This is a second chance at love romance. Written by Cara Colter, it is part of the Mills and Boon True Love imprint. Second Chance Hawaiian Honeymoon is the first in the Blossom and Bliss Wedding series. Blossom and Bloss run a wedding planning agency together, and the 3 novels follows their lives as they navigate romance and hopefully their HEA.
Blossom DuPont is engaged to Joseph Blackwell, the richest man in Vancouver. She is a very insecure about herself due to her disruptive childhood and having to live in a car with her family when they were homeless for 3 months. She has reinvented herself for Joe, what she wears, interests, faking enjoyment of camping etc. just before the last fateful meal in the restaurant when she calls the wedding off Joe is told his father has a rare form of dementia. His mind is confused and stressed and he doesn’t share the news with Blossom and makes an off the cuff the remark about doing the wedding differently. She explodes, gives the ring back and storms out.

They meet again in what should of ban their honeymoon, Hale Alana, a family friend’s house on the Big Island in Hawaii. She has travelled commercial, him a private. She is on a very strict budget, he isn’t. Joe sees the old Blossom return. Not interested in impressing him anymore he is intrigued and loves the new argumentative Blossom who keeps to a budget. They have fun and slowly all the secrets emerge, but will Joe finally revealing his father’s health woes be the final straw as she wasn’t included in a family secret even though they are almost married?

I enjoyed this book. book, it isn’t a highly sexed, rip their clothes off at every chance romance but a novel about two individuals rediscovering what they love about each other. Both individuals had their flaws but were essentially likeable people. Their childhoods and recent issues had shaped them and it was interesting to see how the author developed their characters. I enjoyed the background descriptions - Hawaii sounds like a beautiful place!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Mills and Boon in return for an honest review.

I am not familiar with this author’s books and sadly I won’t be reading any more. This is not a reflection on her writing, which is excellent, but on the theme and the characterisation which is simply not to my taste.

I disliked Blossom throughout the book - virtually to the last page. She had been dishonest with Joe throughout their relationship, believing herself not to be good enough for his world. I am so fed up with this trope. Girl (and it’s always the girl) feels her life, stays, history makes her not good enough for the hero. Finally on the honeymoon that wasn’t, she allowed herself to reveal the truth about her and then she learned that Joe still loved her in spite of it all.

She blamed him for everything that went wrong and at the end, it was Joe who had to make the grand gesture to bring them together.

As I said, it’s very well written and there were some really lovely parts of the book that I really enjoyed. But the plot and the heroine just didn’t work for me.

4 stars for the quality of the writing but reduced to two stars because I didn’t enjoy the story or the heroine. Sorry but this is my personal taste.