Once Around

Jersey Strong #2

by Barbara Bretton

Molly Chamberlain's husband had abandoned her even as she carried his baby. He'd taken away the life they'd built together...and even the furnishings that had filled their house.

It was into this empty shell of a home that Rafe Garrick walked one afternoon -- surprised and saddened to discover a woman whose heart had been made hollow by so much loss. Fixing things was his job; building furniture, sturdy and well-crafted, was his passion. But Rafe knew, as he slowly formed a bond with this beautiful woman, that some things are not so easily repaired.

There was something about Molly Chamberlain, though, that made him want to try with all his heart...

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Womens Fiction, Mystery

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 40 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries.

Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.

Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.

Barbara loves to spend as much time as possible in Maine with her husband, walking the rocky beaches and dreaming up plots for upcoming books.

Reviews

[Vintage · Rating 2 out of 5]

A four star hero trapped with a 2 star heroine and 2 star book.

I'm not even going to get into the convoluted plot, the weak, jump-to-conclusion heroine, the equally weak second romance that comes out of nowhere and is sad and clinical. I am simply going to talk about the hunky, warm and loving hero who is so besotted with the pregnant heroine it almost brought tears to my eyes.

The h comes through for him in the end, as even she isn't so stupid as to see a good thing when she sees it.

[Tammy Walton Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well. A gander at Goodreads has set my mind at ease. The reason the heroine has an answering machine with a tape is because this book was written in 1998! Cripes, for a couple of minutes I thought I was going nuts.

This is currently free on Amazon and touted as a new release. The author must have gotten the rights back to her old books, methinks.

Anyhoo, a standard, run-of-the-mill contemporary romance with an impossibly beautiful, pregnant heroine and a super-hot handyman Hero, marred slightly by an implausible secondary love story that felt almost weird to me.

And I can't stand the new cover - my GR friends TJ and Tonya will immediately know why. ;D.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contemporary romance between a pregnant woman abandoned by her husband and the handyman type who misses his own birth daughter. Potentially fraught but Bretton chooses not to write to the drama, instead writing a subplot between 2 kind of annoying characters. This book had unfulfilled potential.

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this started off great and then went off the rails a bit for me. I liked the main characters but the secondary romance was just too unbelievable.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

**************SPOILERS***************
Apart from Molly, I found the characters very difficult to like.
Rafe and Jessy both had serious attitudes and issues with rich folk, which molly was not, yet they continually lashed out at her for the most minor things.
Spencer... I could have liked him if that pointless and random after-sex scene with god knows whom was involved. Just made him seem like a douche bag for fucking some other chick whilst pursuing a pregnant chick and then sleeping with her lodger the next day. ASS!
Rafe had his moments, but he really pissed me off when he got all moody. It wasn't hot, it was a tantrum. Jessy was just a temperamental cow. Snipping at Molly when she was only helping her, I thought she was pretty ungrateful.
Molly I thought was the only likeable part of this book. Pregnant, alone and broke she still managed to be strong and make a life for herself and her unborn baby... I got why she was confused, and she did ultimately fess up her feelings to herself and then went to make the first move... damn the woman had balls.
I kind of wish she stuck to guns about protecting her child from her scumbag ex-husband. Men like him should be either castrated or shot, but in his case... both! Yeah she was ultimately the bigger person for allowing him access, but it was like she only caved in because of Rafe...
It was a good story, even though my rant would suggest otherwise, but the main characters I felt just needed a hard kick up the backside!

[Renee J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good story line, good sex scene, liked H not so much h. seemed like author wanted her to come off strong and sassy and independent (yet heartbroken) but really she came off stubborn. also did not truly feel the falling in love period, mostly was the h and H avoiding their attraction to each other, then coming to terms with it, then h being stubborn then epilogue where you do feel the love between them. the second hand characters were...well I didn't really like jessy but I did like spencer, not sure where their "love" came from either.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the plot and characters were enticing to read, this story had so many simple typos and basic grammar mistakes that I was constantly distracted by the errors. It's very frustrating as a reader to see an author has put out a work that clearly wasn't looked over with a sharp eye prior to publication. Sometimes simple things can make or break the experience for a reader.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 4 star story let down by simple typos and mistakes such as full stops in the middle of sentences and they just become more common as the book progresses.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soap opera type romance novel.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good romance read / listen. The narration was a little monotone but still good - I love the southern accent she does but she slows the speech a bit too much when doing that particular character. I loved Molly and her depth of character. I was worried she was going to be a push over but I loved the strength her character develops and I absolutely love Rafe. Secondary story and characters were good and I think necessary to keep the storyline flow going. I love the epilogue and how friendships were able to not only grow but become sustainable. This read / listen is full of unlikely relationships all the way around.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

[Barbara "Cookie" Serfaty Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once Around (Jersey Strong Book 2)

The love story of Spencer and Jessy, and Molly and Rafe. Molly is pregnant and her husband just wake out her her. While at the doctor he come in and move all the furniture out their house. Rafe find Molly cry and love blooms. Spencer is Molly's lawyer and he help her find a broader to live with her. Jessy need a place to stay and Spencer find her when they met she fall in love with him. Great summer read.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Should have read the reviews

Editor and/or proofreaders were MIA with this book. Wrong words and punctuation were misused. There was no love story until I hit 68% on my Kindle because there was another story inserted into the book that did not belong. Such slow buildup with Maggie and Rafe, a disappointment. I truly enjoyed the first book of this series, so I purchased the second without reading any reviews. Did not expect such a let down with the first book being so good.

[Thomas \Pawlak · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was too long for the story

I read it completely but the author used too
many words to tell a story that could have been written in less words. It was slow reading because of this. The characters didn’t really make sense either. Jessie and Spencer are examples of that. There were lots of typos too. It wasn’t horrible but not great.

[sue tingle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book held my attention all the way. I’m so glad she stood up for herself. I did wonder what he did with her furniture though.

[Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

In "Once Around" you follow several characters though a few months of their lives as what they they knew changes leaving the world they thought they knew behind. It was a good book but not for me. There isn't any excitement and very little drama. Mostly the characters spend their time reviewing the past and adapting to the present. (Warning lots of typos.)

If you like life, loss, and love this book is for you.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't normally review ,but I really liked the story. That being said it only gets a 3star from me because of the horrific editing in the kindle version. It was so bad that it would jerk you right out of the story midscentance. I know it was on the freebie list, but that is no excuse for such annoyingly poor editing.

[Amy Pro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. How she is trying to get her life back together. How he is trying to be in her life. And how in the end, they both get what they want and thought they may never have. Great story.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not give it the full 5 stairs becuse i did not care for the smut,
The story line was greate that i did like and i liked Molly and Raff and also Jess and Robart to.
The book was good but supper wonderful.

[Susannah Carleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Barbara Bretton's books, and this one is one of my favorites. It's a "comfort read," and I've read it many times. It has an HEA that mades your heart sing.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is a great book to read

[Monique · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - I just could not get emotionally involved with any of the characters, even Rafe (who I should have gotten into). Kind of a shame really, I thought I'd love this book.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty trite, although I did enjoy it overall. Not sure I would read it again, and I did skip ahead a few times.

[Robin1831 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this story. It had some errors in the book itself but the story line made it worth the read.

[Stace · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Deannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book was written in the late '90's it's story line was wonderful. A sweet love story of two women whose lives are totally opposite and the men they crave.

A good quick read!

[Yvonna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molly overcomes her husband's abandonment because she is strong and surrounds herself with good people. I really enjoyed this quick read.

[Jen Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit please

This would be better with editing. Either she likes sentence fragments and wrong words, or the editing is spotty.

The story itself wasn't bad.

[Lindsey]

Amazon Freebie 5/22/13

[mad4rombks]

Dragged too much and found it boring. DNF @ 24%.