Marlene Parker has been putting her dreams on the back burner since she became a single mother at such a young age. She thought that she had a future together as a family with the love of her life until he left her 8 months pregnant to go on tour with his band. Now she struggles to provide for her daughter and has just started to date again. When Marlene finds out that Luke Anderson is the new VIP guest at the hotel she works for, she can't believe her luck. She figured Luke would never return to town after what he put her through. But Luke has realized that family is worth more than the fame and life of a rockstar has turned out to be. Marlene is hesitant to let Luke into her daughter's life for fear that he will leave again, but Luke is determined to show Marlene that he intends to stick around for good this time. Can Marlene let go of the past and trust Luke again, or will there be too much pain from her past to open herself up to him again?
I really didn't want to like Luke at first. I thought that what he did was absolutely horrible, regardless of his reasons. I thought that he was young and stupid, but should have known better. He claimed to love Marlene so much, but yet he put his career ahead of her and his daughter and never tried to come back in the over 4 years that he was gone. It just didn't really make sense to me. But the harder he tried and the more we got to see who he had become, the more I began to like him. He was sweet and kind, and was committed to Marlene and Nil. He was a great father and clearly he had loved them both despite being gone. Marlene was strong and had done such a great job of being a mom all by herself. She relied on her friends and family for help, but she worked hard to provide for Nil and still make time to enjoy being around her daughter. I did feel like she let Luke off awfully easy though when it came to getting back into their lives. She came off strong and talked a pretty big game, but it didn't take long for her to cave and that disappointed me a little. I thought that there were times that she should have held back a bit more and made him grovel a bit. I did feel like Luke and Marlene had good chemistry together, and it was clear that love between them was never the problem. You could tell that they were great together and had the emotional connection as well as the physical.
I did feel as though things were resolved a bit too easily, and I also felt like the ending was rushed. It ended pretty abruptly and it would have been nice to get an epilogue, or see a little slice of their life after the dust sort to settled and they eased into their new life. I think that this one had its cute and sweet moments, but a lot of it just didn't work for me. I didn't understand how she could continue to date a guy that she felt nothing for when she was obviously in love with Luke. I didn't understand her quick forgiveness and the way she let Luke right back in. I didn't understand why with Luke being such a star that the media really didn't play a large part of the story until the end, and even then it wasn't really that big of a deal. I also didn't understand how Marlene was dating Finn, but for most of the story he just appeared when he was needed for drama or a reason to keep Marlene and Luke apart but then would quickly disappear again. I felt like this story could have been so much more, but that it just needed a little bit of work. I think that it was a pretty solid debut for Nicole Simone though, and I am definitely interested to read more from her in the future. If you like second chance love stories and rockstars, I would give this one a shot. I think that a lot of NA fans will enjoy this one.
**Review Copy Provided by Book Plug Promotions**
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