Blog Tour Review: Desperate Chances by A. Meredith Walters

I hadn’t read the other books in the Bad Rep series, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  But with this being a second chance romance, I figured I would give it a try.

Mitch and Gracie thoroughly screwed things up with their relationship.  In the two years since their disastrous night together, they’ve barely spoken and made things uncomfortable with their mutual friends.  Gracie had even gone as far as distancing herself from certain events when she knew Mitch was going to be there.  But on the eve of some life altering decisions for her friends and their band, Gracie and Mitch must make the decision to stop fighting their feelings and get over what happened to build a relationship or say goodbye to the other forever.  It’s not a decision they make easily.

We spend a good majority of the book flipping back and forth between Mitch and Gracie over analyzing every look, word and action the other makes.  It was at times very exhausting, especially since we knew how they felt about each other.  What’s worse, Mitch goes through all of this while still hanging onto the girlfriend he doesn’t really want around yet can’t seem to get rid of.  There were times neither of these characters were quickly sinking into the “I don’t care if you figure this out” bucket, but there was a part of me that pushed through to the end so I could see what happened with everyone.  By the time I got to the end, I was glad I stuck with it, but I wished these characters could have figured everything out much sooner and maybe had a bit more time to rebuild their relationship in the pages of the story.

DESPERATE CHANCES was enjoyable.  The romance fell a little flat for me, but I think that’s because I was slightly annoyed with the characters by the time they did get together.  For those that have kept up with this series, I’m sure they will be happy to visit with characters from the previous books as the band members and their significant others start the next chapters of their lives.

I realized I was staring. Mitch knew I was staring.

So of course he purposefully gave his girlfriend his attention, his body angled towards me but his head bent low so that his face was close to Sophie’s. He pushed the hair back off her forehead. His eyes were on her face and he gave her soft smile that I recognized only too well.

A smile that I had thought, at one time, was only for me.

Get over it, Gracie! It’s been a year! What did you think would happen? That he’d pine over you forever? Get a grip!

I started to turn away when Mitch looked back towards me, his eyes locking on mine.

I forgot how to breathe.

My heart thudded almost painfully in my chest.

My mouth went dry and my hands began to tremble. A need that I had almost forgotten about thrummed through my body. My belly tightened and my nipples hardened. The air hummed and sizzled. I was altered completely. Just by a look.

How had I never felt this electricity between us before? The answer was obvious.

I had been totally blind. I hadn’t wanted to see it. Because if I had acknowledged it, everything would have changed. And at that time I couldn’t handle that. The truth was I had been absolutely terrified.

Maysie squeezed my arm but I barely felt it. Jordan was still talking but I didn’t hear him.

All I could see was Mitch.

All Mitch could see was me.

We were locked in a stand off, neither of us moving.

All too soon he broke our intense staring contest. He bent down and kissed his girlfriend almost angrily. It was a harsh press of lips that seemed to take Sophie by surprise. She wrapped her arms around Mitch and held him tenderly even as he ground his mouth against hers.

I looked away. I could barely breathe around the lump sitting painfully in the middle of my chest. A pain that I knew to be jealousy.

And regret.

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary and Paranormal romance including The Find You in the Dark and Bad Rep series as well as the upcoming stand alone romance, Reclaiming the Sand, and a dark new adult series for Gallery Books.

A. Meredith spent ten years as a counselor for at risk teens and children. First working at a Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault program and then later a program for children with severe emotional and mental health issues. Her former clients and their stories continue to influence every aspect of her writing.

When not writing (or being tortured with all manner of beauty products at the hand of her very imaginative and extremely girly daughter), she is eating chocolate, watching reality television that could rot your brain and reading a smutty novel or two.

A. Meredith is represented by Michelle Johnson with the Inklings Literary Agency.

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