Dream House: A Second Chance Romance

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.

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.

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???