Liora Blake has a unique ability to create couples who on paper don't seem like they'd ever work. Ms. Blake captivates you into the characters lives and soon you forget you are reading a book and feel like you are living their lives right beside them! Perfect story!

Redneck and a city slicker. It was cute. Predictable but cute and it had some good elements and some good characters. Loved the banter between Garrett and Brayden. I'm excited for Brayden's story.

So slow for me... dnf... and I tried!! I just couldn't get excited about it!

Thinking over the very enjoyable Second Chance Season, the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine” kept running through my mind: “You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us…” Chicago-born writer Cara Cavanaugh takes the biggest chance of her life when she turns down a lucrative offer from a big-city newspaper and takes a freelance assignment in the small Colorado town of Hotchkiss. Is this going to be a small-town-life-rules trope tale? Particularly since the “Grand Valley series” encompasses the towns of Paonia and Palisade,



…where the wineries, orchards, and a bunch of crafty artisan businesses are the big draw in this once quiet part of southwestern Colorado. While the Grand Valley used to be nothing more than an afterthought in the state, now—thanks to whoever dreamed up the concept of agritourism—it’s a destination.

Not so fast on that prediction.

Hotchkiss co-op worker Garrett Strickland is running late for work but he stops his truck when he spots a Lexus with its four-ways blinking, admitting if it was his mother or his grandmother in trouble by the roadside, he’d want someone to come to their rescue. There’s so much noise emanating from the car, he thinks, “whatever it is that’s on blast in there sounds eerily similar to the goose-calling DVDs I bought to improve my honking skills in the wild.” But nope, not an old lady inside the car, it’s a woman with chestnut-colored hair, maybe a bit older than Garrett and she’s nearly all legs. Garrett’s having difficulty letting his “inner Boy Scout” take charge. His brain is focused on a “foot perched up on the seat, positioned in the lazy way that girls with an automatic sometimes drive.”

Picturing that turns my brain mushy for a second because you can keep all those curves and handfuls that some guys can’t get enough of—for me, long, lean legs are like kryptonite.

It’s Cara Cavanaugh and she tells Garrett that she does need some help. Scenarios from “low-budget skin flicks” flood his mind: “Stranded motorist gone desperate for a redneck in a beater Ford truck.” But the Boy Scout prevails and he helps Cara with directions to the house where she’s headed, unbelievably, his childhood farm that he “had to sell” because after his father’s death of a heart attack at 51, it was “too debt-ridden” for Garrett “to keep afloat.”

When a family friend learns through the grapevine that Cara had taken an assignment with the magazine “Purpose & Provisions based out of Asheville, North Carolina,” he lends her the Colorado farm he recently acquired. Cara had been stalking their job listings for months because she wanted to “write comprehensive pieces on people and places and things that mattered.” Liora Blake’s raison d’être for Cara’s relocation is believable and brilliant. The Purpose & Provisions “slightly self-righteous” and “impossibly niche” job description is catnip to Cara: it’s her dream job.

WRITER NEEDED, CAPOTES

NOT COURICS, PLEASE. MUST

BE WILLING TO RELOCATE.

Looking for a spirited and heartfelt writer to report on the changing face of agriculture in the Grand Valley area of southwestern Colorado.

Cara is hired. She’s to spend two months in Hotchkiss, Colorado, hence why her Lexus is bumping along a country road dragging a storage pod. Cara is a planner extraordinaire and when she meets a local the likes of Garrett, her PRO/CON brain goes into overdrive. Or is it those “inconvenient hormones zinging through?”

Any strength I might derive from proper blood flow has reoriented itself toward the more erogenous areas of my body—brought on by a roadside encounter with a guy I suspect possessed a set of abdominal muscles you could easily round out a zydeco band with.

Wash. Board.

There was a moment when I considered reaching out and lifting Garrett’s shirt to see if I was right. Even with my laptop and worksheet handy, I was still able to pro-and-con the scenario in my head.

PRO: Technically, it would be research. A way to get to know the locals…to immerse myself in the community.

CON: It’s also a way to firmly establish myself as crazy on my first day in town. Or get arrested.

Boy oh boy do the sparks fly when Garrett and Cara meet up and get to know each other. Garrett is the perfect guide to the denizens of Hotchkiss, answering any and all questions (except what he wants out of his life…he gives off a big old ASK NO QUESTIONS vibe), introducing Cara to all the locals, helping her traverse the complicated mores of country life. Like questions not to ask: #1 being “never ask a rancher how many cows he has.” Would you ask someone how much money they had in their checking account? Same thing.

“Lesson number two. Someone cooks for you? Offers you something to eat or drink? Short of being deathly allergic, you take it. You don’t politely decline or beg off—just say thank you and eat up.”

Speaking of “eat up,” even though there’s not much to do in Hotchkiss, Garrett accepts Cara’s offer to take him out for dinner, as a thank you for all his help. He finally gets that more might be happening than a fast new friendship and flirtation because she’s wearing make-up, even though it’s barbeque in a “Styrofoam container using a plastic fork” kind of evening.

I know the effect a curler and mascara wand have on a set of eyelashes. I also know what lip-glossed lips look like. I’m fucking evolved like that.

Garrett may be up on dating mores but he loves the farming life: he tells Cara he has “silt mixed in with my blood.” Cara is in Hotchkiss for two months and then it’s on to more freelance assignments so she can pursue her dream of telling epic, personal stories. She has no fear of TL:DR length essays. How Cara remains true to herself while she falls in love with Garrett and his bedrock dreams is a story that is enlightening and delightful…and unexpected in its resolution. Put those preconceptions aside and enter into Cara and Garrett’s world.

Garrett Strickland is unapologetically country, fiercely loyal, and perfectly happy with his job at the Hotchkiss Co-op. Garrett is all about living in the present and not dwelling in the past—even if he was once on his way to a lofty agricultural sciences degree that would guarantee the brightest of futures, only to end up back home when his old man died, leaving behind a debt-ridden family farm that was impossible to keep afloat. After that, it was easy to see why dreaming big wasn’t worth the heartache. And until he crosses paths with a city girl who’s hell-bent on kick-starting her own future, he’s sure that good enough is just that.

Cara Cavanaugh is ready for more from life, even if that means changing everything; including dumping her boyfriend of ten years, turning down a lucrative job at a major newspaper, and leaving behind the upscale suburbs of Chicago where she grew up. Now, she just has to pray that temporarily relocating to the middle of nowhere in Colorado will be the first step in building a career as a freelance journalist—all she has to do is prove she’s got what it takes to make a name for herself. Unfortunately, her tony country day school is as close to “country” as she’s ever been. But when a goodhearted guy who looks like he just stumbled out of a country music video offers to help, she ends up falling hard…and discovering that the perfect story is a love story. And it’s theirs.

Cara has become a freelance journalist and is doing a story on the ag industry in Grand Valley. She is staying at the home of a friend. The home used to be owned by Garrett Strickland’s family but he had to sell it after his dad died. Garrett helps Cara with the little idiosyncrasies of the house when needed and this puts the two of them in close proximity.

Garrett ends up helping Cara with her story as well. He introduces her to local farmers so that she can have an in. It’s a huge help to Cara but it makes Garrett happy because he gets to spend more time with Cara. Soon the two are sleeping together and falling in love. Cara, however, is not supposed to stay in Hotchkiss and Garrett feels he has nothing to offer Cara as he just works at the co-op. The pair each have to figure out their lives before they can be together.

This was another great story from Blake. I loved Hotchkiss the first time around and the second was just as good. The story was very different from book one and I appreciated that.

Garrett was such a great guy and I loved him to pieces. He had a huge heart and was raised right. Though life hadn’t always treated him well he made the best of bad situations. When he met Cara he had no intention of falling for her but he did lust after her. I loved that the lust he felt turned into love which made for a great story.

Cara had been floundering. She’d worked for a big newspaper but she felt stifled. She went freelance and took the job to do the ag story for a magazine. She loved it in Hotchkiss. She felt right in the slower paced lifestyle. Though she knew she shouldn’t fall for Garrett it happened and she was willing to make the moves she needed to in order to stay with him. Garrett, however, needed to figure his shit out before they could be together. I was happy that Cara could help Garrett see where he needed to be.

Overall the story was fun, sweet, sexy and just all-around great. I definitely recommend this one. :)

Rating: 4 out of 5

This will post as a guest review on Book Binge.
http://bookbinge.com/

Enjoyed going back to Hotchkiss with Garrett and Cara's story. While Cara is escaping a life of luxury that she decides she just might be made for she takes on a freelancing job writing about farm life and heads to Hotchkiss to work. Garrett stumbles across Cara and takes her for a rich city gal who is completely out of her element.

When Cara ends up staying at Garrett's childhood home he no longer lives in because as the saying goes "he lost the farm" it makes things uncomfortable. Soon Garrett finds that Cara is stronger than she looks and not as high class- stuck up- as the rice can she drives.

Cara soon realizes the beauty of the land is nothing to compared to the people who work it. She loves talking to the farmers who work from daybreak to dark and have a passion for their land and family. She realizes what she isn't getting in her relationships or jobs in the city might possibly be something she could get from these people. Oh, and not to mention Garrett is hot, sexy and has abs that have Cara ready to bounce quarters.

I loved the sweetness of the story which combines with the hotness shared between Garrett and Cara. Garrett is a humble country boy who doesn't see himself as a catch or able to provide Cara with anything worth asking her to stay in the country rather than go home to the city. Garrett has healing to do after losing his father, the farm and his dreams. Once he is able to deal with those issues, he realizes that what he can give Cara the that is most important is himself.

I did something with this book that I don't normally do. I picked up the second book in a series by an author I had never read before. Basically, I just let my grabby hands go willy nilly because I'd heard wonderful things about the first book and I couldn't resist the synopsis on the second. So, it's my ever greedy grabby hands I have to thank for the time I got to spend with Garrett & Cara and all the warm, quirky characters of the Grand Valley series.

Second Chance Season is one of those wonderful small town romances that...well, feels like a small town. Like mudding in the local bogs and drinking beers on the back of someone's jacked up truck. It feels like days full of honest, back breaking labor and lazy nights full of cozy fires and cozier conversation. I just felt it, and I never wanted to leave. And, while it took me just a little bit to warm up to Cara and Garrett's relationship, it took me literally no time at all to embrace the delicious writing and authentic-feeling descriptions of the land and the people of Hotchkiss, CO.

No, I didn't latch on to Garrett and Cara immediately - but not because I didn't like them or I felt like anything was wrong with them. I feel like it's perhaps more that I just had to get to know them and that, as their personalities were revealed and their feelings for each other deepened, my feelings tagged along for the ride and by about the 40% mark my heart was fluttering and my belly was full of butterflies and I was all in. There was no turning back at that point. I couldn't devour this book fast enough.

In case I haven't made my point - I wound up adoring Cara and Garrett. Everything about them. Their honesty and their sweetness and their scorching physical chemistry. I loved how they didn't play games with each other and they didn't judge each other and even though they came from opposite worlds, they found a place for each other in their hearts without any real trouble. Even in conflict they were both so completely likable. In fact, I might even say that Second Chance Season is the exception to most books in that the conflict actually opened my heart more to Cara and Garrett so that, by the end, my eyes were brimming with tears and my heart was near-to exploding and I was one wholly happy reader.

In the end, the payoff was beyond worth it. I laughed, I cried, I felt my face light up with that giant goobery grin I can't help whenever a character weasels his or her way into my heart. It was so good! Whether this is your first Liora Blake book or just the latest of many, I enthusiastically recommend that you take a chance on Second Chance Season.

Title and author: Second Chance Season by Liora Blake
Series: Grand Valley - Book 2
Publisher: Pocket Books
Releases: June 20, 2017
Purchase: http://tinyurl.com/yam7kwbp
Genre: Contemporary
Author website: http://www.liorablake.com/
Rating: 5 Stars

Spirited characters and extremely realistic situations make the second book in the Grand Valley series constantly enjoyable. I chuckled more while reading than I can remember doing in a long time, because so many of the events in the story are humorous and full out laughable. But there are also moments where sincere emotions are on display, and those incidents touched me in ways that many books do not even come close to doing. Every scene created by Liora Blake is especially imaginable, as her words caused me to fully experience each detail because of how genuinely I was affected by the realness of what was taking place. SECOND CHANCE SEASON is highly recommended, and there is not one thing I would change.

The first meeting Garrett Strickland has with Cara Cavanaugh brings back some rather painful memories, but he has never been one to let it bother him that his family home will never again belong to him. What his future could have been is not important now, and his work at the local co-op in Hotchkiss, Colorado makes him a living but is not particularly rewarding. Coming in contact with a woman who will be staying in his old house for a short time could have really made Garrett sad, but there is no use longing for something that can never be true.

After becoming disillusioned with her career and boyfriend of many years, Cara thought it was time for a big change. Since she wanted to continue writing articles which actually meant something to readers, she decided to leave Chicago and do research on agriculture changes in the Grand Valley region. Encountering a local man who assisted her by pointing out the location of the place where she will be living leaves Cara intrigued with him. Then something unexpected happens when she and Garrett slowly sort out what they want to get out of life.

Since I grew up on a farm, I was eager to see how Liora Blake would portray her characters and all the aspects of living in a rural setting. From the very start, I was overjoyed at her depiction of Garrett and the life led by many other residents in the Hotchkiss area. Whether a situation dealt with a person’s truck or the dilemmas of daily farm life, I really felt as though the event could actually happen as described. I loved all the episodes with the cows, and some of them were fondly remembered from my own past. While many of the scenes are written with much wit, there is also a sense of seriousness when appropriate, just like a normal day on the farm.

When it comes to Garrett and Cara, every second they are together brought me complete satisfaction as a reader. They have lots of conversations that are packed with intelligent comebacks, but there are also instances where their inner feelings are exposed because of their honest reactions. This couple definitely generates plenty of heated passion when their desire escalates to the point where they have to express how they truly feel. Since the story is told from each of their viewpoints, I got to comprehend what Garrett and Cara were thinking about the same situation. Facts discovered about a main character in the next book of the series has me counting the days until it can be read. The ingenious cleverness in SECOND CHANCE SEASON will never be forgotten.

I voluntarily reviewed the book from the publisher, and all comments are my honest opinion

I loved this book! I have read other books by Liora Blake and this is hands down my favorite. I love that that she takes the time to develop her characters' relationships. I am so tired of reading about people falling instantly in love and being expected to believe their undying devotion to each other after they exchange less than ten words. Garrett is not the sort of character that I expected to be drawn to but I adored everything about him. Cannot wait for book three of this series.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book but it was worth it. I absolutely loved the inner dialogue of Cara and Garrett. There were times I was literally LOLing. Garrett is every girl's dream. He's the sexy, All-American boy next door with a dirty mouth to boot. I fell in love with Cara because she is who she is and doesn't shy away from that, not even for a hot guy. This was a somewhat predictable story and it could have used an epilogue. But it was funny and sexy and gave me the feels which is a win for me!

loved it