Tag: second chance at love

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: brother’s best friend/best friend’s little sister; small-town romance; hate to love; second chance at love; romantic suspense; forced proximity

“Kissing Grae was like downing a shot of whiskey set on fire. She burned through my system in a way that would leave scars in its wake.”

This is what Catherine Cowles does: she marries gorgeous prose with the type of romance that burns. Glimmers of You, the third book of her Lost & Found series, envelopes you like a warm blanket while you bear the brunt of the cold. Grae and Caden’s romantic journey is one fraught with unrequited love, familial trauma, and an outside threat. This is what Catherine Cowles does so well: she ingratiates her characters into your soul that you hate to leave her stories. Even more, other than the details of Caden’s wealthy family, her characters are relatable. 

The crux of Grae’s story lies in her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Cowles deftly shows the impact of this diagnosis throughout the book. It not only affects her physically; diabetes has changed her familial relationships, causing her to strive toward greater independence. Cowles highlights the overprotectiveness of her family and early in the story, Caden’s; yet, she uses Caden’s early awareness of Grae’s frustration to help develop the awareness of the larger group. This is thoughtful in that it cultivates a stronger bond between Grae and Caden.

Additionally, Cowles’s pacing of Caden and Grae’s attraction feels “just right” for this romance. While the reader waits on tenterhooks for Caden to allow his love for Grae, it never feels overly wrought. It blooms under Grae’s empathy and understanding of Caden’s pain derived from the relationships with his father and brother and the death of his sister. Cowles shows us the power of love to heal these hurts as Grae shows she knows Caden better than anyone.

If I have any criticisms of Cowles’s storytelling, it’s the sometimes repetitiveness of her story elements, Her heroines, in general, tend to bear the trauma of her stories which can be predictable. That each of her small towns is rife with a variety of nefarious individuals could be perceived as problematic (I mean, who wants to live in a small town with so many violent individuals?). Lastly, while she does an apt job of disguising her villains, if you’re familiar with her romances, you know where to look to find them. 

Even with those thoughts, Catherine Cowles is always a must-read for me. She suspends me in the time of her books, and she makes me fall in love with her characters. I pine for her stories, impatiently waiting for the next book to come.

“Loving people means exposing ourselves to the worst kind of pain […] But it also gives us the greatest beauty we’ll ever experience.”

In love and romance,

Professor A