The anticipated conclusion in Claire Contreras’ Second Chances Duet . . . Love isn’t always about timing.Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and roll with it. I admit I wasn’t ready. I know you don’t want to look at me, let alone talk to me, but please, let me explain.Let me tell you all the ways my heart broke when you walked away.Let me show you what our years apart have done to me. what our years apart have done to me.
Give me a chance to find my way back to you . . .
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Amazingly good!!! This was a fantastic ending to Rowan’s & Tessa’s journey. I finished this in one sitting. It is a definite page turner. I was happy and impressed with some of the scenes. They were so touching and they hit me right in the heart.
Yes. There were some VERY tough difficult choices made by these characters but I was able to understand them and if I were in their shoes I might have done the same.
Rowan took my heart in book 1 and kept it! I love him soo much and I swooned for him soo hard.
Tessa is a woman one must admire. She’s strong when it counts and is not proud when it doesn’t count. I love her.
ESP ::
Este es uno de esos libros que te ayuda a introspectar, pues da pauta para analizar si actuarías diferente o igual a los personajes. Lo que permitirías, lo que harías, cómo lo harías.
La historia de Tessa y Rowan continua, hasta llegar a 4 años después del final del libro uno.
Ro es uno de los personajes que yo siento que más crece y aprende.
Me encantan los finales felices así que este es un libro que da sensación linda al concluir.
ENG ::
This book is one of those that helps you to play the exercise of “what would I do if I were in those shoes?” Which helps to develop empathy and human growth.
Tessa and Rowan continue their journey and 4 years after the end of book 1, we get to see their reunion. I felt Ro was one of the characters that grew the most. This book also has a guaranteed HEA.
A wonderfully amazing conclusion to Rowan and Tessa’s journey. I’ll admit I was a little bothered with Rowan and the choices he made but these two were always meant to be together. I think I went to a range emotions, happy, sad, frustrated but it was so worth it. I enjoyed this book.
Claire’s book suck you in from the first page until the last!
Amazing Duet!
This duet had all the feelings you want while reading. From happy to sad and angry to relieved. Claire is a master at writing and this diet proves it.
Thank chuffing hell for the release of this book. And thank the Lord. And thank Tinkerbell. And thank Santa. Thank Samuel L Jackson too – because he must have had something to do with this book.
I swear I have not slept! I felt like vomiting. I agonised. I wondered. I made up my own conclusion. I was very wrong. Don’t tell Sierra Simone but I parked her book to read this one, because I needed it like I need pickled onion monster munch.
Would Tessa tell the truth?
Would Tessa stay in Paris?
Would Ro be a complete TWAT?
Would IT last 4 years?
So I growled and I created a snow storm. I became Elsa and I created the beast from the east. Worst snow in England for years! Honestly it was all my work because I was so discombobulated by the first book. I brought the snow and the chaos.
And now the spring can come.
Claire got herself off my bitch list. Now get on with a Freddie book please! It was everything. Fab fab fab fab fab fab duet!
Read them or I may bring the mess from the West.
Great series!
5 out of 5 stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I eagerly waited for this book to show up on my Kindle. I couldn’t wait! Like I whined for a week to my husband and asked why I couldn’t just have it RIGHT NOW!?! Rowan and Tessa got in my head – and heart – with book one and I needed to know the rest of their story.
Tessa was a strong female. She made a life and took care of her son without asking Rowan for anything. When they are forced to work together, their history won’t let them be. Rowan was dealing with the consequences of the decisions he made years ago, but he wasn’t really living. He was working hard to make his company the best it could be and ignoring everything else.
I LOVED this story and the way it all came back together. I loved the characters.I Loved the drama. I loved the love. It was all so great that I couldn’t hardly put it down. Honestly, I want Sam’s story – and I want it all from the beginning of Then There Was You through the end of My Way Back To You because he makes my heart happy. Freddie, too. Those two brothers must have amazing stories to tell the world just like Rowan and Tessa.
I can’t wait to see what this author brings us next because this story was perfection! I can’t wait to read more!!!
*** I voluntarily read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ***
In the conclusion to the Second Chances Duet, Claire Contreras hits you with a one-two punch right out of page one immediately picking up where she left off at the end of “Then There Was You”. As this is NOT a standalone, there will be some mild references to the first book.
I was instantly captivated. I was sucked back into the non-relationship between Tessa and Ro instantly. I wanted to dive back into the pits of despair. Only in this book the pits weren’t so deep.
Whether it was with the wisdom of time, distance, or the fatigue of denying a love too long lost, I didn’t feel the pain of these second chance lovers was as difficult to overcome in the second book. This does not mean it was not beautifully written. I just feel the author made her characters suffer the burden of love in the first book and reap its rewards in the second.
There is an exceptional secondary “cast” including Ro’s family, Tessa’s family, the evil she-witch Camryn and a few new characters to spice things up (Cough, putting in two book requests for the R & D characters, please).
This book is extraordinarily enjoyable but I would have liked to have seen more conviction when it came to the conclusion of certain story arcs.
I couldn’t wait to jump into My Way Back To You after the jaw dropping cliff hanger in Then There Was You. And it was definitely worth the wait. What a wonderful conclusion to this duet! My Way Back To You has an engaging story-line which flowed nicely. Rowan and Tessa are such beautiful characters. They definitely have their trials, tribulations and angsty moments. However, their love is endearing, meaningful and filled with passion. This book gave me all the feels and most importantly, the perfect HEA!! If Claire Contreras decides to write books involving the secondary characters, I would be ecstatic. Both books are must reads!!
Incredible romance
Timing is everything, as they say. Not sure who “they” are but with Tessa and Rowan, that is what their relationship came down to. It just wasn’t their time, until it was. I did think there were a couple of times things jumped around a bit. I was like oh, we’re over here now. But other than that, the epilogue gave me all the warm fuzzies. This really is a great duet.
You know how with some series, books 2, 3 or 4 sometimes just don’t turn out as great as book 1? Well that was NOT the case with this duet! Book 2 was just as fantastic as the first! Definitely a recommend duet!!!
What is there to say about this duet that hasn’t been said? It was a beautiful, gut wrenching ending to Rowan and Tessa. Even though the beginning of the book had me upset with the time frame and Tessa not telling Rowan, I’m really glad it worked out in the end. I hope after this, Sam gets his story. I adored him. This book was not only a beautiful ending to a beautiful love story, I loved the humor in this too. This duet shows, that no matter what happens in life, if something is meant to be, it will happen no matter time or distance!
Have you ever read an author whose books you loved so much, you just wanted to tell everyone (and I mean everyone) to read them? Claire Contreras is that author for me.
Second Chances Duet is masterful,brilliant-in short, it’s been worth the wait!
Pure bliss
Rowan Hawthorne, with all his flaws and past mistakes… his belief that love was a lie and that marriage was a sham… This Rowan that I had the pleasure to meet made me believe in family, that time can change hearts and minds and that a man can truly embrace his second chance and make the most of it. Amazing!
I waited for the conclusion to Rowan and Tessa’s story with so much anticipation. These two had so much to resolve. Their love for each other, a contractual marriage, separation by an ocean. Then there was the even bigger secret… a positive result on a pregnancy test. They run into occasionally with Rowan getting updates on his lost love from his brother and Tessa getting bits and pieces as well. Four years pass and Tessa finds herself thrown right back into Rowan’s path when Hawthorne and Tessa’s position at Prim intersect. But Rowan Hawthorne is not the same close minded, stubborn man he was. Oh no. For Rowan, fatherhood and revelations change his outlook for his future. That future includes winning back the woman he lost and having the family that he longs for with his very soul.
Rowan and Tessa showed us what love, acceptance and endurance is. In Rowan I saw determination, cunning, and the pure joy of being first a friend and then a father. From Tessa I saw independence, momma bear protectiveness, and vulnerability. It was impossible to not get caught up in these two. They may have spent years a part but their love for each other only grew. Their chemistry only got hotter. The most important thing was that they each took the time to grow into who they were as individuals. They made me ridiculously happy!
This was such a satisfying conclusion! Emotional, twisty, intriguing. The secondary characters made me wish for more, namely Rowans’s brother Sam and Tessa’s brother Freddie. These two have much story to tell. This was an incredible read!
Well done, again, Claire! So well done!
After the ending of Then There Was You, I was more than ready to get back to Rowan and Tessa’s story; I needed to understand why Rowan made the decisions he did and what it cost him to do so. I also couldn’t wait to find out what Tessa planned to do with her unexpected situation and what that meant for her future and her love for Rowan – a love that was never outwardly reciprocated in words let alone actions, especially when Rowan’s final choice put him in the arms of another woman.
I have to say that I wasn’t ready for the time jumps that take place in My Way Back to You; it caught me completely off-guard and, at first, I didn’t like or understand this fast forwarding of events, but then when I stopped to think about, I recognized that it really didn’t matter how Rowan and Tessa spent those years because the one thing readers were supposed to understand is that they didn’t spend them together…for Tessa, that time was spent building her career and becoming the independent woman she’s always been in the fashion world, reaping the benefits of her hard work and dedication. That time for Tessa was also spent trying to stop loving a man who basically cut her out of his life even after she told him that she loved him and wanted everything with him. The cyclical nature of those years meant that Tessa was successful professionally and her life was full with her responsibilities to her job, herself, and her family, but there was no one to share it with, romantically, at least, and while she tried to get over her feelings for Rowan, he still held her fragile heart in his hands.
For Rowan, those four years were spent building an empire and obtaining the goals that he gave up Tessa for in order to achieve. But his life was lacking and those years were ones of sorrow, loneliness, and contemplation, and at the center of every thought was Tessa, the woman he bleeds for but also the one that he turned his back on and gave no indication to that he would find is way back to her. It’s clear that Rowan’s years away from Tessa changed him and allowed him to truly see what/who was worth his time and dedication, and when it came down to it, Rowan knew that it was and would always be Tessa…he just now needed to prove that idea to her.
The soul-wrenching and heart-breaking antics from book one just about did me in, and while, subconsciously, I didn’t want my heart to be torn apart again in book two, I was surprised that the second part of Rowan and Tessa’s story didn’t have at least some of angsty undertone that the first half of their story did. Now, I don’t want to say that Claire Contreras made a second chance at love easy for Rowan and Tessa to achieve because they’ve both been through hell and back in a multitude of ways; it’s just that with Tessa’s secret and the amount of deception that occurred, the fact that both Tessa and Rowan can look at the big picture and move past things so easily didn’t quite mesh with my perception of what the fallout would/could be based on what happened four years ago.
But the more time I thought about Tessa and Rowan’s situation and the reasons behind their respective decisions as well as the fact that, for Rowan, it’s never been about not being in love but more the path that had to be taken in order to achieve and grow and then be able to reclaim his girl, it made sense that the fractures and bleeding would be stalled and the reparation of Rowan and Tessa’s connection would be underway, regardless of the few negative factors that were still affecting their lives and their relationship.
Going into the second half of Tessa and Rowan’s story, I thought I knew how things would play out and that they would have to fight, tooth and nail, to be together, so when things didn’t end up that way, I can’t say that I was let down, but I did need to readjust my entire view of how difficult a second shot at love for them would be, not saying that Rowan and Tessa didn’t have to adjust and forgive, but it was more a matter of when not if they would find their way back to one another.
I really enjoyed Tessa and Rowan’s Second Chances Duet; my heart bled for the outcome that occurred in the first part of their story and then, as Rowan made the necessary changes to finally go after the woman who has always been his future, it was mended and healed way sooner than I anticipated, which is definitely not a bad thing, it’s just something I didn’t anticipate which took me a bit to understand why Contreras’ hero and heroine led her this way and what it would mean for readers and for the couple all readers were cheering for from the very beginning.
I’m a huge fan of Claire Contreras; she has a way of pushing readers and characters to their limits and then finding a way to bring everything full circle in the most dramatic and pleasurable ways, and even though my expectations for the end of Tessa and Rowan’s story were completely off-base, I thoroughly enjoyed watching everything play out between these two amazing characters who deserve to be happy with the ones they love every day of their lives.
4 Poison Apples
I really enjoyed this series. I definitely loved the surprise she put into this story as a long time fan of Claire’s work. It had a great ending. I recommend this book, this series and this author.
After finishing Then There Was You by Claire Contreras, book one in the Second Chances Duet, I was counting down the days until I could get my hands on the second book, My Way Back to You. Once I did get the book, I could not put it down. I had to know how it would all end.
The first book left me reeling, this one slowly put my heart back together again. Don’t get me wrong, there was angst, secrets, hurt feelings and so much more. After the end of the first book, Tessa and Rowan went on with their lives. They had no choice but not too. Tessa built the future she wanted and with strong people around her. Rowan did what was needed in hope to one day reunite with Tessa. When something brings them back together, neither can ignore their feelings. But is it too late?
My Way Back to You was an emotionally charged second chance romance. You cannot fight true love, even when so much stands in the way. This was an emotional rollercoaster of a story that was angst-filled, but also full of hope. I loved this duet so much.
4.5 stars!
After reading the very angst filled first book in this duet, Then There Was You, I have to be completely honest when I say I was almost scared to start reading this. I was still holding onto a lot of anxiety, anger, stress, stomach aches every time I thought back to everything that happened in the first part of the story. Was I going to be able to handle any more of those feelings? Did I want to go through more of the same in order to find out what happens with Rowan and Tessa? Well no, but yes! I am way too invested in these two, I had to know what happened.
So I read the whole story, and when I finished, I was happy with the ending, and where the characters were in their lives. I was so glad I read it, and I survived it, and didn’t get any stomach aches this time around.
Claire took us forward in time pretty quickly, so we only got little glimpses of what Tessa and Rowan’s lives have been like for the past four years. It is when they reconnect over a joint work project that things got interesting. It is obvious that the feelings they had for each other were still very much alive, no matter how hard they tried to ignore them, or bury them, or whatever they had to tell themselves so that they could make it through each day. Tessa had it a little easier since she’s been able to concentrate all of her focus on her gorgeous child and her amazing career. Rowan focused on the takeover and buyout of his grandparent’s company.
The big question for me once they are around each other again was, how were they going to navigate through the minefield of secrets and the fact that Rowan is still married to Camryn. How is Rowan going to react once Tessa’s huge secret is revealed. What do these two even really want at this point? It’s been four years, do they even still want the same things they thought they wanted before Rowan pushed Tessa away?
Lots of questions were answered for me that I obsessed about while waiting for this release. Rowan finally discovered how to communicate and express his feelings, which I admit drove me crazy in the first book. He and Tessa are obviously much more mature now, less prone to react before finding out all the facts, which I really liked. They worked beautifully as a couple, even through the trauma and drama of Camryn. I hated her in the first book, and I hated her just as much in this book. But I hated the fact that Rowan had no backbone whatsoever when it came to anything that had to do with Camryn. He disappointed me greatly in this aspect. Tessa had no issues putting Camryn in her place, but that really should have been handled by Rowan, and sadly he got a negative grade from me for his lack of action where she was concerned. Ugh…she probably ranks in my top ten of most hated characters.
I never thought I would say this about a book, but I almost missed the angst this time around. And I think I feel that way because book 1 had such a huge overload of angst that I figured going in to this one that it would be equally as angsty, but it was not at all. So I’m not sure if I felt let down by that or not, but at the end of the day, Claire told the story exactly how it needed to be told, and I was super happy to see Tessa and Rowan find their happily ever after.