Her dream house is the scene of his darkest hours. With his own hands, artist Micah Smith built every inch of the cottage for the fragile wife he cherished and the child who cost her life. His dreams gone and his heart broken, he left everything familiar behind, including the cottage he’d built with such love.A foster child most of her life, bar owner Jezebel Hart has spent her life longing for … spent her life longing for family and home. In this abandoned, neglected cottage she sees a chance to create her dream at last.
That she cherishes what he can’t bear to be near is bad enough, but that sparks fly between them adds insult to injury—yet their attraction will not be ignored. Discovering that her bombshell exterior wraps a generous heart, that her inner strength matches the power of her compassion, endangers the hard exterior that has been his only protection from the grief he cannot let go.
For Jezebel, learning that his anger masks a heart in desperate need of healing only strengthens her attraction to him. Her capacity for joy draws Micah from his darkness and makes him want to hope.
But a secret could shatter their fragile bond…before it ever has a chance to grow.
“Jean Brashear’s distinctive storytelling voice instantly draws in the reader. She writes with warmth and emotional truth.” ~ #1 NY Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
more
I thoroughly enjoy reading Jean’s work. I can depend on her to have a realistic story about imperfect people who eventually find a way to work things out in a mature way.
This is the sixth book in Jean Brashear’s Second Chance series. I loved it. What a beautiful story. I can happily read this series again. I think this story, “Dream House” is my favorite in the series. Micah Smith built a cottage for his wife. Unfortunately, both wife & unborn child had died. So Micah took off to New York and pursued his artistic talent. Meanwhile, Jezebel Hart finds this cottage and wants to purchase it. She sees the beauty in it despite its lack of upkeep. Micah returns home for his Mom’s birthday celebration. Jezebel and Micah each had difficulties in the past. Jezebel had been in foster care and eventually ran away. She never had a real home & wanted very much to buy the cottage. Micah was so rude to her. And didn’t even want her on his property. Micah’s siblings were unkind to her as well.
It was not an easy road to romance for these two, but eventually they were able to let go of the past and begin a new life together.
I received an ARC and choose to write an honest review.
I have read several of Ms Brashear’s books. I think this is the best so far. I laughed, I cried I wanted to shake I wanted to comfort. But most of all I wanted the house to win.
Jezebel has not had an easy life and now she is hiding out in a small Texas town after witnessing a murder in Reno. Running Skeeter’s bar while he is in rehab, she is desperate to find a place for them to live so he can come home.
Micah ran off to Manhattan after his wife died and is now home for his mother’s birthday. He left behind the perfect house and Jezebel wants it, he is not interested in selling.
This is the sixth in a series of second chance romance books by Jean Brashear. Each is unique and they all have great characters and plots. Very enjoyable.
Micah Smith built the cottage for his wife. She died and he couldn’t bear to be there any longer. He went to New York and became a success with his painting. Jezebel lost her family when she was young and went from foster home to foster home until she took off at 13 to forge her own life. She fell in love with the cottage and wanted nothing more than to live there and care for her friend Skeeter during his last days. Micah and Jezebel meet, sparks fly, passion flares, guilt takes him over. I love how Jezebel’s big heart helped him get over his loss and find love again. I really wanted to slap his sister Lily, but understand she was only protecting her brother. Are we going to get a book of Lily and Cal’s story? And also books for Levi and Noah? I really hope so.
This is such an emotional book. Micah Smith has left home to paint in New York. He still hasn’t been able to paint what is truly in his heart. He locked that up when he walked away from the cottage he built with love. Jezebel Hart grew up in foster care. She grew up fast and learned to take care of herself. She has a big heart and is just looking for her HEA. Unfortunately she fell for the most emotionaly unavailable man. But Micah’s family is another story. They have finally stopped walking the tightrope around him. When he finally wakes up, she is gone. He has plan. It involves the cottage he built with love.
WOW! Not sure what I can say. This has to be my favorite in this series. Two wounded/broken people that manage to overcome and find love. Yes, this story still requires the requisite tissues, but that is just how Jean portrays her characters. They feel real and you can’t help but empathize. This story did not have the grand slam of emotions that most of Jean’s books have, but it was still there. Usually, I am wondering how a happily ever after will be obtained, but not in this story. The gradual build up made you feel that no matter what these two will more than survive. There was no question of how but more of a quiet confidence of when. Thank you Jean Brashear for all your amazing stories.
A heartbreaking and heartwarming read with hope. It will make you laugh, cry and so many more emotions. He lost his late wife when she was trying to have his unborn baby. He closes himself off emotionally as he feels both guilt and tremendous guilt. She grew up in foster homes and moved around. She also did things she isn’t proud of and feels no one man will forgive her for it. She something from him and since it was built for his late wife he has trouble parting with it. They have to work through all the pain for each other. Loved it. I received a review copy and voluntarily review it.
Jezebel Hart fell in love with the house the moment she laid eyes on it. She’s never had a real home of her own having grown up in foster care. Jezebel wants to move the aging and ill Skeeter Owens, the owner of the bar she’s running for him, into that house with her and care for him until he passes on. Skeeter has been so good to her and is the closest thing to a relative she has. What Jezebel doesn’t know is that although the house is empty it was built by Micah Smith for the love of his life and his wife. Tragically that wife, Charlotte, died trying to give birth to a child Micah told her not to try and bear leaving him angry and bitter but still deeply in love with her. Micah ran to New York to live and paint while trying to smother his feelings and loss until he’s called home to celebrate his mother’s birthday. When his mother is in a severe car accident he’s forced to stay and help his sister run the nursery and care for their mother. This is the story of Micah trying to fight his growing feelings for Jezebel as she tries to convince him to let her buy or rent her dream house, and the guilt he feels for having those feelings. While Jezebel is struggling to overcome her past reputation and upbringing to become a true and welcome member of the community she has adopted as her own. She has love growing in her heart for Micah too, a love she doesn’t think he’ll ever believe she deserves plus she has a trial for a mobster that she must testify at hanging over her head. This story is all you could want and keeps you turning the pages to find out if Micah and Jezebel can have a HEA. I received an early copy and am happily reviewing it.
What an emotional story about loving, losing, and finding love again! I expected a second chance romance which meant the characters had known each other before but that’s not what we get with this one. It’s a story about how to move on when you suffer a huge loss and it left you with major unresolved feelings.
Losing his wife and unborn child was difficult enough for Micah. Adding in the fact that he was angry at his wife when she died unexpectedly made him feel guilt beyond belief. Jezebel has never had an easy life, couldn’t avoid men being influenced by her body, and just wants to have a family and some love.
The two lives become intertwined when Micah returns home after his mother is injured and to respond to an offer on the cabin he built for his deceased wife. Jezebel needs a home for Skeeter, her mentor, to get healthy again and the unused cabin seems like place.
Well written and emotional story about people dealing with the challenges that life brings each of us daily.
I received an ARC from the author.
ARC for honest review with no compensation
Dream House is book 6 and the final book in the Second Chances series by Jean Brashear and a very emotional read!
Micah Smith artist extraordinaire built his dream house for his wife, Charlotte but when he lost the love of his life and the baby she was carrying he packed up and moved to New York. Now a few years later, still heartbroken and barely surviving he come home for his mother’s birthday and maybe to find a way to heal his broken heart…
Jezabel Hart, former stripper, voluptuous, beautiful, local bar manager, is looking to find a place to call home and when she sees this run down cottage with the picket fence she knows in her heart this is where she belongs…but will the owner sell??
What an emotional, heart broken journey, sparks aplenty for these two people who are totally opposite but may be able to find a way to heal each other. Can they find their happily ever after together, have the life they both have dreamed about or will it all just go to ashes along with the Dream House???
Jean Brashear is a very good story teller. I was imediately, if unwillingly, pulled into Micah’s anger, frustration, and unhappiness. Micah was not someone I would have wanted to be around. Then slowly the writer showed you glimpses of the man Micah was at one time. The way he sat with his mother, the interactions with his siblings, and the raw hunger, vulnerability, and loneliness he exhibited with Jezebel.
Jezebel, walked a different road from Micah, yet shared similar feelings. She was not well educated, did not have strong family ties, and had to endure people not seeing or even trying to look beyond her sexuality to what lay underneath.
The environment were she and Micah discovered each other was her home. The home she built for herself. The family she built for herself. Through her hardships, she was lonely, but she didn’t lash out at others in anger and frustration like Micah.
Micah and Jezebel managed to find solace in each other, but it was not a smooth or easy path. I had a lot of admiration for Jezebel and her ability to be positive even when she was in pain, and vulnerable.
I didn’t like Micah at the beginning, but I grew to like he better. I liked Jezebel from the start. I liked Micah’s brothers. I liked Cal. I didn’t like Lily. I know she was being protective about her brother, Micah, but I thought she was a judgmental, immature, brat.
This would have been a five star book for me if some detail had been added, or questions answered. What happened with Skeeter? Was Jezebel ever going to tell anyone about Vegas? What was Micah’s mother’s reaction to his news? How did his family handle things after he told them about the situation? What was Darrell’s reaction? What happened between Cal and Lily? What was it about Lily that caused her to be so rude and condescending to Cal?
Micah and Jezebel got their HFN. I can’t say that it was an HEA because at the end of the book, there was no outside influence to challenge or support a HEA. Therefore, I had no idea how they or their relationship would stand up to pressure or scrutiny.
Maybe more books will come from this one, and the questions I had will be answered.
I voluntarily read and reviewed the Advanced Reader Copy of this book.
DREAM HOUSE by Jean Brashear has left me wanting so much more. This is my absolute favorite read of the second chance series. Micah and Jezebel’s story is heart-rendering. I cried, and fumed, but I also smiled and laughed. I wanted to throw my Kindle at times. I didn’t want it to end. But the, oh, so sweet ending was beautiful. I have fallen in love with these people. I hope to read Lily and Cal’s story, as well as Micah’s two brothers, Levi and Noah’s story. I want to get to know their mother, Marian, better along with Skeeter, Darrell, Louie, and Chappy. I hope to see a spin off of their world colliding with the Texas Heroes series. Jean Brashear is a master at writing stories that draw you into another world, longing to be a part of the bigger family. I will read this book again.