In one century she loved him madly, and in another she wants nothing to do with himIn 1844 Ireland, Liam O’Connor, a rogue and a thief, fell madly in love with a squire’s daughter and unwittingly altered the future. Shy and naive Cora McLeod thought Liam was the answer to her prayers. But the angels disagreed and they’ve been waiting for the right moment in time to step in.Now Liam finds himself … step in.
Now Liam finds himself reunited with his beloved Cora in Providence Falls, North Carolina. The angels have given Liam a task. He must make sure Cora falls in love with another man—the one she was supposed to marry before Liam interfered. But this Cora is very different from the innocent girl who fell for Liam in the past. She’s a cop and has a confidence and independence he wasn’t expecting. She doesn’t remember Liam or their past lives, nor is she impressed with his attempts to guide her in any way.
Liam wants Cora for himself, but with his soul hanging in the balance, he must choose between a stolen moment in time or an eternity of damnation.
Providence Falls
Book 1: Chance of a Lifetime
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I love Jude Deveraux books and any with a time travel plot even more. This was a page turner for me . I enjoyed the book, the characters and look forward to the next one. I wasn’t expecting this book to end like it did tho.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy
Let me start this review by saying I am a huge fan of Jude Deveraux. I have devoured everyone book she has ever written since I first picked my first book by her at 16. I can still remember that sunny afternoon reading Velvet Promise. Jude has a unique way of creating characters I want to revisit over and over.
With that said I went into this book with high expectations knowing I would once again fall instantly in love with Liam and Cora. That did not happen.
This story flip flops between past and present which was easy enough to follow and there were many moments when I would find myself caught up n the story and I would think this is the writing I know. Then it would change and I would find myself disconnected from the story and characters. I am not sure if it was due to the book been written by two authors or if it was just a fluke that this book didn’t hit home for me.
Either I did finish it and the story is a good one and the characters had a long-standing connection. I just felt like the flow of the book was off. It did not speak to me like Jude’s past books where I wanted to go back again and again to visit old friends.
Overall it was a good book but not one of my favorites.
A great weekend read
What the heck happened to Jude????? This was not her writing in the least. Terrible book so very disappointed.
Boring for me.
A good book, absolutely ruined by an abrupt, inconclusive ending that leaves the reader dangling.
Chance of a Lifetime by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets is the first novel in the Providence Falls series. This book reminds me of Jude Deveraux’s early novels which I just loved (Wishes, A Knight in Shining Armor, Sweet Liar). I thought the story contained good writing and it moved along at a steady pace. The story has humor, drama, mystery, and, of course, romance. I liked the characters with my favorite being Liam O’Connor. He is a thief, a charmer, and a rogue. I like that Chance of a Lifetime combines the present in Providence Falls with Liam and Cora’s tale from 1844. The parallels between the two time periods was intriguing. And let us not forget the two heavenly judges determined to keep Liam on task. I liked the humor in the story as it added lightness and levity. I enjoyed reading Chance of a Lifetime until I got to the end and realized the story was incomplete. I must now wait for the next installment in the Providence Falls series to find out the identity of the killer (I have an idea and want to see if I am right) and Liam’s fate. Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets combine history, romance, mystery, and heavenly intervention into one engaging tale.
This book puts a spin on a time-traveling romance in a way that makes it intriguing and thoroughly plausible. I liked the simplicity of the set-up of the initial meeting between Liam and Cora (told via Liam’s memories). I really enjoyed Liam the most, because he was the one with the task. I thought it was funny that the angels gave him just enough knowledge to get by in the modern world, which made some of his revelations highly amusing. For me, it was a great illustration that there are many things we don’t know about the universe. I’m not going to give you the ending, but you don’t want to miss this unique perspective on undying love. For a full review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to Harlequin Books (MIRA) for a digital ARC of the book.
I enjoyed “Chance of a Lifetime” by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets, an interesting and unique blend of paranormal romance and mystery that featured likeable, complex characters and a compelling plot. Male lead Liam was a charming rogue, and it was easy to see why the female lead, Cora, would be drawn to him regardless of the time period in which they found themselves.
I really liked the story’s structure, which featured flashbacks to Cora and Liam’s earlier lives in 19th century Ireland and explained how they met and got to know each other. I was particularly struck by the differences between past Cora and present-day Cora; past Cora was a sheltered, sweetly awkward, and talkative young girl who longed for adventure, while present-day Cora was a tough, independent, and capable police investigator. Present-day Cora didn’t remember anything about her past life, but it seems that her soul managed to find adventure after all! By contrast, Liam retained his 19th century memories but only had the limited knowledge of the present granted to him by the angels who sent him back to Earth. There were several times I had to laugh as he struggled to make sense of how things such as technology and fashion had changed.
The task assigned to Liam by the angels was to make sure that Cora fell in love with another man, Finn. Even though he struggled to do so because he still loved Cora himself, Liam tried to follow the angels’ instructions in order to save his soul from eternal damnation. Finn seemed to be a good guy and to genuinely care about Cora, but IMO the romantic elements in the present-day storyline were rather weak. It’s still unclear to me if I was supposed to be rooting for Liam to fulfill his task or for him to find a way to outwit the angels so that he and Cora could be together. The mystery elements of the plot were much stronger, and I look forward to learning more about what the angels are hiding from Liam as well as the resolution of the murder plot that was introduced here.
While I wouldn’t exactly describe the book’s ending as a cliffhanger, it was definitely incomplete, and I was disappointed not to know in advance that Liam and Cora’s story would not be wrapped up in this book. That said, I really did like the story and characters, and I’m invested enough to continue on with the series.
Overall, I recommend “Chance of a Lifetime” for all fans of contemporary and paranormal romance. I hope it won’t be long before the next book is released!
*Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about this book, so just bear with me.
When I first came across this book, I instantly fell in the love with the cover and the synopsis. The cover was just so stunning and the synopsis just pulled at me, pretty much begging for me to read it.
For me, this book started off pretty promising. I liked the idea of the story and found it to be unique and refreshing. I loved the way Liam and Cora fell in love in 1844 and the tragedy of it. However, as the story went on, I felt like it lost some of its spark. I didn’t feel the connection with Liam and Cora in modern times. I didn’t get those feels and those moments of undeniable chemistry. Somewhere along the way, I lost my connection to this story and struggled to get it back. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me, but this story didn’t work for me at all.
Chance of a Lifetime sounded promising, but in the end it just didn’t work for me. While this book wasn’t a hit for me, I’m still glad to have checked it out and given it a chance.
A story straddling two centuries. Liam is getting an opportunity at a relationship with his lost love, Cora, almost 200 years later. It is a fun story where one person has all the information and the other is being kept in the dark. Liam has to adjust to living in his new life without giving anything away. This is the first in a series and the story is therefore inconclusive when the book ends.
It’s 1844 and a thief and the daughter of a squire fall in love, they weren’t supposed to, and that act altered the future. Now, in order for that thief’s soul to get to his final destination, that thief needs to head to the future and ensure that the soul of the squire’s daughter finally ends up with the man she was meant to. With the help of two angels, and some knowledge gifted, that thief is now in the modern day to set it right. Great premise, right? We’ve got angels, an altered future, and a love that needs to be set right.
Liam O’Connor is that thief who’s been sent to make sure Cora McLeod finally ends up with the man she’s supposed to. It’s revealed that every lifetime since the two were together, she’s died before getting together with the love she was supposed to live with. The angels Samael and Agon have tasked Liam with getting Cora with the man she’s fated to be with. They send his soul to the present day, to make sure it finally happens. If he fails, he’ll be sent to Hell. Liam is given certain knowledge that he would need to get along in the present, but not everything. He needs to learn to drive, and has yet to master how a computer works, but there’s other things he has knowledge of. This is not an HEA, this is the beginning of a series and you’re left hanging.
I’ve written and rewritten this review numerous times. I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but the story is part of the reason for my review only having three stars. For some reason this story was just lacking something. I really wanted to love this book, but it seemed like something was missing. Yes, it’s a good book, but I think it could’ve been great. There’s a great premise, and good characters, but something just didn’t fully meld.
**I received an ARC of this story from the publisher and NetGalley and this is my honest and voluntary review.
I fell in love with this book!
In this magical novel, two sardonic angels give a condemned soul named Liam a chance to right a wrong that happened centuries ago – with a few conditions.
Liam has a bit of difficulty fitting into his new role in modern society, and gets himself into more than a few frustrating situations. But with his soul in jeopardy, and under the watchful eyes of the angels, he cannot afford too many mistakes.
The third person narrative gave all the characters in this book so much personality! The conflicts between their internal thoughts vs. what they say is written with such wit, that I was completely charmed by their interactions.
So well written! This entertaining novel has everything, but not too much. Secret love, clever banter, a variety of characters, and a suspenseful situation. It was such a fun book to read, and I’m eagerly awaiting book #2 in the series!
*Thank you NetGalley, Harlequin Publishing, Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets for the opportunity to read this ARC. It was a pure delight.
“I’m nothing but a thief, my love.”
“So, steal me away…”
In 1844 Ireland, Liam O’Conner is a devilishly handsome rogue and thief. Using his charm and wits to steal for a living in order to feed his extended family, Liam has never had a change of conscience…until his gang of unruly thieves set their sights on robbing the squire’s home and burning it to the ground. Determined to spare the man who had been kind to his family the loss of his home, Liam sneaks through a window with a plan to find the squire’s hidden jewels to deliver back to his thieving friends. But on the other side of the window was a gem Liam hadn’t counted on…one with a soul as kind as her beauty…Cora McLeod, the squire’s daughter. Cora and Liam make for unlikely friends, but as they sneak time together, their friendship turns towards something much stronger…a love that will carry on from one life to the next…
Skip forward to present day Providence Falls, North Carolina. It’s just Liam’s luck that the woman he loved was fated to be with another, and now the angels are determined he fix his meddling with destiny. So now Liam is forced to play matchmaker or his soul will forever be damned…
*Spoiler Alert*
This book has a major cliffhanger!! So, if you are looking for a complete romance with a HEA, you have been warned, it’s not gonna happen! I’m assuming it will be concluded sometime in the next installments (fingers crossed), and I’m seriously hoping for a wee bit more romance between Cora and Liam (there is little to none in this book).
Did I enjoy the story? Took me a bit to get over being peeved over the cliffhanger, and still not overly happy with so many loose threads just unraveled with no conclusion…*pulling hair and using many sentence enhancers*…ok, I’m over my tantrum…maybe… Yes, I enjoyed the story and now that I know this series will most likely read like chapter books with no ending till the conclusion of the series, I’ll be better prepared.
Do I recommend? Oh, that’s a tough one…yes, I would recommend because it is an enjoyable story, and I’m so rooting for Liam and Cora to get their HEA!! #TeamLiam
Apologizes for a rambling review, but this one was difficult to summarize and put thoughts onto paper without ranting over the cliffhanger (I guess I’m still not over it.) Read and draw your own conclusions…it is a good story!!
**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **