Second Chance on the Corner of Main: Nestled Hollow (Romance Series, book 1)

First in a series featuring women business owners of Nestled Hollow. Whitney Brennan’s the owner of the town’s newspaper. While she appears to be outgoing, fun-loving, and the town’s unofficial cheerleader, inside she is hiding her secret hurt. She’s afraid of giving her heart away because every time she does, they end up leaving her.  She has a long string of people she loved and lost, so she resolves to never make a deep connection again. Then Eli Treanor returns to town. High school friends and sweethearts, Eli broke her heart when he left on graduation night, twelve years ago. Now he’s back, taking a break from his Sacramento team-building business to help run his dad’s outdoor rental business while dad’s recovering from surgery. Eli makes it clear he’s only in town temporarily. When they get paired to plan the town’s fall festival decorations, it’s clear their feelings haven’t changed.

This is a small-town story about second chances and overcoming obstacles. The romance between Whitney and Eli is real. They are a cute couple who share a deep history. Unfortunately, mistakes threaten to destroy them once they are reunited, and one can hardly keep from shaking one’s head at the angst of hoping they work through their problems and misunderstandings. The story does suffer from several cases of repeated words clustered within the same paragraphs where a mix of similar words would keep the writing fresher. There are multiple paragraphs of internal narrative which stalls the action. Beyond that, Whitney’s best friend, Brooke, is a breath of fresh air and the story carries a light inspirational note. This is a stand-alone book, with no cliffhangers. 

Emerson Matthews