Blurb from Goodreads:
Sage Huxley escaped her troubled childhood in Lyndale, Texas and she hasn’t looked back. Well. She hasn’t looked back often. When would she have the time, between finals, shepherding obnoxious freshmen, her mayoral internship (and his irate chihuahua) and a part-time mechanic’s gig up in the Bronx?
Then she gets the call that her estranged father has died and left her a home in major disrepair. Should she sell it for the bank’s lowball offer? Or sink her entire savings into a home she’d rather demolish?
Leo Pindar was voted “Most Likely To Go To Prison” and he didn’t disappoint. But five years later, Leo is a (heavily tattooed) small business owner giving others the second chances at life he’s been given. So when Sage Huxley walks back into his life with a literal broken home, he’s just going to fix it and send her back to her bright, shining future. He’s already lied to her about his feelings once before. He can do it again.
Right?
Here’s the thing: I am a giant snob when it comes to reading and I am also an absolute sucker for romance novels. There are times when I want to read a story and know within a chapter who’s ending up with whom, and even though there will be complications and obstacles, we are going to get a happy ending, and Juliet Holmes’ Third Time’s a Charm delivers on that.
Great things about this book: fantastic dialogue and endearing background characters, who I sincerely hope are getting their own books. Sage and Leo were great but I’d love to read more about Leo’s brothers, not to mention John and Hazel (who star in Small Town Charm, which I’m absolutely adding to my to-read list). The story doesn’t shy away from some serious issues, including Leo’s mother’s early onset dementia and Leo’s own mental health and I don’t think those issues are minimised.
It is well written, and tightly written; we are spared exposition but I think maybe, in places, it was too sparse. The pacing wasn’t perfect and though I believed the outcome, I would have liked to see more about how we got there. There were some time skips, some of which are flagged and some of which are not, which was mildly confusing. Overall, I enjoyed it; an undemanding read with characters to root for.
Rating: 4 stars (a romance that delivers, but lacks a little depth).
TL;DR: A book about a girl returning to her hometown, and the love of her life, if they’d only get out of their own way.
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