Second Chance on Cypress Lane: Includes a Bonus Novella

by Reese Ryan

Overview

In this "sweet tale of secrets, truths and the beauty of second chances" (Woman's World), a woman starts over and discovers that, when it comes to finding love, there's no place like home.

Rising-star reporter Dakota Jones is usually the one breaking the news—until an inadvertent scandal wrecks her career. The only place she can go to regroup is Holly Grove Island. But her small North Carolina hometown comes with a major catch: Dexter Roberts, the first man to break Dakota’s heart, is her new boss. Working alongside Dexter, who is more attractive than he has a right to be, shows Dakota what might have been . . . but she isn’t giving him another chance to break her heart.

Dexter has always regretted the way things ended between him and Dakota. Her return could be his opportunity to finally make amends. But the more time he spends with Dakota, the more he realizes his feelings for her never went away. Now he has just a few months to convince her to give their love a second chance. But for Dakota to agree to stay, Dexter will have to reveal the devastating truth about why he let Dakota go all those years ago.
 
Includes the bonus novella Kiss Me at Sweetwater Springs by Annie Rains!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538734452
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Series:	Holly Grove Island Series , #1
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Reese Ryan is an award-winning author of romantic fiction with captivating family drama, surprising secrets, all the feels, and a posse of complex, flawed characters. A panelist at the 2017 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and recipient of the 2018 Donna Hill Breakout Author Award, Reese is an advocate for the romance genre and diversity in fiction.

A Midwesterner with deep Southern roots, Reese currently resides in semi-small-town North Carolina where she's an avid reader, a music junkie, and a self-declared connoisseur of cheesy grits.

Editorial Reviews

10/05/2020

Sexual tension sizzles in this heady romance, the first in a new series from Ryan (A Reunion of Rivals), set in a small North Carolina island community. Following a disastrous affair with an Italian man who turns out to be married and famous, investigative reporter Dakota Jones becomes tabloid fodder and loses her dream job in New York City. She temporarily returns home to Holly Grove Island to figure out her next career move. Though Dakota is happy to spend time with her widowed father and rekindle old friendships, she’s wary of running into Dexter Roberts, the boy who broke her heart in high school. But Dexter is eager to make amends with Dakota and the more he sees of her the more he realizes he never stopped loving her. His plans to win Dakota back hit a snag when both of them get jobs at the same resort—where employee fraternization is strictly prohibited. Dakota’s family and childhood friends provide an aura of comfort and support while the backdrop of sand and surf adds escapist appeal. The undeniable chemistry between the characters makes their inevitable reconciliation both satisfying and intense. Readers looking for a steamy small-town tale will be swept away. Agent: Pamela Harty, the Knight Agency. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Ryan writes with humor and warmth, building an inviting place on Holly Grove Island that readers will want to return to again and again.” —Entertainment Weekly

“A sweet tale of secrets, truths and the beauty of second chances.”—Woman's World

"Readers looking for a steamy small-town tale will be swept away."—Publishers Weekly

"Ryan’s sweet and promising introduction to her new “Holly Grove Island” series is sure to warm readers up during the long winter."—Library Journal

"A pleasant start to the Holly Grove Island series."—Kirkus Reviews

"A fun and sexy romance!"—Harlequin Junkie on Engaging the Enemy

"Captivating."—Publishers Weekly on The Billionaire's Legacy

"Top Pick! I highly recommend it."—Harlequin Junkie on The Billionaire's Legacy

"The Billionaire's Legacy has everything my little romance lover's heart desires."—Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews.

"Fast paced, great characters and a well-developed story line."—Thoughts of a Blonde on The Billionaire's Legacy

"A book filled with intriguing drama, captivating deception, and irrefutable passion, Savannah's Secrets is a must read contemporary romance story."—Okie Dreams

From the Publisher

11/01/2020

After a scandal causes Dakota Jones to lose it all, she finds herself on a bus back home to Holly Grove Island, SC, with plans to lie low, reconnect with friends and family, and figure out her next steps. When she discovers her father has been keeping some health issues from her, including putting off a surgery, she stays in town to help, which means increased chances of running into her high school ex, Dexter Roberts. Dexter has only one regret and that's the mistake he made in letting Dakota go. Her return to the island seems like a second chance, but then Dakota takes a temporary job that makes Dex her boss's boss, and the no-fraternizing-with-employees rule may take away another shot at their still simmering feelings for each other. VERDICT Ryan's (Secret Heir Seduction) sweet and promising introduction to her new "Holly Grove Island" series is sure to warm readers up during the long winter. Dexter and Dakota's second chance at love is absorbing and will be a welcome addition to the ever-favorite staple of big romances in small-town settings.—Kellie Tilton, Univ. of Cincinnati, Blue Ash

Library Journal

2020-10-27
High school sweethearts reconnect in their hometown after years apart.

Dakota Jones has been forced to return to her small Outer Banks community after an unceremonious firing from her TV news job in New York. She’s still grieving her mother’s death and just wants to ride out her professional hiatus in her childhood home while spending time with her father. To her dismay, Dexter Roberts, the high school boyfriend who dumped her once they went to college, is everywhere she goes, and his thoughtfulness is a reminder of why she loved him so deeply. But she’s unwilling to risk heartbreak again, especially when she’s planning to go back to her career and big-city life soon. Ryan balances presenting the couple's backstory with their interior lives through alternating point-of-view scenes and explores the impact of their parents on their ambitions and fears. The novel is well paced, and the couple’s friends and acquaintances have enough depth to prevent the book from becoming too much of a paint-by-numbers entry in the small-town-romance subgenre. Dakota and Dexter’s renewed dance of courtship unfolds in different venues, evoking the poignancy of teen love that might have a shot at adult fruition. There are also deft glimpses of the microaggressions Dakota faced working in television as an African American woman with natural hair. There's a fairly predictable secret that must be uncovered to reach the happy-ever-after, but this is a pleasant start to the Holly Grove Island series.

A sweet, second-chance romance that doesn’t rock any boats.

Kirkus Reviews