Second Thoughts by Jade Winters

When Melissa’s partner Sara, the love of her life walked away from her four years earlier to pursue her career in America, Melissa was devastated. It was only in the last six months that she’d been able to put the past mostly behind her and move on with her life. Melissa is now engaged to Bettina.

Unfortunately for Melissa, Sara shows up unexpectedly causing Melissa to have serious doubts and to question her love for Bettina. All the familiar feelings and desires come rushing back to her. What on earth can she do? She’s committed to marry Bettina now and can’t let her down.

Bettina is hiding a secret of her own. Which if revealed may cast further doubts in Melissa’s mind.

This is a time when Melissa should be ecstatically happy, her wedding is fast looming, as is the insemination date for impregnating Bettina. Instead, Melissa is profoundly unhappy and her life is disintegrating around her.

As well as Sara’s return, Melissa’s sister Eli discovers a deep, dark family secret which rears up to cast further anguish for them all. Will the pain never end?

Will Melissa marry Bettina? Or will Sara win her heart back again?

As with each new Jade Winters book, this has now become my firm favorite, at least until the next book. This romance with an unexpected twist, is well written and is a page turner from the very first sentence right through to the last. The story had me sitting on the edge of my seat feverishly ripping through the pages until I reached the end. The suspense was spellbinding and the intrigue intense.

Melissa had a hard choice to make. In her head, she knew what she should do, but what is she to do when her heart was telling her to do something different? This book had me actually rooting for one person and then changing my mind as the story progressed. I won’t add in any spoilers, that wouldn’t be right, but nothing is as it seems in this story, which is what made it such an emotionally charged book to read.

Usually there are two or maybe three main characters. But, I feel that almost all of these characters are main characters. All are multi-faceted and well written. They seamlessly interact with one another to progress the story along at a really nice pace. All play a huge part in the Melissa, Bettina, Sara love triangle and are essential to the plot.

One of the many things I love about Jade Winters books is that I can identify with the characters. They are real to me, everyday people we have as friends and acquaintances and I can lose myself totally in their stories. The settings are everyday settings, easy to visualize with Jade’s way of showing the reader instead of telling them.

From the first book I read of Jade’s and up to this last one, I can see how her writing has improved. Her storytelling has earned her the title of master storyteller on my list of excellent and worthy authors. Jade’s name is up there with some of the biggest names in lesbian fiction as a ‘must buy, must read’, for me. I eagerly await her next book.