 6th 2014
Publisher: Self Published
Source: Inkslinger PR
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:
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Reviewer’s Thoughts
4.5 Cocktails
Caisey Quinn has a knack for creating so pretty stellar alpha males with a whole boat load of issues. Van Ransom is no exception…and it’s hard not to love the man.
Van finds himself at Second Chance Rancho in a last ditch effort to save his band’s upcoming contract with their new label. He figures he’ll go through the motions and be out in 90 days and doing what he does best…boozing, women and sometimes destroying things. But there is so much more to Van than anyone knows and it’s with the help of Stella Jo that he discovers the only way to be worthy of her is to fight his demons. They are some ugly demons and they weigh him down with guilt for things that were so not his fault. Despite his “I don’t give a f” attitude, Van really does care and wants to be a better man. At first, he’s doing it to be worthy (at least in his eyes) of Stella, but in the end he realizes that he has to want the recovery for himself, because that’s the only way he’s ever going to be able to make changes in his life.
Stella has her own very large set of issues. She feels like no one wants or needs her. Her parents pushed her aside, unless she was winning horse races, and then her college boyfriend tosses her aside for her best friend. She locks her feelings away, because she knows that if she were to let them become involved, she would break when she was tossed aside again. With Van, her emotions are let loose despite her best efforts to lock them down. She makes some wrong assumptions about Van and what he wants, but she proves to be the stronger of the two. She proves to him that he’s worth fighting for. That she’ll stand by him, even if to do that she has to be separated from him for a little while.
This was one I couldn’t put down. Van and Stella just pull you into the story. Their banter is witty and fun, while their chemistry could burn a barn down. Definitely pick this one up. It’s a challenging story about overcoming addiction, but one that is well worth it.
Shannon
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Thank you so much for participating in the tour and for the wonderful review! This line –> “Their banter is witty and fun, while their chemistry could burn a barn down” is so great, I love it!! *big smothery hugs!*Thank you!!