Down a Country Road (Second Chance Book 3)

I like reading books in order but book 3 was free so I read it. I don't know if the ones before had anything to do with this one, but it was a very complete story with great characters and a town I understand, coming from a very small town myself. Grab a Kleenex cause you just might want one

I like this book. It is not a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Instead it pays homage to Jane's way of seeing everything and dealing with in in a matter of fact way. Austen was the daughter of clergyman who never married and dealt with life's big questions in a quiet, domestic way. She observed so many true things in the little day to day reflections. She gave us Mr. Darcy, the ultimate hero we all secretly search for and compare our loves to. Grier left Timbell Creek for New York City and without a college degree, built a successful business as an image consultant. She receives a large sum of money to go back to her hometown and hold a contest for a new reality show featuring a 17 year old Irish Duke whose family is impoverished leaving him to find a way to fill the family coffers. This money will put her out of debt so she goes for it. Her BMW is rarely driven and needs oil leaving her and her dog Sebby to walk toward town. She is picked up by an old boyfriend and is taken for his new extramarital interest by his brother Bobby Jack. I know Southerners and their names. My name is Billie Jo and I am named after two aunts now deceased. Southerners frequently wear their ancestors names around their neck and to only go by one insults the other so both names are given names unless you chose to wear a name like Bubba or Sister. Grier is forced to open all those doors she closed to survive an alcoholic mother's neglect. Jane is a constant in many reader's world. She let us inside a world that made sense where people in polite society had obligation to act in a certain way. She let us laugh about others and ourselves. She gave us heroes to die for and ones that came up to scratch eventually. This book introduces each chapter with a quote that gives us more insight into the characters. Her blog at Jane Austen Girl reveals her philosophy on presenting ones best face to the world and all the pain we each carry with us and allow no one to see. This job will change her life and provide us with a pleasant and diverting book about change and making your peace with the world,

Down a Country Road by Inglath Cooper is full of tropes, but combined in novel ways that added a lot of angst to the main character, as well as a few twists on familiar tropes, to create an interesting tale of love and loss. Grier McAllister left her hometown of Timbell Creek, Virginia behind and never looked back. She went to New York City, and after a long struggle made it as an image consultant. When the TV studio wanted to cast some small town girls for a reality show to "date a Duke", they picked Grier, with the stipulation that they must be from Grier's hometown, and Grier can't pass up the opportunity, even if she had to go back and face some ghosts of her past, such as her mother, who had changed a lot... and her old boyfriend and his hot brother. But the hot brother comes with the baggage of a daughter and a divorced wife, and the daughter was one of the candidates (something daddy vehemently opposes, but mommy approves). As Grier helps choose the candidates and deals with ghosts of her past, she will come to realize that perhaps, this town wasn't just her past, but perhaps her present and future as well. Without spoiling the story, let's just say Grier will have to face the ghost of her past in the form of her mother, who she just ran away from so many years ago. I find the idea that "girls must be from your hometown" rather forced plot point, as it doesn't logically make sense. It also made an interesting variation by having Grier fall for the old flame's brother, rather than just fall for her old flame again. There were no dull moments as the POV jumps around a bit, as you get to see how the hot brother argue with his ex-wife (who's in town), the Duke in town, conflict with the daughter who is tired of the fighting between her parents, struggles with fame and publicity, and much more. Author was able to juggle all the bits into a coherent story with the only forced part about being "must be your hometown girls". All in all, rather liked the story.

I had high expectations for this book. (Probably a little too high considering it was .99) If you like a very "clean" romance, you probably will like it. The setting for most of the book is small town Timbell Creek, Virginia, although the heroine is from New York City. So it goes...girl leaves small town for the big city and then goes back to small town when she really doesn't want to ~ you get the idea. You can relate to the characters and the characters are well-developed. However, there were certain parts of the book that made big jumps without enough detail given to the progression of events. There are no details to any of the intimate moments, which makes it a very "clean" romance for me. The hero, Billy Jack really does not "romance" the heroine, Grier. From the book blurb that I read, it described Billy Jack as a much more serious Bradley Cooper so I was expecting at least a few fireworks. (Fireworks just weren't there for me.) All in all it was an okay clean read with no fireworks or steamy moments in the book. Honestly, in a romance novel, I like a few intimate details without it having to be X-rated.

Great story, enjoyable read.

I quite enjoyed this book. I would have liked to give it a 5 star rating, but there were a couple of things that were missing for me. I will start with the positive. Since I am a dog-owner myself, then I liked the way the author wrote about dogs, their behaviour was described very realistically and reminded me of my own little doggy :) and that actually initially drew me to the book while I was reading the sample trying to decide if I want to buy the book or not. Secondly, I liked the characters, they felt realistic, with their own flaws. I liked that there were no pointless sex scenes just to prove how much chemistry the main characters are and how right they are for each other, etc,etc. Overall I really liked the writing style. Now the negative. I don't like if all the characters are sooo beautiful, handsome and sexy and the author feels that it is necessary to write mention it many times. By the way, it is okay NOT to look like a supermodel or movie star. I felt that there were too many main characters, it would have been better to concentrate on Grier and Bobby Jack (hate the name by the way) and actually develop their story more, so that we actually would feel that they were good together and not together just because both were hot and attracted to each other. The ending felt a bit rushed. I also would have liked for them to get a chance to enjoy special moments together and grow a relationship naturally and do everyday things that couples do. Overall I felt that there was more positive than negative and I would read a book from this author again.

What a Wonderful book ❤️

Grier McAllister hasn’t been back to her home town in 19 years and if she had any other choice, she wouldn’t be going back now. But with the bank knocking on her door and threatening to take away her company that she painstakingly created from the ground up she has no choice… so when an opportunity to choose a “Jane Austen Girl” from her home town for a 17 year old Duke to go to a ball with gets dropped in her lap, what else is girl to do? When Grier left home, she never looked back. She never reached out to her mother and returned all of the letters that had come when she first arrived to New York. She thought that she could get in and out of town without having to face her demons that took years to get over, she knew that going back would be hard but she never thought that things would have changed the way that they did. She never thought that in the short time that would be there that she would find a connection to someone that she used to know and she never would have dreamed that she would ever have wanted to leave New York and move back to the small town that she worked so hard to forget. This was a great contemporary romance with believable characters. It’s mainly about forgiveness and letting go of past demons. Most of the characters have some sort of hang at one point or the other. Andy, Bobby Jacks daughter, was my favorite character in the book though. She was a tough, smart, true country girl who knew how to build houses and drove a big ‘ole truck. A wonderful clean love story. Can’t wait to see what’s for Timber Creek.

Loved the story, great story telling, this is the first book by Inglath Cooper that I have read and it won’t be the last

What a great story! Inglath Cooper is a great writer. Things that happen in real life happens in her books but with a happy ending.

I throughly enjoyed this story. The characters pulled me in & I found myself laughing, getting tearful & just wanting the best outcome. I was not disappointed.

Im thoroughly enjoying second chance books ...it's easy to read whilst struggling with insomnia

Love this Author she has a knack for storytelling at its finest. Weaving children divorced dads, and dogs into the mix. In a small town a girl arrives back, and starts again.