Rating: 3.25 stars
Buy Links: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel
Throughout my entire reading of Second Chance Sam, my thought was a pervasive, “Poor Sam.” If this is his second chance, his first chance must’ve been really bad! Sam is a big hulk of a man who owns his own motorcycle shop so, in other words, he’s the epitome of bad-ass hotness. Instead of being able to bask in his awesome Harley Davidson-ness, however, Sam is a compromising pushover who rarely gets what he wants in this supposed tale of his second chance.
Before we’re introduced to Sam, we meet Tristan and Cory, who have been friends since they were six and a couple for as long as they can remember. It shows. They are in sync on every level. Tristan is studying hard for his medical entrance exam and works himself to the bone with his studying. Cory is the nurturing one, putting snacks in Tristan’s backpack, instinctively knowing he won’t eat otherwise. He makes sure Tristan sleeps and has breakfast and looks after him, and the two of them are adorable together.
On a call as a computer tech, Cory ends up in a motorcycle shop one day and meets the owner, Sam. Cory is a motorcycle lover himself and their chatting turns into a discussion of Cory’s Ducati and then an invitation from Sam to bring it to the shop so they can work on it together. Sam is bisexual, and while he broke up with a girlfriend that he really loved a couple of years earlier, he’s attracted to Cory. He keeps it strictly professional, though, only sneaking a look at his ass on occasion.
Tristan has ghosts in his past that he has a hard time escaping. When one night Cory comes home from the shop on the back of Sam’s motorcycle, Tristan loses his temper and Cory gets hurt. Tristan decides it’s better if he leaves now, rather than turn into the same kind of monster he’s been trying to escape from all of his life. When Tristan moves out and Cory is devastated, it’s up to Sam to step in and try to make things right. It doesn’t help that Sam is attracted to both of them, and that each of them has been an almost irresistible temptation to him along the way. Sam needs to figure out how to reunite this couple that he’s growing to love but knows belongs together.
I’ve already mentioned one of my favorite parts of this book — Sam. He’s kind and sweet, while at the same time being that guy on the big tough motorcycle whom you’ve fantasized about your whole life. I liked Tristan and Cory too, though the decisions they made seemed a bit far-fetched and ridiculous. I’d be lying, however, if I said that two twinks and a biker dude in leather isn’t the stuff of my fantasies. It is. And in that regard, this book delivered. There were a couple of steamy scenes between the three men, while each was trying to sort out who and what they wanted.
My main complaint here is that this book didn’t go the way I would’ve liked. Tristan makes a rash decision due to an illogical assumption about his temperament, and the readers have to suffer as he tries to find his way back to Cory. Sam deserves to be in a relationship with people who love him, rather than act as a buffer for Tristan and Cory as they try to be together without consequence. They are both attracted to Sam, and they’d have to be insane not to be, but emotionally, they only have eyes for each other. It’s a sweet, life-affirming relationship between the two boys, but poor Sam gets the shaft (and not in a good way). Since he’s the namesake of the book, I expected better for him.
Okay, I’m a tiny bit in love with Sam. And as luck would have it, he’s bisexual, so my fantasy relationship with a fictional character is so much more likely to occur. That’s also a warning to anyone who shies away from bisexual relationships. While we’re not privy to any of his relationships with women, it definitely comes into play in the unexpected and fairly maddening ending. I want Sam to love women because I want him to love me, but anything else is unacceptable. Needless to say, I was disappointed in the ending and would much rather have seen it end in the direction I thought it was heading all along.
This book is well-written and entertaining, but suffers from an illogical plot and a frustrating conclusion. If you’re into menage and you want to read some steamy sex, it won’t disappoint, but understand that it lacks the emotional connection that you hope to see between three people. My beautiful Sam becomes, instead, a third-wheel. Sam needs to move onto his third chance and pray that it ends up better than this one.
