Title: The Problem with Second Chances
Author: Piper Rayne
Series: Lake Starlight #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary romance, Small town romance
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2023
Calista and Rylan’s story is really cute, but kind of heartbreaking in moments. It’s honestly just a story about second chances, missing your moment and trying to find your way back to your person. The Right Person and the Wrong Time, indeed. Although I really loved this, and I will definitely reread it again in the future, it hit a little harder than some of the other Piper Rayne romances that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Something about the many misfires that Calista and Ryan experience were kind of tough to read about, and the fact that they had to feel so much pain before they could find one another again just really plucked at the heart strings.
Reading The Problem with Second Chances made me realise that I really need to go back and read the rest of the Baileys series, and start the Greenes series. This might be the beginning of the Lake Starlight series, but it is the end of both of the Baileys and the Greenes siblings. On the one hand, I love how interconnected all of the Piper Rayne books and series are, but on the other, it just keeps adding books to my TBR pile. Calista and Rylan tie in so many of these stories, and just made me so curious as to how they show up in other people’s stories and tales.
The core of Calista and Rylan’s story is really just about figuring out how to let go of expectations and move towards a future together. It’s forgiving each other for past mistakes, and letting the past go. I particularly liked how their past together is slowly unraveled, and the challenges that they faced informed their future. Neither Calista nor Rylan strike me as bitter, just sad and hurt that the tricky circumstances in which they found themselves. For me, it was Calista’s injury and how that completely unraveled their plans, both together and separate, that really plucked at my heart strings. Maybe sitting a little too close to home for my sanity.
Calista and Rylan might be tied together by their history (of which there is a lot), but I love that they end up falling in love because of who they have become. It’s a great little story that sometimes we have to pull apart to find out way back together. And a great story about growing up, growing apart, and then growing old together. Again, a story I will definitely reread in the future, but with the understanding that this one can just hit a little closer to the heart than some of the other Piper Rayne stories I’ve got on my shelves.
Earth and Skye 