Jewell (A Second Chance Novel #2) by Tina DeSalvo-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / The Book Depository / BAM

About the book: Release Date June 23, 2015

Once invited into New Orleans’ historic mansions to evaluate prized antiques, Dr. Jewell Duet held a coveted professorship at a top university. With her deep knowledge of Louisiana history and antiquities, she was the go-to person for anyone requiring professional appraisals. But, one hasty decision cost her both her reputation and possibly her freedom. Now, as she waits to discover if her future includes prison, Jewell knows that taking the job at Sugar Mill is necessary if she is to support her beloved grandmother who has advanced dementia.

Charming, sexy lawyer Beau Bienvenu’s attraction to the intriguing historian vies with his distrust of her motives. Beau has one simple goal when it comes to the family that rescued him and made him part of their clan…protect them at all costs. He doesn’t trust Jewell, nor her reason for taking the lowly job at Sugar Mill Plantation. What is she really up to? Is it possible Jewell and her quirky grandmother are there to try to profit from a Bienvenu family mystery? If so, both women are out of luck.

Jewell and Beau are at odds about almost everything. The only things they agree on are that family is everything…and that their mutual attraction is inconvenient.

Hope, Love and Second Chances Continue in the heart of Cajun Country.

••••••••••

Review:

Jewell begins with Dr. Jewell Duet and her beloved grandmother, Mimi, overseeing an estate sale. Unfortunately, it seems it’s more of a garage sale and Jewell knows her commission won’t be much. However, her next job is for Elli Bienvenu, (whom we met in the first book of this series) and she’s hoping that will give her an infusion of much needed money. Her Mimi has advanced dementia, but that’s not even the worst of it. Jewell has been accused of a crime and it will take everything she’s got, financially and emotionally, to try and get through it AND see to it that her beloved grandmother is taken care of in case she actually goes to jail for said crime.

Jewell’s Mimi raised her. Her birth mother hasn’t participated since Jewell was a toddler and Mimi is all Jewell has ever had. As Mimi has aged, she has started talking about things that Jewell’s never heard her talk about before and she worries that her grandmother is sinking further into her own private world. When Jewell and Mimi finally make it to Elli’s, things go kind of wonky at the very beginning. Mimi ends up in the house where Beau and Ben (Elli’s husband) are watching a Saints football game and joins them, making herself right at home. Jewell is mortified, but the two men tell her it’s okay. Until Mimi wants a footstool and tells them where one is…….in a secret hideaway that no one knew was there. Beau is immediately suspicious, deservedly so. Once he checks out Jewell’s past, he tell Elli and Ben that she’s been charged with a crime and is awaiting trial and that Elli needs to send both of them packing. Of course, Elli won’t hear of it. She likes Jewell and is hell bent that she be the one to catalog and sell the antiques there at the plantation. Beau makes it his personal mission to ensure that his family is not taken advantage of and spends a lot of time with Jewell and her grandmother as Jewell gets to work. Even though they are both attracted to each other, each, in their own way, tries to avoid what could only end in heartache and hurt feelings for them. Fate seems to have a different plan…………….

What follows has more twists and turns and revelations that you could ever imagine. Things, on both sides, are not as everyone thought and once they starts piecing together the parts of this wonderful and amazing puzzle, everyone’s life is changed forever.

OH MY SWEET JESUS, I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! I loved Elli, and couldn’t imagine DeSalvo upping the ante, but I was wrong. Jewell is a wonderfully written tale that will keep you guessing until almost the very end. I’m not easily surprised when the “big reveal” happens, but, I was in this one. There are actually a few reveals in Jewell, neither of which I saw coming. Tina DeSalvo does a masterful job of letting us get to know her characters and you feel as though you know everyone of them personally. If for no other reason, Tante Izzy, the Bienvenu family matriarch is reason enough to read these novels. However, there are LOTS of other reasons to read Tina DeSalvo. It is so refreshing to read an author who doesn’t fill their pages with wasted words of over describing and repeating things over and over. Her world building is amazing and her characters are so relatable that you are immediately drawn in. Jewell is ultimately a tale of learning to trust in what will be and to let people in who are willing to help. There are some heart wrenching scenes that had me tearing up. There is also humor and a beautifully developed romance. If you’ve not read Elli or Jewell by Tina DeSalvo, you are missing out on two awesome stories. I can’t wait for the next installment!!! Well done, Tina DeSalvo!! Very, very, very well done!!!

Copy supplied by the author

Reviewed by Vickie M.